PCA Forums

Hey Guys,

Rebuilding a computer for a client and trying to avoid losing a lot of programs they have installed. I've done a repair install of XP Home and now when I turn it on, it posts and starts to boot but stalls at a black screen. No activity nothing. I've tried doing a fresh install on a different partition and still a no go.. Could the MBR be damaged or something? I don't even get any BSODs.. It just doesn't do anything. Then, if I try to do another repair install, it takes me through that, writes to all the files reboots and nothing again.. Anybody else ever seen this? Any Help Appreciated..

eGo

After a little further googling it appears it could be due to the fact that is has SP2 slipstreamed on the disc. So I'm going to try just regular old fashed XP Home no SP whatsoever and see what that gets me.. Still looking for thoughts and opinions.

TIA!

eGo

Have you tried CHKDSK /r at the console ? Or FIXBOOT command ? CHKDSK /r is slow , but it has worked for me in the past .

Originally posted by nitro237
Have you tried CHKDSK /r at the console ? Or FIXBOOT command ? CHKDSK /r is slow , but it has worked for me in the past .

I tried chkdsk /p first then did the fixboot, I'll try /r next. I moved on to another computer for the time being.. It does fine with the XP SP2 install. So now I'm just waiting till it's done with the install then I'll go back to that rig.

I know this should have been in the OS/Software forum, I wasn't paying attention.. lol

Well,

I got it started.. But I had to blast the partition. Which really sucks. It means I'll be spending the better part of tomorrow trying to restore the disk from a ghost back up there. Then, after I restore the drive, I'll try doing a repair install w/Plain XP Home w/No SP.. I think SP was the downfall on this combo for some reason. I'll update tomorrow.

i remember somwehre reading that sp2 will stall if you have non-widows-certified drivers installed for the hardware - that may be why it wouldn't take on my main rig -

Originally posted by wvjohn
i remember somwehre reading that sp2 will stall if you have non-widows-certified drivers installed for the hardware - that may be why it wouldn't take on my main rig -

That's probably a good possibility of what the problem was. Hopefully tomorrow things will go bettter.

Yes, SP2 seems to be VERY flaky when it comes to drivers. I would recommend always doing a repair install to XP or SP1, both of which don't have these issues.

Sounds like something got corrupted. Finding what, is the hard part. Other times I've found it to be a hardware problem. Either a bad psu or sound card.

I think SP was the downfall on this combo for some reason.

SP2? It hosed my sytem and a friends too the first time installing it. After a fresh format, it worked ok. But it did so only after a format. I went through all those repair installs and nothing worked.

Good luck Ego. Wish I had the answer. I know this sux.

I have installed SP2 on several machines (20+) without any problems. I'm glad.