Windows 2000 Boot Problems

[yellohut]

I'm working on a friends computer
Windows 2000 pro
everytime it loads windows, it gets right to the point where the desktop should show, but instead it flashes a blue screen (too fast for me to even tell if it has text on it) and reboots.

I've narrowed it down to a software problem (not heat or hardware related)

I've tried every boot option available, and can't get it to load.

any ideas?

[GaryRouth]

1) tried booting to Safe Mode yet?
2) boot from the CD?
(I imagine you have already, so:

Sounds like the Sasser/Blaster type of worm. Might be time to slave the hard drive in another computer and clean it there.
. . . Gary

[yellohut]

I can't boot into safe mode, or get it to boot really at all..
i don't have the cd, but I'll see if I can get one..
I'll try slaving it to my computer and cleaning it from there, but I'm open for other ideas if anyone's got them.

[yellohut]

OK, I scanned her hard drive for viruses using my computer, and it found msblast.exe
so I downloaded the removal tool from symantec, when I ran it it said it deleted the file.
but when I hooked the hard drive back up, it had the same problem. Windows would start to load, but it would reboot right as the blue line at the bottom reached the end.
I'm guessing there's some left over crap in the registry or something that hasn't been cleaned.
but I can't access regedit because her computer won't boot... any ideas?

[GaryRouth]

You could try another scan: perhaps this time using more than one vendor (try your local AV (the one installed in your computer) as well as an online scanner (I recommend both HouseCall and Panda: HouseCall is over at http://housecall.trendmicro.com)

When/If the drive scans clean, you could try a repair reinstall, if the machine will boot from the CD.

Does your friend have backups of her data & disks for her OS and programs? "Nuke and pave" (wiping the disk & starting over) will certainly clean up the most garbage, but takes the most time. Have to scan her backups, too, before restoring them. And then the countless Windows Updates.

Once her drive is OK - make sure she has installed & active firewall/antivirus/antispyware & she'll wan't to have Windows Updates current as soon as possible.

. . . Gary

[yellohut]

She's checking for backups... but I think the guy she bought it from sold it to her without giving her the windows cd or product key. I have the disks for the drivers and whatnot.

I created the win 2000 bootable floppys to get to some kind of recovery console (looks similar to dos) but I'm not sure what I can do from there. Is there some way to clean the registry from the command line?

[yellohut]

ok, i tried all the options explained here:
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=106182

but as glc said:

Originally Posted by glc Note that this will only detect and clean/delete infected files. It will not fix any configuration files or the registry because they are not active - so possibly expect a ton of errors when you put the "cleaned" drive back in where it came from and you try to boot from it. These will have to be fixed manually with Regedit or a 3rd party registry tool.

so now I'm stuck where I can get to a command line prompt using floppies, but I can't get it to boot fully into windows (right before it does it reboots)
is there any way to repair the registry from the command line?

[GaryRouth]

Although she doesn't have a Windows 2000 installation CD, do you? If so, unless something is wrong in the Bios, you should be able to boot from that & run a repair install.

I've used the NT floppy sets to work on a some old NT machines at local elementary schools, but I'm not much familiar with floppy options on 2000 boxes (I've always just used the CD) = for the floppy options, hopefully a tech with that info will see this post and help out with that info.

If no answer shows up after a while, I should be able to take a look later on tonight [never too late to learn!] and see if I can read up & post what I find.

By the way, I do seem to remember that there is such a command line program for NT kernel series (NT/2k/XP) Registry editing = I just can't remember where it was.

[andyms18a]

hi yellohut
this may help http://support.microsoft.com/default...roduct=win2000 if your computer is a win 2k or xp based one you may be abble to load the reg from that

hi gary how are you ?

[yellohut]

thanks andyms18a, that link perfectly described what was happening.
however, I don't have any way of getting a windows 2000 disc for a couple of days.
Do you think I could try what's recommended in the article by slaving her hard drive to a windows xp machine?

[GaryRouth]

Hi again -

[& hi andy! = do you think it'd be good enough to use the CD and type "R" for the repair install? I'm thinking that the CD approach might have a decent chance of fixing a broken Registry ---since to do the parallel install, the CD (or the .cab files) need to be somewhere local -- I imagine you see more Win2000 boxes than I do]

... and you both might want to see what you think about this floppy handy-dandy that Microsoft offers = it's a Registry repair tool for Windows 2000 that runs from floppies (a half dozen of them!) I've never tried this one, maybe you guys have.... Here's the link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/d...displaylang=en

. . . Gary

[p.s. yellohut - I thought you already tried slaving the drive ? ]

[yellohut]

thanks for the replies!
I'll try these suggestions when I get home from work tonight and let you know how it goes.
and I did try slaving the drive, but I was only able to remove the infected file (msblast.exe.) however, I think it screwed up the configuration files or the registry somehow.

[andyms18a]

hi guys you shod be able to open the reg hive from you xp drive as both are very Simula do make a back up of your xp registry first

[yellohut]

OK, i was able to stop it from automatically rebooting, I saw that the error message was something about the winsrv.dll file not being in the right directory. It was, so I renamed it and then DL'd another one and put it in the right directory. then I got an error message saying "STOP: c0000139 {Entry Point Not Found}
The procedure entry point MessageBoxTimeoutW could not be located in the dynamic link library USER32.dll"

i did a goole search and I couldn't find a workaround..
I still don't have the OS CD.
Anyone seen this before?

[GaryRouth]

Certainly sounds like more Registry/System file fun. I think when you have access to the CD, the repair will fix it.

Might be an adventure to try that MS floppy tool, though - especially if time won't wait.

Maybe andy will have seen your error. The threads I saw with Stop c0000139 errors were mostly from problematic upgrades (hardware upgrades).

[andyms18a]

if you are having dll file problems then the best fix is a repair install as this will replace any damaged dll files but still keep you data intact
Insert your Windows CD in the CD-ROM drive or the DVD-ROM drive, and start the computer from the CD.
When you are prompted To set up Windows 2000 now, press ENTER,
Setup looks for any previous installations of Windows 2000 on the hard disk and then displays a list of any previous installations that it finds.
Use the arrow keys to select the installation that you want to repair, and then press R to select the To repair the selected Windows 2000 installation, press R option.

This will start the repair of your previous Windows 2000 installation.

[yellohut]

I did a repair install and everything is just like new.
I also removed several viruses and tons of spyware.. I downloaded AVG for her and updated windows..
now it's smooth sailing.

thanks for your help!

[GaryRouth]

Thanks for letting us know how it turned out. Nice work!