Win2K Update / Freeze / STOP Blue Screen

[Fushigi]

Sometimes I really hate PCs.

Last night, while playing with my new Treo 300, I decided to run Windows update on my main PC. I selected the .NET Framework update and DirectX 9.0a. I had already installed these on a couple of other boxes with no problems so I figured they were safe enough. The d/l went fine but during the install the machine just spontaneously rebooted. No warning before so it must have been either a Windows thang or a hardware flake-out thang; either is possible since the first is, well, Microsoft, and my mobo is a POS.

Anyway, during the reboot I get the W2K startup screen and the a STOP blue screen noting a DLL. This doesn't look good. Punch the magic Reset button and the same thing happens again. This really doesn't look good. Try safe mode w/network support, safe mode, last known good config, etc. and they all issue the STOP blue screen. It's mostly the same DLL but straight safe mode, IIRC, was some other DLL. OK, not only is this not good, it's genuinely bad.

Pop in my W2K w/SP1 CD and boot off it. It loads all the junk it always loads and then says 'starting Windows 2000' and then goes poof to yet another blue STOP screen-o-death.

So, I can't boot into W2K and apparently I can't run setup either to just reload it.

One of the guys here is going to slip me a CD w/ W2K+SP3 to see if the CD boot issue can be resolved by booting with a higher SP level (our thinking is to get support for the Promise ATA100 card). If that fails, I'll yank all the cards except graphics & SCSI, which is what I boot from.

My last-ditch effort will be to install XP Pro. It's an upgrade I've debated doing but have shied away from as it's not really a need. And I'd have to buy it as I do keep my OS legal.

Beyond that, would anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks.

Oh, the Treo is pretty cool. I can even browse SF from the built-in browser. Now I'm off to pull in some productivity apps for it like a Palm 5250 emulator to let me hit the AS/400 from anywhere.

- Fushigi

 

[blakerwry]

you can't boot to the win2k CD?

 

[Fushigi]

you can't boot to the win2k CD?

Nope. You know the screen where it's displaying some junk in white on blue and the status line at the bottom is saying loading ______.sys or somesuch. After that it directly goes to "Starting Windows 2000" and a few seconds later I get the STOP.

I'll got the SP3 CD now and will give it a shot tonight. I'll post results once I have them.

Thanks,
Fushigi

 

[blakerwry]

not being able to boot from the CD indicates that something is wrong hardware wise and shouldn't be an indicator of anything being wrong with your installtion of windows...

If it stops on loading drivers/starting windows off the CD perhaps there is a hardware/driver conflict... if you have the same setup as you've had for awhile and haven't recently been tinkering then It might indicate that a piece of hardware has failed.

 

[Handruin]

Did you update your BIOS, or any firmware recently? You could be having two separate issue and it may seem like the same thing.

Many months ago I had updated my BIOS on my MSI k7T Pro2a to the latest and greatest... No big deal, it seemed to be fine. Well a week later I decided to upgrade my ATI drivers. I had the worst time with hangs and freezing, I also noticed how bad the performance was in gaming.

Come to find out, after I downgraded my BIOS, it fixed everything.

Point is, if you upgraded a bios or firmware at some point, and you are now getting around to loading an update, you may not have noticed an issue.

Now windows may be failing to load because the hardware is casuing a conflict during discovery.

This is a shot in the dark, but it's possible.

 

[Fushigi]

I haven't upgraded any hardware since January when I added the 160GB drive & Promise card. I did do a BIOS update then. But since then the system has been shut off & on, restarted, etc. in addition to being up 24x7 folding.

I left it off overnight and through today. The W2K SP3 CD did the same thing.

I'll work on it more later tonight.

- Fushigi

 

[Handruin]

Since you seem to be stuck with the blue screen, can you try removing all non-essential hardware (NIC, audio, etc.) and disable anything that isn't important in the BIOS such as USB, built in audio, LAN...etc.

I know nothing has changed and you shouldn't have to do this, but this is what I'd end up doing.

 

[blakerwry]

yup

 

[Fushigi]

Yeah, I pulled all the hardware except my SCSI & graphics cards. Re-enabled mobo IDE & moved the CD to it. Under that config I still was not able to boot into Windows but was able to successfully boot off the W2KSP3 CD. I mucked with the repair console -- what a primitive tool -- but couldn't get it fixed so I reinstalled Windows. Of course it chose not to see my existing apps so I'm currently reinstalling those.

I've also re-added my NIC & the Promise adapter and moved the CD back to it (and disabled mobo IDE). The modem I'll leave out since I got broadband. That just leaves my SB Live. I'll muck with it later; audio is the last of my concerns.

Thanks, folks.

- Fushigi