WinXP Boot Screen Mishap

NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
edited December 2003 in Hardware
My brother decided to change his boot screen and in the process of doing so, has managed to get his computer to not boot period. I really don't know boot sequences at all...nor much about Bios, but if any help could be given as to how to fix this problem without a reinstall of windows, it would be much appreciated. Its an eMachine computer, and goes through just after the white eMachine logo popping up, after that it gives options as to how to load the computer, because the last time didn't work, yadda yadda. If you select any of them, however, the DOS mode stays up and it runs through all the startup items it trys to load, and stops at a system device on screen, but seems to continue through recognizing the keyboard and mouse...then it all stops. So, what's up with it?

Comments

  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Have you tried booting into safe mode and trying to fix it from there? Just push F8 repeatedly after the BIOS is loaded. You should be able to get into safe mode from the screen that comes up. Then your brother should be able to undo what he did.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Safemode doesn't work, it does the same stuff...
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    When your brother did this, did he back up the "ntoskrnl.exe" file (this is what you change if you wanna change the boot screen)?
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Yeah, he backed it up in a different folder, but I can't even get to a command prompt.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I would try to get into the windows recovery console via the windows XP CD and use that to copy the backup over the altered one.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Well, the only problem here would be that the windows CD is not seperate, its part of this whole eMachine reformat cd to restore factory defaults and stuff like that...would I still be able to go about doing this with that CD?
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    This should work:

    Boot from the xp cd. select the recovery console option when it asks

    either copy the file that he backed up to c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe or
    copy the file X:\i386\ntoskrnl.ex_ to c:\windows\system32\ntoskrnl.exe.

    You will need the administrator password to get to the recovery console

    edit::

    Posted this b4 I saw your reply, sry.

    You could try booting from that cd.
    Also, do you have an xp that you could use to boot from?
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I might be able to do what you're saying from the CD I've got shwaip, but the only other XP cd we have in the house is a Dell Windows XP cd...which I've used on my built computer and it works fine. So if anything, that's the closest we have to a true blue XP cd in the house.
  • shwaipshwaip bluffin' with my muffin Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    I don't know if this works with ntfs (should work tho), but you can try taking the HD out of the eMachine, putting it in your pc, and copying the file from the xp cd to the eMachine's HD and then putting it back into his pc.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    That works with NTFS as long as the drive is jumpered as a slave. It cannot be on CS or master.
  • EnverexEnverex Worcester, UK Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Thrax wrote:
    That works with NTFS as long as the drive is jumpered as a slave. It cannot be on CS or master.

    Makes sense that the drive needs to be a slave so that it doesn't try and boot from it, but why not cable select? Just to save the hassle?
  • LeonardoLeonardo Wake up and smell the glaciers Eagle River, Alaska Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Sounds like it's time for a "repair" installation of windows, unless you find hours of troubleshooting more fun. (Sometimes it is more fun.)
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Enverex wrote:
    Makes sense that the drive needs to be a slave so that it doesn't try and boot from it, but why not cable select? Just to save the hassle?

    CS doesn't work like it should when you have two drives with primary partitions and MBRs. Things tend to be rather random. It's screwy.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited December 2003
    Thanks for all the help guys, he decided to clean everything off anyway...oh well. I think its great the amount of response you get on these boards, even if it is only 4 people, its nice to know you guys take time out of your day to actually think about someone else's problem. Gimme your addresses so I can send you x-mas gifts, :P
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