Can't boot even to Safe Mode.

  • Thread starter Thread starter DocBrown
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DocBrown

The story is that I've been working on this for a while. I'm fixing this for
a friend. When I got the system it would not boot. It was hanging after the
first windows splash screen. Hangs also when booting into safe mode.

I'm at the point where I believe that the boot process is hanging about the
place where winlogon.exe is executed. Anyone have suggestions about what can
cause this to hang?

System: Gateway MS6025 Laptop
OS: Win XP2
Memory: 256MB, yes I know it's low. But don't think that's hanging the system.

Details:
- I don't have the OEM disks. So I tried to perform a repair install from my
retail copy of Win XP. No change in behavior.
- Pulled the drive and hooked it up to my desktop. Performed a full disk
backup using Acronis TrueImage.
- There is a Recovery partition but I can't run it because it want's to
access the recovery CDs which I don't have and can't buy.
- Reinstalled the disk and performed a full clean install from my retail Win
XP SP2. System boots and seems to run fine. But, of course the license key is
wrong and I can't activate this install. 25 days left before I need to
reinstall.
- Restored the original partition to troubleshoot the boot process.
- Used an article on Microsoft TechNet, Troubleshooting the Startup Process.
I'm finding that I think the process is getting as far as launching
winlogon.exe. Using the Recovery Console, when I rename this file the boot
crashes with BSOD. But if I rename files launched after this, it just hangs.

I'm also using BartPE to help me access the system. I'm poking into the
Registry, but haven't seen any smoking gun.

Any ideas how to progress on this? Anyone know the details of the winlogon
process? Could there be a user issue? Why would a repair install not correct
the cause of the hang?

Any ideas are welcome.
John
 
you might try to rename the winlogin
file back to what is was.

then boot up with a xp cd and enter
the recovery console.

at the disk prompt run the following
commands:

chkdsk /p
fixboot

then exit and retry booting up.

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The story is that I've been working on this for a while. I'm fixing this for
a friend. When I got the system it would not boot. It was hanging after the
first windows splash screen. Hangs also when booting into safe mode.

I'm at the point where I believe that the boot process is hanging about the
place where winlogon.exe is executed. Anyone have suggestions about what can
cause this to hang?

System: Gateway MS6025 Laptop
OS: Win XP2
Memory: 256MB, yes I know it's low. But don't think that's hanging the system.

Details:
- I don't have the OEM disks. So I tried to perform a repair install frommy
retail copy of Win XP. No change in behavior.
- Pulled the drive and hooked it up to my desktop. Performed a full disk
backup using Acronis TrueImage.
- There is a Recovery partition but I can't run it because it want's to
access the recovery CDs which I don't have and can't buy.
- Reinstalled the disk and performed a full clean install from my retail Win
XP SP2. System boots and seems to run fine. But, of course the license key is
wrong and I can't activate this install. 25 days left before I need to
reinstall.
- Restored the original partition to troubleshoot the boot process.
- Used an article on Microsoft TechNet, Troubleshooting the Startup Process.
I'm finding that I think the process is getting as far as launching
winlogon.exe. Using the Recovery Console, when I rename this file the boot
crashes with BSOD. But if I rename files launched after this, it just hangs.

I'm also using BartPE to help me access the system. I'm poking into the
Registry, but haven't seen any smoking gun.

Any ideas how to progress on this? Anyone know the details of the winlogon
process? Could there be a user issue? Why would a repair install not correct
the cause of the hang?

Any ideas are welcome.
John
Click to expand...

Put your renamed files back the way they were and unpoke the registry.

When you boot into Safe Mode, what does it do?

If it hangs in Safe Mode, what is the last thing you see on the
screen?

What does your BSOD say?

Here are some BSOD blue screen of death examples showing information
you need to provide:

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/images/Windows_XP_BSOD.png
http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloads/images/bsod_a.jpg

Send the information pointed to with the red arrows (3-4 lines
total). Skip
the boring text unless it looks important to you. We know what a BSOD
looks
like, we need to know the other information that is specific to your
BSOD.

If you can only boot in Safe Mode, choose the option:

Disable automatic restart on system failure so you can see the BSOD.

If you made a BartPE CD, you have now or have had a bootable XP
installation CD. Boot Recovery Console from the bootable XP
installation CD.

What folder are you in when Recovery Console loads? Assuming C is
your boot drive, the correct answer is:

C:\WINDOWS

Wherever you are in RC, run:

chkdsk c: /r

Report your findings.
 
Thanks for the replies.

I should have been clearer in what I did. I renamed the winlogon.exe file,
rebooted and got BSOD. This indicated that the boot sequence was reaching
this point. Then I named the back to the orginal.

With everything in the state I received it, it will not boot to normal
windows or safe mode. When trying to boot to safe mode it hangs at the place
where you see 'Safe Mode' in the four corners. The arrow cursor is visible
and can be moved with the mouse. But nothing else happens. Ctrl-Alt-Del does
not work either. Normal mode boot hangs after the first Windows splash
screen. The cursor is visible there also.

When I say poking around, I meant that I was looking around, but didn't find
anything that indicated what might be the problem. When I do try something
and it doesn't solve the problem, I restore the setting back to what it was.

I used my desktop system to create the BartPE CD. Yes, I am working in the
C:\Windows directory. I can boot to RC

The boot process appears to be at this phase:

From: Windows XP Professional Resource Kit
---------------------------------------------
Troubleshooting the Startup Process
Logon Phase

The Windows subsystem starts Winlogon.exe, a system service that enables
logging on and off. Winlogon.exe then does the following:

* Starts the Services subsystem (Services.exe), also known as the Service
Control Manager (SCM).
* Starts the Local Security Authority (LSA) process (Lsass.exe).
* Parses the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combination at the Begin Logon prompt.
--------------------------------

If I rename the files listed above, then the system still hangs, but does
not BSOD. So something appears to be hanging the logon process.Chkdsk reports
no errors. But I could be overlooking something.

Chkdsk reported no errors.
Fixboot had no effect.

Just for Completeness, the BSOD states:
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
Windows logon process system proces terminate unexpectedly with a status of
0xc000034 (0x00000000) 0x00000000).
The sytem has been shut down.

But again this is only occurs when winlogon.exe has been renamed. That was
just a Troubleshooting technique.
 
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