Author Topic: WinXP Pro freezes on boot in normal and Safe Mode - stops at aswRvrt.sys...?  (Read 30750 times)

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Offline essexboy

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How was the computer behaving when you were in normal mode ?

Darkstrike

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It seemed 100% fine! Like I said at the start of the thread, the computer was COMPLETELY normal before that Windows update that started this all :(

An update, after I restarted, I am currently greeted with a seemingly infinite Windows XP loading screen....it's just sitting there with the loading bar repeatedly moving left-right. Should I try a CHKDSK from a recovery console or let it go for awhile and see if anything comes up?

Offline essexboy

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Did it do a chkdsk prior to this reboot ?

If not then use the recovery console method

Darkstrike

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I had used your link to schedule a CHKDSK, once I restarted, it was then that I was greeted with the infinite WinXP loading screen I listed in my previous post - it never got to the CHKDSK screen or back to Windows. It's still sitting at that loading screen now, but I will restart with a recovery disk and see if I can run one from there; I'll let you know how that turns out.

Offline essexboy

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OK looking like a possible disc problem

Darkstrike

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Do I need to use a WinXP Home disk with the same Service Pack as my install or will any XP Home disk work for the Recovery Console to run CHKDSK?

Offline essexboy

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Any xp disk will work

The command will need to be :

chkdsk c: /r

Darkstrike

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Restarted into a Recovery Console disk and hit "R" to enter the Recovery Console. Seemed to pause at "Examining disk..." so I restarted into the BIOS. I know her machine has S.M.A.R.T. drive tests built into the BIOS. Running a the Short S.M.A.R.T. test resulted in "Completed without error."

A long S.M.A.R.T. test takes 50 minutes, so I won't do that yet. I'll try loading back into Windows normally and see if it will run the scheduled CHKDSK again. If not, I'll restart and try the Recovery Console CHKDSK method again for the hell of it and report back.

Darkstrike

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Managed to get it to boot into Windows / Scheduled CHKDSK....CHKDSK screen seemed to stay there for all of 30 seconds, enough for me to read it say something about...

"The volume is clean."
Windows has finished checking the disk.

And then it booted to the login screen....200% sure it didn't even check the disk at all? 0_o

I'll back up her Firefox Profile while I'm in here and try rebooting into the recovery console again for a CHKDSK there.

Starting to think the disk is completely screwed at this point...but the REALLY weird thing is it runs 100% fine while it's booted normally into Windows!!!

thekochs

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Only a wild guess but failing HDD with bad sectors going can corrupt things...obviously.
CHKDSK is run/works will move those items to good places and repairs the file system/etc.....but then the question becomes how good is the disc ?...is it in failure mode.....degrading, etc.  How long have you had the PC/HDD ?
Assuming you get all this done I'd go back in the BIOS and do a full SMART check/scan.

I also have a SMART software running on all my PCs to monitor the HDDs.
The one I use is DRIVESITTER: http://www.otwesten.de/drivesitter/
It's  $26 but you can buy once on put on all your PCs with same key that you own.
A Free one that a lot of folks use is Crystal Disk Info
http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/crystaldiskinfo.html
....of course these monitor things/changes over time and provide warning on decay.

Sounds like you already have the BIOS util to run the SMART integrity checks else there are others out there to run.
A lot of the HDD guys offer their own...
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 12:31:49 AM by thekochs »

Darkstrike

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It's just incredibly surprising because the computer's been running fine up until this point. It's a bit older of a machine, we were given it by a friend about two years ago to replace mom's old desktop. This one is a Compaq Prescario SR1910NX with some upgrades (newer video card, more RAM), but the computer itself is about 8 years old I think....Windows Vista-age, but it has WinXP Home SP3 on it now as I had formatted it when it was given to us.

I'll see if I can get it to do a CHKDSK in the Recovery Console again, if not, I'll do a full S.M.A.R.T. scan in the BIOS. If push comes to shove, I'll format it if it turns out the disk is the issue...I have an ancient (2003) 80gb IDE drive I can put in it for now that I keep as a spare from my old desktop.

