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July 11th, 2009 12:00

Dimension XP Home Is Looping

XP Home Is Looping

Dimension

Someone brought their PC for a tune up.  Dell 2350 with XP home.  It had an
error message similar to; 'Generic Host Process for win32 services has
encountered a problem ... for win32 services has encountered a problem and
needs to close

After restarting | Clicked | My Computer | C Drive | Properties | Tools |
Check Now | ticked both slections

This process took 2 times to complete but the last time it took forever and
1 day to complete and was OK.

Restarted.  Now it loops into the 'Safe Mode, etc. menu'

Using the control arrows none of the 4 selections will boot up.  It loops.

Thanks from New Orleans

10 Elder

 • 

43.5K Posts

July 12th, 2009 17:00

For starters, remove the Service Tag number listed in your post. Aside from  being a violation of the forum's Terms of Service to list a Service Tag in a post, it may allow strangers to access info about the PC, the purchaser's name/address, purchase date etc. You should never share the Service Tag number with anyone but Dell. :emotion-5:

What color are the diagnostic LEDs on rear of the tower? If not all green, look up error code here.

You may want to create a boot floppy with Dell's 90:90 hard drive tests to test the drive.

If you reboot and press F8 before XP starts to load, can you select "Last known good"? If that boots the system to the desktop, shutdown normally and reboot normally. You should be good to go

Are all the files on the hard drive backed up? If they are, or if you can install this drive as second drive in another system and copy the user's files, AND assuming the system was shipped after 14-July-2004, you should have PC Restore on the hard drive. That will reset the drive to exactly the way Dell shipped it, but everything the user saved on the drive, including all XP updates/hotfixes, will be lost forever, so this is a last resort solution. You will need to reinstall XP SP3 etc. Access PC Restore by rebooting and quickly press/hold Ctrl and then press F11. Release both keys at the same time. Then reinstall all the Microsoft updates...

You could also try the Fixboot command after booting from an XP installation CD and launching the Recovery Console.

Ron

29 Posts

July 12th, 2009 21:00

Thank you for the quick and detailed reply. 

It is a bad HD.

At the console; chkdsk /f

Then;

fixboot

It still will not mount.  The error message, "unable to mount the volume, etc.....

10 Elder

 • 

43.5K Posts

July 12th, 2009 22:00

Hang on a nano-sec..!

Did you run chkdsk /f from the Recovery Console or by queuing it from inside Windows? chkdsk /f does NOT work from Recovery Console. :emotion-5:

If you booted from an XP CD and got to the C:\ prompt, the correct command for chkdsk is:

chkdsk c: /p /r

(Press Enter, and go take a nice long nap!)

When thats done, try fixboot again.

Also check that the IDE cable is firmly attached at both ends -eg, remove and reseat the connectors, and/or try a new IDE cable.

Ron

 EDIT: Fixed my typos!

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