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March 28th, 2007 09:00
preventing auto-shutdown
Had a hard drive failure and reinstalled XP Home. Now, about half the time as soon as I log into my account I get the "Windows is shutting down" message. Any idea what's causing this?
I seem to remember a setting that can be changed to prevent this but have searched and searched with no luck. Any ideas?
dg
I seem to remember a setting that can be changed to prevent this but have searched and searched with no luck. Any ideas?
dg
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dg27
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April 5th, 2007 16:00
1) For restoring the D&Ss, would I be better off doing it manually or using the Files and Settings Transfer Wizard?
The machine is running now, though the XP install has lots of bugs [get blue screen error messages occasionally] and some programs aren't working as they should. Aside from the the documents, I'm looking to restore all Outlook Express settings to one account [have done that before manually], all Favorites & Firefox bookmarks [have done that before as well], but am unsure:
2)Does FAST restore [transfer] any program-specific user settings that make it worthwhile?
dg
dg27
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April 5th, 2007 21:00
dg
Message Edited by dg27 on 04-05-2007 06:55 PM
RoHe
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April 5th, 2007 21:00
Don't forget install Desktop System Software right after XP and then chipset driver before any other drivers.
Good luck with the reinstall.
Ron
dg27
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April 8th, 2007 23:00
I rebooted tonite and suddenly I got the "cannot start Windows because of a missing or corrupt \system 32\hal.dll file.
Did some googling on my other machine on this and the prospects do not look good.
In addition to the backup files all data are on eternal drives.
Can this missing file be repaired without a complete reinstall? The error message suggested that I reinstall this file, but how does one do that?
I'm at the end of my rope.
dg
RoHe
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April 9th, 2007 00:00
Read this for fixing hal.dll
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_haldll_missing.htm
And if this doesn't work, the repair or another attempt at a clean install are in order. If you do another clean install, don't install Retrospect, until you know everything else is working for a couple of days -just a thought.
Ron
Message Edited by RoHe on 04-08-2007 06:38 PM
dg27
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April 9th, 2007 10:00
Ran F12 this a.m.--HD passed.
>>>Did you change BIOS from RAID to RAID-Auto/ATA?
I checked this and confirmed that RAID-Auto/ATA was selected.
>>>Did you format the HD as NTFS at the beginning of the reinstall?
Yes. It was the full [not quick] format. I only created one partition.
>>>You may need to pull out PCI cards (eg, Promise card) before the reinstall. Leave the video card alone.
Did so on both points. The OS was up and running for a while [a day] before I reinstalled put the Promise card back in, and connected the two other drives [where all my Docs and Settings were]. I didn't install Retrospect till it had been up and running and other programs had been reinstalled. Never touched the video card.
>>>Kelly's Korner fix
Saw this last night. Considering option 2) [seems the simplest--honestly I couldn't really follow option 1)]. Also saw this [http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_repair_a_missing_or_cor.htm]:
How Do I Repair A Missing Or Corrupt HAL.DLL
There may be an occasion when you boot up your PC that you receive an error message such as HAL.DLL file is corrupt or missing. In many cases this can simply be a misconfiguration in the Boot.Ini file and can easily be corrected by instigating a suitable repair.
1/ Place your Windows XP CD into your CD-ROM and Reboot your PC
2/ XP's setup program will automatically start and files will be loaded to memory
3/When you reach the Welcome to Setup screen choose the Repair option by pressing R
4/ This will start the Recovery console and the list of Windows installations will appear
5/ As you only have one installation on your PC you need to press the number which is relevant to your installations location. This, obviously will typically be 1
6/ Type in your Administrator password. If you are using Windows XP Home edition the administrator password is blank by default so simply press Enter
7/Now type bootcfg /list
8/ A list will now appear of all the entries in your boot.ini file
9/ Next type bootcfg /rebuild
10/ Your boot.ini file should now be repaired
11/ Finally remove your XP CD from the CD-ROM and then type Exit
12/ Reboot your machine to see if the the problem has been cured
****
I'll probably try the Kelly's Korner fix first. Should I pull out the Promise card first? [I want to be sure I don't lose the data on those drives. Running repair install makes me a bit nervous.
Thanks for the tips/advice.
dg
RoHe
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April 9th, 2007 16:00
Try Kelly's fix. If that doesn't work, try the other one.
By the time you're done, you'll be a computer expert!
Ron
dg27
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April 9th, 2007 19:00
>>>By the time you're done, you'll be a computer expert!
Or divorced, if I spend another weekend on this!!!
dg
dg27
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April 9th, 2007 23:00
>>>>>>I checked this and confirmed that RAID-Auto/ATA was selected.
Actually I just checked and the setting is RAID Autodetect/AHCI, not ATA [I didn't change it]. This is the default for the 8400 and I checked my other 8400 and sure enough it's also set on AHCI [haven't changed any system settings on that machine]. According to Wikipedia:
"The Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) is a hardware mechanism that allows software to communicate with Serial ATA devices such as host bus adapters which are designed to offer features not offered by Parallel ATA controllers besides higher speeds, such as hot-plugging and native command queuing. The specification details a system memory structure for computer hardware vendors in order to transfer data between system memory and the device.
AHCI is fully supported in the Linux operating system from kernel 2.6.19. Windows XP with Service Pack 2 supports AHCI, but many experience problems enabling it."
That last line worries me. I have no idea whether this could be the problem.
dg
RoHe
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April 10th, 2007 01:00
So change it to /ATA, reboot and m-a-y-b-e, if you've been a very good boy, the hal.dll problem will disappear. And if not do the Kelly's Korner thing.
Otherwise, I got a very big sledge hammer that will get your frustrations out right on top of the 8400. ;)
Ron
dg27
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April 13th, 2007 14:00
RoHe
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April 13th, 2007 16:00
WHEW!! I was afraid you weren't going to have good news. Glad it's running again.
Don't forget to reinstall all the Microsoft updates NOW, ASAP, IMMEDIATELY or you'll be back here asking for help again. ;)
Ron
dg27
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April 13th, 2007 16:00
RoHe
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April 13th, 2007 19:00
Hey, If it ain't broke, please don't break it (again)! ;)
Better read this before considering Antec:
http://www.behardware.com/news/8550/power-supply-failure-rate.html
:(
You'd need to look for a PSU without a power switch on the back otherwise you'll have to carve a hole in the rear of the 8400 case to make it fit. And a bigger PSU will generate more heat which might be a bigger problem...
I don't got IE7 either! Use Netscape 7.2 and IE6 only when forced by Microsoft.
See ya!
Ron
dg27
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April 13th, 2007 19:00
Message Edited by dg27 on 04-13-2007 04:54 PM