Can't start in Safe Mode
 

I'm running Windows XP Pro with SP2.

It basically started when I wanted to scan for spyware. I start Lavasoft Ad-Aware and can't update. It stops responding. I then update and scan with SpyBot. It found nothing alarming. I then went to Lavasoft's website and looked at the FAQ. Nothing, except downloading and manually installing the update. Did that and all Ad-Aware found was some cookies. I then scanned with Norton Antivirus 2004. It found two instances of some adware called Adware.Istbar. It couldn't delete them. I then clicked one of the items and it took me to the Symantec site. I downloaded a utility they said to use and it didn't find any instances on the computer. Now I'm really confused. I quickly run NAV2004 again, and it again found two instances of Adware.Istbar. I then try to start in Safe Mode. I choose Safe Mode and it shows a list of files and then I get the blue screen of death. I then restart in normal mode. What's going on? I recently had the computer crash about two months ago. I really don't want to have it crash again. Help is appreciated!

Please tell us the BSOD error message.

I started out by saying I don't know what BSOD was. Then I started typing blue screen of death and it hit me. :oops: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Anywho, I wish I could, but it quickly flashed and the computer restarted. I then got a message saying Windows did not start up promptly yada yada. I was then presented the choices again and then I just chose to start Windows up normally.

It´s a bit difficult to troubleshoot without knowing the error message... Do you have a digicam with a movie mode?

No, I don't. :damn:

What key did you hit during the start up F5 or F8?

with F8 you can get a log of the boot process , after a boot/reboot you can ump the file log to see what device is faulty.
You can also lauch windows selectionning the drivers to be loaded or not with F8 keys.

I used F8 to bring up the choices. How do you get a log?

The only choices I saw were to start in Safe Mode, SM with networking capabilities, some other SM variant (I forgot what it is called), reset to last known good configuration, and start Windows normally.

Right-click My Computer, then Properties. Select Advanced, then Settings of Startup and Recovery. Click the Edit button, then Notepad opens boot.ini. It should look like this:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Add this to the end:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe mode with bootlog" /safeboot:minimal /bootlog

Now it looks like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOW S
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Micro soft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Safe mode with bootlog" /safeboot:minimal /bootlog

Save it, reboot, don´t press F5 or F8. You see a boot menu, select "Safe mod with bootlog". After the BSOD reboot to normal mode, then you´ll find ntbtlog.txt in your Windows dir, that´s the boot log.

Will this be a one time thing or will it be asking for a log everytime I restart Windows?

Every time. Remove the last line from boot.ini, then it´s gone.

Ok, I did as you suggested. Changed the file to include the text you gave. Rebooted, and chose Safe Mode with Bootlog. Got the BSOD. Restarted Windows normally and looked for the ntbtlog.txt file. I couldn't find it. I then did a search and it didn't find it either. I chose to look in the system folders and hidden files and folders. :-?

****!!! Well, it´s late and I´m quite tired, let us continue tomorrow. Maybe someone else can help you in the next few hours...

What bothers me is this is a fresh reinstall of Windows. Only about a month or two old. :damn:

Any good news?

What you could do is to install all updates from www.windowsupdate.com, it refreshes quite a few system drivers. Well, at least if you haven´t updated Windows for a while.

In control panel>system>recovery or somewhere like that there is a check box "reboot automatically" untick it and force your BSOD, then it will not auto reboot but stick with the BSOD.

Else on control panel>administration>event log to check for errors there


SafeMode bootlog is in C:\windows\bootlog.txt or .log I forgot

Adware.Istbar ref:
http://sarc.com/avcenter/venc/data/adware.istbar.html

Sidenote I have never seen it came with adaware from lavasoft. and removal tool here : http://securityresponse.symantec.com...r/FxIstbar.exe