Freezing at AGP440.sys

[xant14]

Just wanna run this by you clever people.
I have an old Aldi desktop, bought in 2004 and it struggling to boot up. It has been doing it a while, but now it has become a lot worse.
For a while it has been booting up no problem on a morning, but if I needed to re-boot, it would freeze, unless I left it 10 mins or so.

This has now turned into it not booting at all, only occasionally in safe mode.
In normal mode, it freezes on the windows XP start up screen, with the scrolling bar just stopping.
In safe mode it gets to loading drivers, and stops just after the agp440.sys is displayed. Sometimes it stops dead there, sometimes it hangs for a while, then boots up... in safe mode.

At that point I used to have a text line sometimes come up with 'press esc to stop loading sptd.sys

I have now deleted the command for that in c:\windows\system32\drivers\sptd.exe I think it had something to do with my Alcohol120% virtual drives.

Curious if some of you can shed some light on my problem?

[Mk3 driver]

Try re-copy agp440.sys to system32.

or delete the Video drivers in safe mode, boot into windows normally and let windows re-load the drivers.

[cunny]

If its hanging it could be a i/o error from the hard drive.

Get yourself a copy of windows xp.
Set bios to boot from cd.
At load up screen, enter recovery console.
It will ask what instalation you want to enter, enter correct number, then password if needed.
You will then get a dos prompt.
Type chkdsk_/r (spacebar where _ is)

Hit enter, this will check and repair and bad sectors on the hdd. Its recomended you do this over night as can take a white to do it.

Other than this, backup any info you need to save an delete all partitions, do a low level format and re instal windows as normal.

The reason i said do a low level format is because when you do this, it erases then reads and maps any bad clusters on the hard drive for future writting to the hard drive.

Forgot to mention, could be worth looking at the IDE/SATA lead coming from the hdd inside the tower, this can cause the same and its only 2 mins to replace it

[xant14]

@ cunny.. Don't wanna do a format just yet, I am hoping to get some bits off there, one thing is my Outlook contact book, and possibly a couple of emails I had saved, in a named folder on outlook.
Does anyone know an easy way to do this? barring the export method, just in case I can't get it to boot up again.
Tried for a few hour to boot in normal and safe mode last night to no joy.
I am thinking of buying a ide caddy so that I can explore it on another computer.

@mk3 driver... I have a recovery disc, and it gave me 3 options, #2 was to re-load all drivers. which I did... but still the same m8.

#3 is to do a factory reset.

BTW, I know I highlighted the puter freezing up at agp440.sys... but this is not to say this is the problem.. it could be that the puter has loaded it, and the problem is beyond this. I had the same problem about a year ago.. and I actually bought a new graphics card.

I realise, as Frank says, The end is near, but I was hoping for a few more days till I get everything I need out of it.

[cunny]

@ cunny.. Don't wanna do a format just yet, I am hoping to get some bits off there, one thing is my Outlook contact book, and possibly a couple of emails I had saved, in a named folder on outlook.
Does anyone know an easy way to do this? barring the export method, just in case I can't get it to boot up again.
Tried for a few hour to boot in normal and safe mode last night to no joy.
I am thinking of buying a ide caddy so that I can explore it on another computer.

Chim made a back up program that will back stuff up from outlook, to what extent, i dont know.
Try the chkdsk /r as i stated, other than that it will be a format, or get a new hdd and format it, you will be able to plug the other in as a slave and copy over all info at a later date.

Just doo the chkdsk tonight and see where that gets you.

[xant14]

aye mate... I will try do that. I need to download something to burn my image first, everything was on the main desktop. The xp that i have is still in rar form, and even then dunno if it is virus free or contains free viruses.
New puter time I think... Chim... give us a price on an i5 1Tb jobbie will ya?

[cunny]

aye mate... I will try do that. I need to download something to burn my image first, everything was on the main desktop. The xp that i have is still in rar form, and even then dunno if it is virus free or contains free viruses.
New puter time I think... Chim... give us a price on an i5 1Tb jobbie will ya?

