Hi
I have not been on this site for a while, it looks really good with the new layout!
But anyways on to my latest problem and for once its not Vista!

I have a dual boot PC. It has 3 hard drives. Xp Home is on one and Vista on the other. Neither Os knows about the other. To swap between then I just change the boot priority in the bios, but I mostly use XP.

Anyway, I was just on the internet (using XP), not really doing much, when the auto update started to download a file from lovly Microsoft. As its done this many times I just let it get on with it. As with many updates, it asked to restart to apply it. I did so and now when booting up all I get is a black screen after the Windows XP screen. I cannot get to the pale blue log on screen anymore.

Ok, I thought, that update has done something, so I did a reinstall using the repair option with my original XP install disk.

Got it up and running again and again another update download, this time it wanted to install the SP3 update. As the PC had already done this before and worked fine with SP3, I let it go ahead. You can guess what happened next, yup the same black screen!
I have tried to access safe mode to try and undo the damage, but either I am not doing it right (pressing F8 just brings up which hard drive to boot from) or its ignoring me, either way I am stuck.
Please help, as I am sick of using Vista and all the games and utilities I use are all on XP.

(pressing F8 just brings up which hard drive to boot from)

Try this, when prompted select the correct hard drive to boot from, hit enter, and then immediately begin tapping the F8 key.

Thanks bkdc!

I will try that!

Hi
I tried that ,but it wouldnt work, so I simply switched the PC off during its boot and that tripped the safe mode option window.

When it finally got to the safe mode screen I turned off everything under msconfig that was not microsoft. Still didnt make any difference. Then I did a system restore dated from ages ago and still nothing. Now I know this is not a hardware problem because Vista runs just fine on the same machine, plus I can still access the hard drive XP is installed on. I am at a loss to explain this odd behaviour. I am almost at the point where I am going to format the drive and do a fully, clean install, then let it download all the updates, then reinstall each of my games and utilities one by one.

I am still open to any ideas anyone might have as there is a lot of backing up to do. Its just such a pain to have to reinstall everything after it has ran trouble free for so long

Hi
Looks like I tracked the problem down. Somehow installing the latest updates for XP clashed with my virus checker AVG. Since uninstalling this and replacing it with another has fixed the problem. Thank goodness I did'nt have to totally clean the whole hard drive!

Glad to hear that you resolved the problem. I switched from avg to AVAST about two years ago and so far I have not had any problems. AVG is good but i prefer AVAST which I think is more flexible and also FREE.

Originally Posted by gerryh

Hi
Looks like I tracked the problem down. Somehow installing the latest updates for XP clashed with my virus checker AVG. Since uninstalling this and replacing it with another has fixed the problem. Thank goodness I did'nt have to totally clean the whole hard drive!

Here is and interesting article that is in to-days "Windows Secrets" newsletter:

AVG antivirus is causing patching headaches

As if we didn't have enough patching emergencies to deal with this week, a recent update of AVG's antivirus software knocked out some people's Internet connection. AVG's support page indicates that after upgrading to AVG version 8.0.196, your network link may fail.

If rebooting your PC doesn't fix the problem, follow the instructions on AVG's support page to download the fixfiles.zip file to your computer. Double-click the .zip file to open it, and then double-click fixfiles.exe in the resulting folder to run the utility.

If the glitch persists, the company recommends that you run a repair installation of your AVG app. If reinstalling your antivirus software doesn't get you back online, AVG advises that you contact the company's support desk for further instructions.

I became aware of the AVG update glitch when the program began to interfere with the collection and distribution of e-mail on my Small Business Server 2003 test system.

Hi bkdc

Thanks for replying!

Had a look at AVG's support page and nothing I did fixed the problem, AVG had to go. I think AVG will have to go back and do a re-write of their product, even though I was using the free version, it looks like their paid for version also had the same problem. This is a shame as I had used AVG for years. Right now I am using PC Tools firewall and virus checker, but will have a look at Avast now that you have mentioned it. Also talking about firewalls, I used to use Zone Alarm but that hit snags in Vista. Apparently windows defender clashed with it. Those problems might have been fixed now, but its put me right off it. Just glad to have my PC up and running again. Thanks for the advice.

Gerryh

When you go to the Avast page be sure to click the Free software tab for the home edition which is FREE. They do require an annual registration but this is no big deal. When your yearly subscription is about to run out you will be prompted to renew, takes about 2 minutes. That's it!