Help!!!

sounds like something has been added to your config.sys file to make it reboot.

What have you installed lately? If anything, try uninstalling it.

Downloaded anything? delete it.

 

you may have to wipe and reinstall, bro. I don't know any other suggestions

 

Tim,

Take a look HERE

 

Just some thoughts:

Have you let it cycle through reboots a few times in a row?

Do you have a disk in a drive?

Can you get into setup and see if anything looks strange? (When just starting up tap delete key - if that doesn't work tap F8 if that doesn't work tap F10)


Have you auto updated anything from Microsoft?

Anything spilled on it lately?

Do all keys look normal (any stuck down)?

Does it get up to normal operation or does it reboot before that?

Does it reboot at the same point in the start up cycle each time?

 

Generally if it is a hardware problem, it is going to act the same in normal or safe mode

 

It's really not as daunting as it looks at first glance. If you end up taking it to an expert, give it a try. Print it out first though.

Then if it is still messed up, you can always go ahead and let an expert do it. But you also may earn your first "Geek Star" on your own!

 

you may or may not be able to transfer to an external. Safe mode only loads the bare necessities as far as drivers.

If it recognizes the external in safe mode, you should be able to transfer to it.

 

Have you bought any new music CD's lately? Or, have you listened to any CD's that aren't new, but aren't that old, either? Sony got ripped in the press a few months ago because there were rootkits on their CD's that wound up being installed on computers. It's possible that you have one. In fact, this sounds suspiciously like a rootkit.

That doesn't mean you don't have some sort of malware installed. About a month ago, I got stuck with malware that did nothing but be annoying and I had to go into Safe Mode and run a proggie that got rid of it. My "security suite" hummed along like nothing was going wrong.

MP is right, tim. The thing is, you have nothing to lose here. Your computer already doesn't work right and as long as you follow the instructions as printed, it won't get worse. Of course, you have nothing to fear from a rebuild anyway because your backups are all up-to-date. Right?

Oh, uh, nevermind. I don't think you'll be able to burn anything out of Safe Mode. Most hardware doesn't work in Safe Mode.

I'm not sure whether USB is enabled or not in Safe Mode. But, ultimately, it doesn't matter because there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Let's say that the issue isn't kernel32. Let's say that you have a rootkit and the only way to get rid of it is to wipe and reload. This is a plausible scenario, btw. You groan, "Oh no, I'll lose all my files!" :tear:

Not so fast, my friend.

Take your handy XP CD, pop it in the drive and restart your laptop. Now, install another copy of XP. Instead of C:\Windows, install it to C:\WinXP. Don't go through the activation process. The point of this installation is to pull your files off the system, then wipe it. Now, install your CD burning program and make your backups.

Don't forget to backup your email!
And your bookmarks too.

Once you have everything backed up, then you can install WinXP and wipe the drive.

You may want to do this before trying any work with the Recovery Console. Your call, but as long as you follow the printed instructions to the letter, there's little chance of wiping out the partition. If so, and if kernel32 is the culprit and you fix it, boot to C:\Windows and just delete C:\WinXP.

If you have more questions about this, send me a pm. I'm setup to receive an email when I get PM'd here, so I'll make sure to check my messages if you have any questions.

 

Hiya Tim,

I would use a flash drive to save your stuff now. I don't think you will get most drives options to work and burn your stuff in safe mode. The flash drive should work though without a problem.

Radio Shack has them on sale this week I think, a 2gig model for $19.99

Jamie

 

I purchased my 4 gig flash drive from Radio Shack for 29.95.

I eventually want to get at least 10 more of these flash drives to carry all my music, documents and important programs.

 

SFIC, just be aware that flash drives do have a limited shelf life. Or, as noted in this Wiki article, they have a limited number of erase-write cycles.

 

While this is true, I wouldn't worry too much about it. No more so than you would worry about your hard drive crashing. I believe the article said something along the lines of in a worse case situation, the lifecycle of a flash drive would be about 51 years? I could have misread it or misunderstood it. Either way I don't think I would worry about the life cycle of a flash drive any more than the life cycle of my hard drive.

Jamie

 

From Wikipedia:

Since I am just around the corner from being 48 years old, I ain't too awful worried about not having music after 51 more years. rofl