EDIT: As a side note, it's been booted "normally" into Windows for 30 mins now and it's running perfectly....no idea what's going on.
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 12:33:54 AM by Darkstrike »

thekochs

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It's just incredibly surprising because the computer's been running fine up until this point. It's a bit older of a machine, we were given it by a friend about two years ago to replace mom's old desktop. This one is a Compaq Prescario SR1910NX with some upgrades (newer video card, more RAM), but the computer itself is about 8 years old I think....Windows Vista-age, but it has WinXP Home SP3 on it now as I had formatted it when it was given to us.

I'll see if I can get it to do a CHKDSK in the Recovery Console again, if not, I'll do a full S.M.A.R.T. scan in the BIOS. If push comes to shove, I'll format it if it turns out the disk is the issue...I have an ancient (2003) 80gb IDE drive I can put in it for now that I keep as a spare from my old desktop.

I bought three DELL notebooks and within 3 weeks two of their HDDs crashed....Hard !
One morning I came to see one with BSOD on it...the other black screen...powered down.
Went to the BIOS and could not even see the HDD.....Dell techs came out swapped the HDDs....I ran image restore from Macrium good to go.
They say there are only two sure things in life.....taxes and death......there is a 3rd....HDDs will fail....just a matter of time.
I work in the tech industry and my industrial customers the #1 return issue with their systems is HDD failure.

So, if you are able to get it stable and use Macrium to store offline the HDD Image you can use the Macrium recovery CD to restore that image to new HDD once you replace.  You may wish/prefer to do a full/clean install but that's a PITA with drivers, software, etc....even if you have your mom's "data".
« Last Edit: January 27, 2014, 12:39:28 AM by thekochs »

Darkstrike

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Yeah, but at this point I'm wondering if Windows itself isn't corrupt somehow. It's fine when it's up and running but it seems to go haywire on restart, or when booting from a shutdown, as you've both seen...so as much as I hate doing it, if I have to switch drives, maybe a full reinstall would be the best way to go.

thekochs

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Yeah, but at this point I'm wondering if Windows itself isn't corrupt somehow. It's fine when it's up and running but it seems to go haywire on restart, or when booting from a shutdown, as you've both seen...so as much as I hate doing it, if I have to switch drives, maybe a full reinstall would be the best way to go.

Would not disagree......however, I'd get a copy of the HDD image regardless.
Macrium is free.....runs a full image in about 30-45 minutes......of course per the comments above.....have to have a place to put it. :)

Darkstrike

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Would not disagree......however, I'd get a copy of the HDD image regardless.
Macrium is free.....runs a full image in about 30-45 minutes......of course per the comments above.....have to have a place to put it. :)

Yeah, that's the issue, unfortunately, space. :-\ I have my 80gb IDE spare, and I actually do have an older 40gb IDE spare, both work fine, but if I am doing a full format, I'll be putting my spare 80gb in as her main drive so I can't use that to backup an image, and the 40gb is SLIGHTLY too small to do an image backup to (the drive in the machine atm is a 120gb, and about 52gbs of it is filled, so the 40gb would be too small...).

Also, the 40gb is currently storing a backup of somebody's data whose computer I repaired the other day - they asked that I keep it for now in case something else on their computer turns out to be the problem, so I can't use it regardless! (Coincidentally, that laptop became fouled up almost in the exact same fashion as my mom's machine....uninstalled 3 programs just after an Avast program update and it stopped booting as well, also stopping at aswRvrt.sys!!!) We couldn't get that machine to boot into Windows AT ALL though, so I ended up just formatting it...

Running the extended S.M.A.R.T. scan on mom's drive now from the BIOS...said it would take about 50-60 mins, so I'll report back when it's done. Having a feeling I may be formatting her machine tomorrow on my day off though, but at least I have her data now! I'll see if Essexboy has any more ideas...