Aforf

cormie

Arghhus catalogues... so the pc downstairs is deciding to act up and wont get passed the "Start windows normally"/"Last known good configuration" etc etc window. It wouldn't show anything, then I'd mess around with the wires inside and it got to the Windows XP Splash screen and the blue bar was moving then stopped, this happened a few times, each time I'd have to switch off the power and try again but the same thing would happen. Nothing.

I tried the "Start in Safe Mode" and it gave a list of actions and stopped on something called AG440 or something. I've brought the HD that was in it upstairs to my external HD case and it's not showing up on my laptop when other hard drives (without operating systems) do.

Does this AG440 explain much?

Is my HD funked? Only solution new hd/install of XP? :mad: (more computer problems)

angelofdeath

http://forums.speedguide.net/showthread.php?p=1401997

try what he did

edit: or not seen as you cant get that far:o, maybe try booting without any optical drives

cormie

Ok, the fools we are as men, I just realised, after turning on and off the external HD case a few times, that I never plugged in the USB cable :rolleyes: so I gave that a go and low and behold, the HD is actually fine n dandy. Which is both good and bad news, the good, the HD is fine, the bad, what else could it be? The answer your man gave in that link seems easy enough, but how do I get to the device manager without being able to load windows?

angelofdeath

well if it's a corrupt driver for your dvd or something then open her up and plug out yer dvd/cd whatever and then try to boot, i dunno if it'll try to load the driver or not though, worth a try anyhow

cormie

Just tried that, no luck:(

Would a fresh install of XP do the trick? I can do that in my sleep and I backed up the few important files when I hooked it up to the external HD case.

angelofdeath

found this on microsoft.com http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;324764

cormie

Thanks for the help, very kind of you. I tried starting up the XP boot CD but it just stalled on "Setup is starting Windows". It's bed time now so I'll try again tomorrow.

stevenmu

There should be a restore option when you boot off the XP CD, that might work. Also there's an option for the recovery console, that'll let you remove device drivers altough I can't remember the syntax for doing it, if you type help at the console prompt it should give you a list of command and then you can type help <command name> to see how to use that command.

Altough I really think we should call the UN and have them send in troops to enforce a 10-mile de-computerised zone in your vicinity.