OT Windows XPsp2 sstopped loading.

arenel wrote on 3/2/2012, 10:20 AM

I've been running Pro 8e on WinXPsp2 for over 2 years with no problems. Now I can't get Windows to finish loading. I've done both a system repair and a reinstall. Now I am attempting a second repair and the Windows setup is hung with 33 minutes left to go. It appears to be headed for safe mode, but It has been sitting and spinning overnight.

Any suggestions would be appreciated. At this point, I am thinking about upgrading to Win 7. Anybody happily running Pro 8 on Win 7 32bit?

Thanx Ralph

Comments

NicolSD wrote on 3/2/2012, 10:35 AM

It sounds to me like you have a hardware problem. Moving to Win7 will not help matters.

larry-peter wrote on 3/2/2012, 12:48 PM

I have had that happen when a CD/DVD drive went bad (was an IDE drive and must have been sending some strange signal through the IDE chain that kept the repair from succeeding.) I would make sure everything other than boot drive is disconnected if you haven't already. Other than that, could be memory, CPU or MB.

PeterDuke wrote on 3/2/2012, 2:42 PM

If you have a recent backup, I would try restoring and updating as necessary. If it still doesn't work it looks like a hardware problem

If no recent backup, connect your drive to another PC and back it up. Then reformat the drive, reinstall Windows and check that it boots properly. If it doesn't, it looks like a hardware problem. If it does boot properly, then it looks like it was a software problem. Do a backup of your clean install, then install must have apps and do another backup. Then install nice to have stuff. Then get into the habit of regular backups.

arenel wrote on 3/3/2012, 10:56 AM

So, 2 1/2 votes for hardware. Thank you for keeping me from spending time and money on a precipitous software update.

Ralph

riredale wrote on 3/4/2012, 3:02 PM

Another vote for hardware. Maybe a ram issue? Memtest would be able to tell. Just removing and replacing your ram sticks would be a simple thing to do and it's often the simple physical connections that give the most grief.

Or it could be read failure on the C drive. These things are incredibly reliable, but once in a great while a bit flips and will never flip back. Such a simple event can cause the entire OS to hang.

There have been times when I've had to throw up my hands in resignation and just reload an image of my system. You do have an image, yes?

I'm still on XP here, no desire to change, since I know it very well and it works faithfully.

All that will force me to move on will be an essential piece of hardware or software that demands I do so. Ironically, I'm about to do taxes, and the latest version of TurboTax insists on sp3. Okay, fine.