| 33 Weed, on Mar 17, 2009 12:45:02 pm GMTPDUB,
Thanks for the thorough response. I didn't explain myself clearly, I apologize for that. As a side note, I have a fair amount of experience and have reinstalled Windows on dozens of machines, but I am not an expert or even a veteran by any means. I'm the friend "who knows computers."
The machine's symptoms were boot to welcome screen (where user selects profile). Upon selecting the profile (there was only one) the machine would flash the desktop (no icons) and then return to the Welcome screen saying "Saving settings . . ." and then sit there as if I had not clicked on anything. I could shut down, but never properly attain the desktop. Before this, the user said they had accidentally clicked on something while browsing and a bunch of pop-ups started showing up.
I figured it was a virus of some sort and my first order of business was to boot to Safe mode. Upon doing this, the safe mode boot (after selecting Safe Mode and not Safe Mode with prompt or network) was to boot to welcome screen and now show two profiles - Admin and the User. I've tried both profiles and both act as mentioned above - a quick flash of the desktop screen sans icons and then back to the welcome screen.
I can't say that I've seen this before, so I figured the virus messed up the HD royally. I then removed the boot HD, he has two in the machine, a second larger HD for maintaining his work, and put the boot HD into a USB HD kit to read it from another machine (also the User said there may be some data on the machine that he needed). So after checking the drive, it came up fine as an external USB drive, I put it back in and did a Win XP install (repair), this went fine (as far as I could tell), but upon final booting of the machine, it had the same behavior as mentioned above. Welcome Screen only.
So I said, bugger that. I bought and put in a new drive. I had to change BIOS to boot from CD. This worked fine an Win XP (full version) started to install. It wanted to format the new drive. Good. I chose NTFS and after formatting it copied over the Win XP installation files. After copying over the files, I get a 15 second (red bar) countdown that says it will reboot automatically. As I remember, this is normal. Upon reboot it starts using the files it copied over to HD.
Well, when it did reboot, the BIOS has the "Boot from CD: . . . ." message, which usually means press any key if you want to boot from CD. I didn't press anything but the system boots from the CD as if the driver were new. It wants to start the XP installation from the VERY beginning. So I went into BIOS and changed boot order again to HD first. This didn't change the outcome. So then I changed BIOS again to say HD only, and it still boots from CD.
I am starting to wonder if the Mobo IDE controller has gone bad. I think the mobo is about 4 years old. The user does not have the documentation for it.
What I currently still need to try:
Checking the original boot HD in another machine with a virus checker. (Another thing I noticed about the drive was in the Documents and Settings directory -where profiles are stored - the user had about 10 different profiles that looked like automatic bastardizations of his original name. Not sure how else to explain it. As if Win XP was trying to boot but couldn't so made a new profile similar to old one).
Removing battery from mobo - to reset BIOS.
The mobo has a second IDE controller slot (where his two DVD drives are attached). I thought I might detach these, and hook up original drive only to see if it can boot from that controller.
And to answer you question, I couldn't get into Safe mode, so that is what prompted all this other action. I may have a situation where a virus and a hardware failure are occurring at the same time.
Thanks again for reading and for helping! | 34 PDUB, on Mar 17, 2009 4:52:20 pm GMTSounds very similar to my situation. I said to heck with existing version of XP and refomatted one of my HD's with new because I figured if it was some sort of virus that it would find a way to reinfect.
When separated from comp on different workstation, my 'troubled' HD was recognized and we ran both a virus and ad-aware program. I would suggest doing thorough scan of all sectors (depending on machine and HDD size, be prepared to go get a few drinks and come back after a couple hours like I did). Coupled with removal of MB battery (leave out for about 1/2 hr before putting back in). it should hopefully work. My BIOS was rather old as well which seems to be the target of this specific problem. If this doesn't work, go back and get a few more good drinks because your scenario is worse than mine was and I don't know what to tell you. Good Luck.
Let me know if you have anymore questions that I can try to answer....I am also 'that friend who knows computers'. | 36 Weed, on Mar 25, 2009 11:58:11 pm GMTHey PDUB,
Well as far as I can tell I am screwed.
I checked the original hard drive. It is all clean, nothing bad detected.
I undid the Mobo battery and that didn't fix the problem.
Then I switched the IDE controllers and that didn't indicate any problems either.
A new hard drive will not install Win XP from the full install disk. (SP2).
I still have same behavior. Boots to welcome screen. I click the only profile to load. An instant flash of the desktop, sans icons, and then back to the Welcome screen where it says it is Saving settings.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!
I will try just about anything else. If something doesn't work soon I am going to use a sledge hammer! | 37 Weed, on Mar 26, 2009 12:39:28 am GMTOkay, I am an idiot.
A little more research and I found that the USERINIT.EXE had been deleted from the WINDOWS/SYSTEM32 directory.
Found that (old) info here:
http://www.compatdb.org/...
(weird how my earlier searches with that exact phrase did not turn up when I searched a week ago)
Replaced that file and booted to desktop. Problem 1 solved.
However, seems like virus deleted several files from SYSTEM32 directory.
I am first going to try to do a Win XP Repair install.
If that doesn't work then a full XP install again on original drive leaving file system intact.
And if that doesn't work, a full wipe and reinstall.
I am not sure why the new drive I bought did not work unless there is something wrong with that new drive. It's possible I guess. I will be taking it back to the store.
Thanks again for the help! | 45 buddy, on Apr 17, 2009 2:41:51 am BSTHow did I get the deleted file back so my computer will start up and load desktop? | 49 Weed, on May 28, 2009 6:38:52 pm BSTHey buddy,
I can't remember now exactly what I did, but I think I removed the Hard Drive, plugged it into a USB convertor kit, copied the file over using another PC, and then put that original hard drive back into the original computer.
Once I was able to get to the desktop, I was able to perform repairs as normal.
Good luck! |
|
| 70 vmishi, on Sep 14, 2009 4:02:36 pm BSTYes, yes and again yes, its helped me. USERINIT.EXE was missing!
I attached hdd to other clean and safe pc, checked with nod32 and malwarebytes, nothing was found, i copied
the userinit.exe reatached hdd and tadaaaaaaaaa its working.
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR IDEA (to be honest once before 2-3 years i had similar problem but didnt remember, i think the same solution was, if im correct spyboot or similar one deleted by update the userinit.exe)
Greetings from Hungary! |
|
| 41 cher, on Apr 11, 2009 2:10:34 am BSTI have had these problems and more with pc's.
Need to tell a virus that is in your programs that some time is not deteced which when as soon as it has done its damage to the HD no going back. Wipeout time sorry to say!My husbad works on PC's on the side, can tell
you some wild stories about them.And myself has had some problems that has him for days to figure out!
I know that is not what you want to hear but thats what is to do .XP is not a good window. My husband uses 2000 sata and loves it,I use XP sata and now less problems.No more wiping out the HD. | 43 Weed, on Apr 15, 2009 1:23:26 pm BSTMore importantly, what Windows and most operating systems have taught me, is never to keep any data that I want on the boot drive.
All my computers and all computers that I build for people I highly recommend having two drives. One for the OS and one for everything else.
Too often Windows craps out and you have to reformat the drive or reinstall the OS. And NEVER, NEVER save anything in the My Documents folder. That is just asking for trouble.
Thanks again for the help. |
|
|
|
|
Aol welcome screen backgrounds