Technical Difficulties: Windows won't start up

OK. I'd been having some problems with spyware and viruses because I decided to be stupid and go to a website that I should have known better. After fighting them for about a week using Adaware, Spybot S&D, and Symantec, it seemed like last Sunday I had finally taken care of it. No more popups, and no sign of viruses. Everything was fine on Monday and through Tuesday morning. But, when I got home Tuesday evening, my Internet Explorer crashed and kept reopening over and over, so I decided to restart my computer. I don't know what happened at that point, but now Windows won't start up anymore. This is what happens when I power/up restart:

1. There is activity from the CD-Rom, and then the DVD-Rom, and the red light on the optical mouse comes on.
2. The red light on the hard drive lights up while there is drive activity.
3. I get a screen displaying the logo for the graphics card for a few seconds, which then goes away.
4. I get a black screen with a flashing thing resembling a command prompt, which moves down the screen a few steps and disappears.
5. The screen for Windows Safe Mode appears. I can choose to enter any version of Safe Mode, which loads up fine. This proves to me that Windows is not completely destroyed.
6. If I choose to "Start Windows Normally", go to "Last Known Good Configuration", or wait 30 seconds for it to time out, the computer attempts to start Windows.
7. The red drive light starts up again, and the screen for Windows XP comes up for a few seconds. However, instead of starting Windows, the computer starts over at step 1.

Any idea what to do here?

I did get one response:

XCorvis said:

There's obviously a problem, but windows is restarting instead of showing the error. Here's how to see the error.

Boot into Safe Mode. Right click My Computer and select Properties. Click the Advanced tab. Find Startup and Recovery and click that settings box. Uncheck Automatically Restart. Click OK a few times. Reboot into normal mode and see if it gives you some more info.

Click to expand...

OK, so I did that. Instead of automatically restarting, my computer flashed to a blue error screen. Here is what that says:

blue screen said:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

BAD_POOL_CALLER

If this is the first time you've seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation, ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any Windows updates you might need.

If problems continues, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to used Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced Startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0x000000C2 (0x00000007,0x00000CD4,0xF754F32C,0xF7ABEFB4)


*** NDIS.sys - Address F754F32C base at F7528000, DateStamp 3d6de4c3

Click to expand...

anyone see anything that pops out that i could be doing to get this thing going again before i resort to the possibly drastic step of reinstalling Windows?

I would install Win XP again, over the old one. Sometimes that helps fix problems and you shouldn't lose anything.

You might also considering buying another hard drive, and doing a fresh install of XP to that. That way whenver you want to visit, er, dodgy websites, you can be safe, as you'll always have a good hard drive to boot to.

What, if anything, would be the risk of re-installing Windows? Would I have to reinstall any other programs? Would my other data be safe? If not, I'd rather examine other options (if there are any) first.

I think when Safe Mode loads up, there's also a Windows recovery option which i have yet to choose - what's that about?

According to Microsoft's knowledge base it's a driver issue. Finding the right (wrong "bad driver) driver will be tricky.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314492/en-us

If you want to be bold, you could possibly remove non-essential drivers in Device Manager in Safe mode. I wouldn't recommend that course. The best option is to use your hard drive as slave in another working computer, backup your data, and reformat.

I'll do some more research...

Edit: NDIS.sys "network driver interface specification", not sure if it's related. Try disabling your onboard NIC temporarily (usually you tap F1, F2, or Delete at startup).

You could see if you system has made a system restore point. Boot to safe mode, go to Start | All Programs | Accessories | System Tools | System Restore. Choose a point before the problem from the list of available restore points. Let the system do its thing. This restore does not cause data loss in and of itself - only restores system pieces. If your data is important though - make sure you have a backup.

I also believe XP asks if you want to run System Restore when first booting into safe mode as well.

BOZ said:

What, if anything, would be the risk of re-installing Windows? Would I have to reinstall any other programs? Would my other data be safe? If not, I'd rather examine other options (if there are any) first.

I think when Safe Mode loads up, there's also a Windows recovery option which i have yet to choose - what's that about?

Click to expand...

The Recovery Console isn't usually useful unless you REALLY know what's going on.

If you have a regular Windows install disk, you can install it again without deleting anything. You'll need to reinstall all your programs, but your data will be there and it will be functional again.

If you have a Dell or HP "Restore CD", it will probably wipe your system in order to reinstall. I think you should start fresh, but only once you've gotten your data backed up.

Boot into safe mode, go to Start->Run, and type "msconfig". This utility allows you to select what programs, services, drivers, etc. get loaded when windows boots. Uncheck some of them and reboot. Keep trying until it works (and since you can boot into safe mode, you should be able to get it to work this way). Figure out the problem item by process of elimination.

And don't worry about screwing anything up! If you uncheck something you need, you can always change it back.

If you can't isolate the problem via process of elimination in msconfig as suggested above (or worse, unchecking EVERYTHING still blue screens you) there are three commands you can try running from Recovery Console that are not too difficult and just may help.

To get to Recovery Console boot from your Windows CD and when it asks you to hit R for Recovery Console, hit R.

Once at the Recovery Console prompt choose the folder that contains the copy of Windows that is not booting properly (probably the only one listed) then at the blank prompt type:

chkdsk /r

Hit enter, go read a book. When you come back and that's done type:

fixmbr

Hit enter, agree to any posted questions, this will only take a moment. When that's done type:

fixboot

Hit enter, agree to any posted questions, then restart your system.

This is ONLY if selective startups unchecking various apps, non-microsoft services, etc is unsuccessful in getting you through a normal boot. This will fix a corrupt master boot record and hopefully get you signed in.

thanks - when i have the time (hopefully tomorrow) i'll try babomb's idea, and failing that jeremy's.

I think that error is caused by a process trying to free pool memory that has already been disposed of by windows, and is most likely caused by a corrupt or faulty driver in one of your devices. I think that particular file belongs to a network related peripheral, so try removing and updating all the relevant drivers. If that doesn't work, maybe try running a RAM tester to make sure there's nothing wrong there. Oh, and the suggestion to run chkdsk with repair turned on is a really good one, too (as I've had to do this a time or two due to bad sectors and system files). If your HDD had any bad sectors on it, it'll try to move and repair the data and mark those spots as unusable (if I remember correctly). Hope it helps!