Tag Archives: boot

Strange Vista boot cycle

Computer Aid Posted on by

Another Vista problem.

This time, the system would occasionally stop while booting.

The windows “starting” bar at the bottom would just keep cycling continuously.

So one of the first things I notice is that the hard drive has a few errors, but not enough to trigger SMART to say the drive needs replacing… but enough to be a concern.

So I replace the drive, and that seems to fix the error, but eventually, it re-surfaces.

So I try replacing the power supply, the RAM, even the motherboard, but the error keeps coming back.

Since this problem only happens 1 in 10 restarts, its frustrating to diagnose.

Eventually, I manage to trace it to a faulty SATA DVDRW drive.

There were no other indications that the drive was faulty, and it would cause boot problems even if there  was no disk in the drive.

Looks like another item to add to the “learnt by experience” list…

xp stops at isapnp.sys

Computer Aid Posted on by

This large Dell PC (running one of the first Xeons that became the core2 duos), wasn’t starting.

I tried safe mode, and it would run through various drivers, and just suddenly stop at isapnp.sys

After a few minutes, I decide to try booting from my UBCD4Win CD, and run a chkdsk… but it finds no fault with the disk.

Next, I take a bit of a look around the internet, and I soon find that the problem isn’t with isapnp.sys, but with the file thats loaded after isapnp.sys…

So how do I find out the file thats next.

It seems there is no simple answer.

However, I did manage to find a simple solution:

After booting from UBCD4Win (again), I go to windowssystem32drivers

I then view the files in “detail mode” (ie each file is shown on a seperate line, with a size and date for each).

I then sort the whole folder by size (usually by clicking on the word “size” of the size column

I then notice that there is 1 file (sgeqcx.sys) that has a size of 0 bytes.

Since there is no was that this folder should have zero length files, I know that thats the problem.

I delete sgeqcx.sys, knowing the “good” version will be copied into place by system resore.

Sure enough, the PC boots normally, and everything is back to normal.

PS: a few days later, the same customer calls again, saying he has a very similar problem.

At this point, we both agree that the computer is dying, and needs to be replaced before any serious damage is done to the data.

So: if you have this problem happen more than once, within a week or two, then I suggest you stop using the computer, and get a new one ASAP.