I can send you a copy (without serials of course) and here is the pc i shown you in pm again

Fujitsu Amilo Pi 3635 PC + CASHBACK OFFER - Misco.co.uk

[xant14]

I am surely tempted Cun, only thing putting me off is the Vista OS.
albeit 64 bit.
Aldi are doing another offer this week, not as good a graphics card as the misco one, but I ain't much a gamer anyway.
Aldi one has an i3-530 processor, dunno if this is good or bad tho. I know whatever I buy, it will be better than my 2004 model.

[Reapers]

could be a service problem

1. Insert your Windows XP CD-ROM into the computer CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer from the CD-ROM.
   
   you might need to switch to boot to disk in bios if you dont have it on to allow it to boot.
2. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. Press the number key that corresponds to the installation that you want to repair, and then press ENTER.
4. Type the password for the administrator account of that installation, and then press ENTER. You receive a drive:WINDOWS> prompt, where drive is the drive on which Windows XP is installed.
5. Type listsvc, and then press ENTER.
6. Make sure that the Agp440 service is listed, and that the startup type is set to "Boot".
7. Press ESC.
8. Type disable agp440, and then press ENTER.
9. You receive a message that the registry setting for this service was found, and that its current startup state is "service_disabled".
10. Type exit, and then press ENTER.
11. If you are prompted to start in Safe mode or Normal mode, start in Normal mode.
12. Log on to your computer.

not my idea thank microsoft research is best way to fix pcs : )

[xant14]

could be a service problem

1. Insert your Windows XP CD-ROM into the computer CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive, and then restart your computer from the CD-ROM.
   
   you might need to switch to boot to disk in bios if you dont have it on to allow it to boot.
2. At the Welcome to Setup screen, press R to start the Recovery Console.
3. Press the number key that corresponds to the installation that you want to repair, and then press ENTER.
4. Type the password for the administrator account of that installation, and then press ENTER. You receive a drive:WINDOWS> prompt, where drive is the drive on which Windows XP is installed.
5. Type listsvc, and then press ENTER.
6. Make sure that the Agp440 service is listed, and that the startup type is set to "Boot".
7. Press ESC.
8. Type disable agp440, and then press ENTER.
9. You receive a message that the registry setting for this service was found, and that its current startup state is "service_disabled".
10. Type exit, and then press ENTER.
11. If you are prompted to start in Safe mode or Normal mode, start in Normal mode.
12. Log on to your computer.

not my idea thank microsoft research is best way to fix pcs : )

Cheers Reapers, that is a great reply.
First off, I don't have a XP disc, i only have the original recovery disc, this gave me 3 options basically, I forget the first, 2nd was reset of the drivers, 3rd was factory reset. I opted for number 2.
There was no improvement.

thing to remember is, it might have nothing to do with agp440, it might be that this has loaded up no problem, it might be that this was the last of the drivers to load, and it is waiting for something beyond it.. I don't know.
As i say, i had a problem with the re-boot side of it a while now, if you read my original post it says it struggled when warm basically.
I really do appreciate your reply, but I have decided to scrap it. I have bought a caddy to transfer some stuff off. One thing I would like to save is my Outlook contacts book, and a folder within outlook with some saved emails. I dunno if you have any suggestions how to go about it?
Anyone?
Bill Gates?

[Reapers]

ya backup important stuff just in case

Tutorial on backing up outlook versions if need it

Outlook Backup Tutorial

another tutorial on outlook

How to back up and to restore Outlook Express data

you have another option called auto archive for when your sorted. when setup
it will backup or delete which ever you setup for yours this link will show the basics
on how to setup.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HP052433931033.aspx?pid=CH063564651033

you know the desktop can be still saved all you need is recovery console.

download this

http://www.thecomputerparamedic.com/files/rc.iso

and this

PowerISO - Create, Edit, Extract, Mount, Compress, Encrypt, Split ISO file, ISO/BIN converter, Virtual Drive, DAA

then install poweriso then when thats done mount the image you downloaded go to start then run and type

C:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons

this will install recovery console when installed restart pc when pc boots up select recovery console and do list 2 to 12 : )

[xant14]

Fantastic Reapers, thank you very much, almost midnight here so I have to admit just skimming thru it, but I will look at it in depth in the morning.
Thank you for taking time to post these links. Appreciate it m8.

[cunny]

What version of outlook Xant?

[xant14]

2003 I think, unless it is 2000. Old one anyway.

[cunny]

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/outlook/HA011030811033.aspx

Outlook Backup Tutorial