Re: computer continually reboots after attempted XP reinstall

From: rishi (rishik12_at_gmail.com)
Date: 06/24/04 

Date: 24 Jun 2004 11:50:23 -0700

rishik12@gmail.com (rishi) wrote in message news:<fea3ec0.0406240531.778b2e7f@posting.google.com>...
> The basic story is that my computer attempts to start up, fails deep
> into the process (probably only a few seconds from showing me a
> desktop), and then tries again to start up. It will keep doing this.
>
> The long story:
>
> Set my computer to hibernate when I was away. Thought that would save
> energy. When the computer would "wake up" it was always recovering
> from the following error: "WJVIEW: Cannot execute Main: The system
> cannot find the file specified." Norton Windoctor doesn't think
> anything's wrong, and I defragmented the drive. Wasn't sure what else
> to do.
>
> So what? I would just click "Ok" and move on with life.
>
> A week later, my internet connectivity disappeared. It's just an
> Ethernet jack into the wall. The technician on the phone said, "Well,
> hmm? we're not having any problems on our end?" He went through some
> basic stuff with me and he was really puzzled. My LAN device was
> showing a big red "x" through it, and he couldn't enable it. He said
> he'd send a tech out in a few days.
>
> Meanwhile, I figured that this WJVIEW error was now snowballing (hence
> now I'm losing the internet, which I DO care about) so I thought, "Why
> don't I reinstall XP?" Sure, that'll probably roll me back a few
> years' worth of updates, but with the internet back, I can just
> reinstall them. A hassle, but what can you do? (I now realize that Ad
> Aware has probably caused the WJVIEW problem).
>
> During the install process for XP, about 13 minutes from the end, I
> got the following error (right on the nice install screen telling you
> how wonderful XP is): "The Procedure Entry Point GetIUMS could not be
> found in the dynamic link library MSDART.DLL"
>
> Well, now I knew something is seriously wrong. I can't even reinstall
> XP? (BTW, during install, I selected "upgrade," not "clean install").
>
> At this point, I'm pretty sure it couldn't be a hard drive physical
> failure. I've got a Seagate Barracuda with the 3G shock enclosure. I
> also do not move my computer around.
>
> Now when I restarted, I got the desktop, and it still gives me that
> WJVIEW error (sometimes it says "Windows has recovered from a serious
> error.") I uninstalled some unnecessary software (IPICView? Gone.) I
> also turned off the hibernate thing. Finally, on restart, I clicked F8
> and went to "Last known good configuration." How could that go wrong?
>
> That's when it went wrong. Little did I know it, but that was the last
> time I would see my desktop. The computer accepted my choice of last
> known good configuration and then proceeded to "half-boot," (it gets
> as far as a black windows splash screen), then goes dark, and then
> restarts. After the fourth restart, I suddenly came to the realization
> that this (duh) is not normal and F8'd into "SAFE MODE" (no
> networking).
>
> Then SAFE MODE didn't even boot up! It cycled boots as well. I turned
> off my computer manually (off button) and am typing this to post to a
> newsgroup somewhere?

Rishi: I now see that the MSDART issue is also ridiculous (apparently
an issue of intalling XP over XP SP 1 ...). Still, not sure why this
should have screwed up my computer.

Current solution is having CompUSA install a new hard drive alongside
the old one. The new drive will have XP (clean install) on it; the old
drive will be a slave. Assumption is that the old drive actually works
(but you can't boot the computer off of it). Will drag old drive's
files to new drive, then reformat old drive.

Still looking for commentary here - thoughts appreciated.