Computer won't boot. Isapnp.sys?

When I went to turn on my computer, it simply won't boot all the way. Normally when I start it, it goes through a process where 1) all the text comes up with the usual information about RAM and whatnot 2) it goes to a screen that only has a progress bar at the bottom of it, which loads pretty fast 3) it goes to the Windows screen and loads a little slower but still not forever 4) Windows log-on screen 5) desktop. However, it's simply stopping at #2 and the progress bar doesn't advance at all. The amount of progress that it shows is different a lot of the time though I've restarted a bunch of times and I've yet to see it even be 1/4 of the way done. Whatever it starts off at, it stays at, no matter how long I let it run.

When I tried to boot it in Safe Mode, it shows the list of all those files, but it stops halfway down the screen at isapnp.sys being the last line. It does nothing else after this.

Does anyone know what could be the issue and how I could fix it? I really don't want to lose my data and I really can't afford taking it somewhere that'll charge me a ridiculous amount of money to back things up (if they even can) and then fix the problem.

I'm using XP, I've got an Asrock k7vm3 motherboard, and uh...I'm not sure what other info I can give is relevant.

I'd appreciate any help you guys can give me.

When you boot in Safe Mode and see the items rolling by and it hangs, the problem is usually not the last things you see on the screen but what comes after the last thing you see on the screen.

Generally, the next thing to load after:

c:\windows\system32\drivers\isapnp.sys

would be

c:\windows\system32\drivers\pciide.sys

So I would start looking there.

These are both boring generic Windows files, and if your file(s) are broken somehow, they can quickly be replaced using the Recovery Console, but that requires booting on either a genuine bootable XP installation CD, or a bootable Recovery Console CD (which you can create). This is not the same as some system or recovery CD that may have come with a store bought system.

Do you have a genuine bootable XP installation CD or do you need to create a Recovery Console CD?

What do you think may have caused this problem? Have you installed any new hardware/software lately? Power interruption, aborted restart, ungraceful shutdown, some malicious software removal tool, etc.?

You might also unplug any external devices you have temporarily and see if things get better/worse to get more clues.

I don't have any of those discs, though I'm not sure if anyone that I know has one that I could borrow.

As for a cause...I don't know. I did shut it down the hard way instead of going through start > shut down, but I only do that when my computer's going so slow that it'll take me forever to shut down. I was hit with that Siszyd32 virus in December, but I never experienced this during that time and I used several antivirus programs to make sure I got rid of every trace of that I could find. Outside of it running incredibly slow (from a low amount of RAM) it was running fine, so this came out of nowhere.

If I get one of those CDs somehow, is it going to erase all my data?

I am not sure what shut it down the hard way means, but if it means the power button, that can sometimes cause issues and that is why I asked about that as a possibility.

Booting Recovery Console will not erase any of your data but you don't know what damage has been done yet. I would not recommend a Repair Install using a Windows CD or anything so drastic at this time. Other people may have other opinions about what to do

You can create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD using this guide:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/276527/how-to-create-a-bootable-xp-recovery-console-cd/

Once you get into the Recovery Console, now we know we should verify the integrity of your file system by running:

chkdsk /r

That may be all you need to do - and it is also the first thing to do.

If no luck, we can decide what to do next.

Then we can work on your slowness/shutdown issues (sounds like the real problem) if they remain.

This thread seems to have died, maybe etcetera was able to solve his problems. I am having the same issue though.

First, ,some backgorund. I think this all stems from something I downloaded a few weeks ago to watch a pirated basketball game on the internet (there was no way to get the game where I was). In order to get the media player to start playing I had to download something. It worked and I was able to watch the game. However, shortly after I did someone posted on my team's message board that the site includes a trojan in the download. Oops.

Everything seemed to be fine until yesterday. Out of nowhere I started getting annoying fake virus alert messages. I quickly updated Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and tried to perform a scan. I got a decent way into it before it came to a crawl. It was only scanning a file every 15-30 seconds. This was never going to finish so I aborted the scan and was going to try it in safe mode.

However, when I tried to boot into safe mode, I got to the isapnp.sys file and it just stopped. I tried all of the other boot options and they would just go to a blank screen. That's where I am now, with no where to go.

I looked for a bootable OS CD, but Dell did not include one, only a fake cd-looking paper saying "Your computer does not require an operating system CD or drivers CDs." Instead, it told me to use Windows System restore (which I can't get to if I can't boot) or Dell PC Restore (which I also can't get to but wouldn't want to do even if I could).

I am going to try that link joseibarra posted to make a bootable XP recovery CD. I'll be back shortly to see if I get anywhere with that.

Thanks in advance for any help.

No luck.

I created the Windows boot CD, got it running, and then ran chkdsk /r. It said it found and fixed one or more errors. I exited and then restarted, but am still running into the same problems. The safe mode boots stop at the isapnp.sys file and the other boots do nothing. Any other ideas?

Bump.

Don't mean to be impatient. Was just hoping to get some thoughts on this today.

You could try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

Thanks for the response.

That procedure looks a little scary. It has you copy and then delete a bunch of system32 files. Then it has you reboot and seems to assume you will be able to boot. After that, there are many more fairly complicated steps. I don't know if I'm comfortable performing this procedure.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315311

You could try the steps noted for XP users.

I'd also consider the possibility of infection.

Louis

Thanks, Louis. That article looks spot on and I'm going to give it a try right now.

BTW, what do you mean by "possibility of infection?" Infected by a virus? I think that's fairly apparent.

No good after following that article from hamluis. I renamed the file and then loaded it from my boot cd. But same problems exist.

Well...if you are infected...chances are normal repair procedures for normal XP problems...may not work. Such procedures are not designed to be used in malware situations.

It's your decision.

Louis

Something I've found using recovery mode is that I have two files C:\WINDOWS\. and C:\WINDOWS\.. that are timestamped from right around when my computer went haywire. However, when I try to delete them through rovery mode, DOS thinks a .=*, therefore asking me if I want to delete all the files. I', pretty sure I don't want to do that.

I just tried renaming C:\WINDOWS\. and C:\WINDOWS\.. so I could delete them without the risk of deleting all files but was unable. The . file said it was being used by another process. The .. file said access is denied.