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Windows XP Pro SP2 hangs after showing start-up logo
I have a relatively new Inspiron 600m, bought a month ago. It has been working without problems until two days ago, when the operating system (Windows XP Professional SP2 with all recent updates installed) started to hang during start up.
Two days ago (Feb 7), when the problem first occurred, Windows started up and showed the low-resolution Windows XP logo with the sliding blue progress bar. After a short time the low-res logo disappeared and the screen blanked (went completely black) as usual, but instead of popping up the login window next, the laptop hanged and did nothing. The keyboard was locked and did not respond to NumLock, CapsLock, or Ctrl-Alt-Del. I turned off the laptop using the main power switch and rebooted several times using "Last known good configuration" and "Start Windows normally" and the laptop hanged just the same. Then I rebooted using "Safe mode with command prompt"; the first time Windows hanged after showing the line
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\agpCPQ.sys
but the second time I rebooted using "Safe mode with command prompt" I did get a command prompt. After rebooting from this, the laptop started up normally.
Yesterday the laptop worked fine. Before shutting down, it automatically installed the eight or so updates that Microsoft posted yesterday.
Today the laptop again hangs on start up, the same way it did two days ago (after showing the low-res Windows logo with the gliding progress bar). I try again to boot into safe mode with command prompt, but the laptop always hangs on the "agpCPQ.sys" line and never gives me the command prompt. The keyboard is completely locked, though the CD-RW/DVD drive spins if I put a CD-ROM in it (the screen stays black).
I have run the diagnostics tools on the Dell utilities partition, which is independent of Windows. It took a long time but everything passes.
Other than trying to repair Windows by booting from the CD, or going all the way and performing a complete reinstallation of the OS, does anyone have any suggestion on what I could try to recover the system?
Thanks!
Two days ago (Feb 7), when the problem first occurred, Windows started up and showed the low-resolution Windows XP logo with the sliding blue progress bar. After a short time the low-res logo disappeared and the screen blanked (went completely black) as usual, but instead of popping up the login window next, the laptop hanged and did nothing. The keyboard was locked and did not respond to NumLock, CapsLock, or Ctrl-Alt-Del. I turned off the laptop using the main power switch and rebooted several times using "Last known good configuration" and "Start Windows normally" and the laptop hanged just the same. Then I rebooted using "Safe mode with command prompt"; the first time Windows hanged after showing the line
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(2)\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\agpCPQ.sys
but the second time I rebooted using "Safe mode with command prompt" I did get a command prompt. After rebooting from this, the laptop started up normally.
Yesterday the laptop worked fine. Before shutting down, it automatically installed the eight or so updates that Microsoft posted yesterday.
Today the laptop again hangs on start up, the same way it did two days ago (after showing the low-res Windows logo with the gliding progress bar). I try again to boot into safe mode with command prompt, but the laptop always hangs on the "agpCPQ.sys" line and never gives me the command prompt. The keyboard is completely locked, though the CD-RW/DVD drive spins if I put a CD-ROM in it (the screen stays black).
I have run the diagnostics tools on the Dell utilities partition, which is independent of Windows. It took a long time but everything passes.
Other than trying to repair Windows by booting from the CD, or going all the way and performing a complete reinstallation of the OS, does anyone have any suggestion on what I could try to recover the system?
Thanks!
