PC wouldn't boot, and now can't install XP!!! (1 Viewer)

[Leroy]

Got a major problem. Installed a new motherboard/memory (ECS KM400 w/ 512mb DDR)for a friends PC. Moved all of his components over (1ghz Athlon, 40gb Western HD, Lite-on DVD burner, 32X CD-Rom, 64mb Kyro II video card, 56k modem and some crappy sound card).

Here's the problem:

Went to start up for the first time (was planning on reinstalling WinXP after making sure it would boot up) and the bios sees everything (processor, memory detects all the drives) and the WinXP splash screen comes up. When it acutally tries to start up windows I got an error message concerninglsasse.exe . Could never get past this.

Tried boot up via CD-Rom and install WinXP. It would initialize and then as soon as it would get to the "ready to install" screen...it would shut off. Tried like 6 times, but it would not get past that.

I have since found out that the lsasse.exe is some sort of worm/virus. I pulled out his HD and put it in my PC so I could format it (did a quick format) and tired to install XP again, but the same problem arises (suts down as soon as it gets to the "ready to install" screen.

Anyone have any ideas as to why the PC dies whenever it tries to install or startup XP?? Also, I get no beep when I boot the PC up, don't know if that's helpful or not.

 

[John_Graz]

I just upgraded a system with a new ASUS MoBo and found the MoBo's BIOS was set to RAID with SATA hard drive but I moved my EIDE HD. After numerous tries I found a thread on a forum that said to review the BIOS setting for HD devices.

Hope this helps.

 

[Joseph DeMartino]

Quick format will certainly not kill a virus that is hiding in the Master Boot Record since the MBR is one of the things a so-called quick format leaves untouched. Your best bet (after making sure your own PC's anti-virus program is up to date) is to run it against your friend's drive, and see if it kills this thing. Even if it does, I would still FDISK the drive repeatedly with the /mbr switch to ensure that it is clear, format, FDISK /MBR again, and then load it in your friend's PC and try booting from the XP installation CD ROM.

Regards,

Joe

 

[Al.Anderson]

lsass (no "e") is not a virus, it's a Microsoft system process design to protect against some virus explotations. If you actually have an lsasse (with and "e) running, then this may be a problem; otherwise I'd go with John's reco and look for device conflicts.

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Bad memory can act much like this too. You can start the machine up but as soon as the PC starts using "real" 32bit software as opposed to the basic stuff it uses just to boot and start the installation program, the machine crashes hard.

Check the memory settings in the BIOS that they match the RAM capabilities (or try "downclocking" the RAM to a lower speed just to see what happens.) Then try using only one stick of RAM (if you have two) or try different RAM entirely.

 

[Leroy]

Well, I removed the partiiton on the suspect HD and did a full format. Still got eh same problem, machine dies the instant it tries to start the actual install of Windows (tried it with XP Pro and Win2k Pro).

Could the processor be bad? Although everything posts at the bios startup (memory, CPU all drives detected)I would think that if the acutal CPU is bad I would get some sort of error. I even tried atarting WinXP via a basic bootable version (boots to the WinXP desktop and gives you basic commands, but not the full on desktop) that resides entirely on a CD with the HD disconnected and it still dies instantly when it tried to start Windows.

Aside from maybe the CPU I can't think of what else could be wrong.

 

[brentl]

wHEN YOU were booted via floppy did you look in controlpanel/system/device manager/ and see if you have any !!! marks.

If something is screwed up this may give you start.

Brent

 

[Keith Paynter]

This may or may not help, but when I want a full re-install of W2K or XP, I've actually gone back to W98 and unstalled the o/s from scratch via W98 install (formatting the drive), wiping out any NTFS partitions by formatting FAT32. I power down the machine once files start copying to the hard drive for installation, then reboot with the W2K or XP disc in. This time the install can wipe out the FAT32 partition and do a clean NTFS format, and the install works with no problems.

It may mean re-installing every bloody program you have, but at you'll get a whole new year out of Norton Updates on older versions of AV and Systemworks!

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Again... test the RAM memory chips. Bad memory will cause symptoms like these. That is more likely than a bad CPU (although a bad CPU is not impossible, I guess.)

No need to fiddle about with a Win98 install to get a "clean" harddrive. You can just run the "fdisk" program from a DOS boot disk (grab one from http://www.bootdisk.org for instance) and remove all the partitions. To wipe out the boot menu as well you can do "fdisk /mbr".

 

[DanielM]

to completely wipe a hardrive use this
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

as windows format does not completely wipe the drive nor does fdisk

 

[Kimmo Jaskari]

Well, there is a difference between cleaning partitions off the harddrive for reinstall and doing a secure milspec wipe of it, but good point.