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Freezing at Startup

1 by Hunter
Founder
So I removed my Radeon and Sound Card today (for selling) and then after starting my computer up, with another graphic card (an old temporary Geforce 3) it froze at the Windows XP Loading screen. I thought "Oh, not this again.."

So I'm at a dead end. I've tried starting it without the graphic card, tried switching on and off various onboard motherboard features but no luck. It's the first time I haven't been able to solve it in a day. Even Windows repair doesn't do anything. It just freezes at the loading screen. It DOES load in safe mode, but not with network support (which I can't understand because I have no network hardware and disabled the onboard lan just incase)...

I don't want to format, I only have two weeks left before moving.. That'd be a bit of a hassle since I have to move 50gb of movies onto a slow external drive (operating at 1.1)

2 by BloodEagle
SG Defender
I don't think safe mode allows networking, since it's a driver thing.

The best solution would be to get another hard disk, and transfer the data through that.


P.P.S. Format FTW.
"Ignorance is the greatest weapon of tyranny, and old wounds open all too easily."

4 by Hunter
Founder
I've got it working, but now XP has deactivated and I can't get into it. I can't use any Key finding programs because they don't work in DOS. So now I'm done for basically. Either I format or spend the next 48 hours copying 50gb of data to a slow USB drive..

AND I REALLY f#####g NEED THE COMPUTER NOW!! OF ALL TIMES!!

Can I install another XP without formatting?

5 by Vasudan Admiral
Elite SG Elder
You can, yeah - just be sure to install it to a different system folder (ie, Windows2) and give yourself a different username to avoid overwriting your main my documents folder.

And as you probably guessed, most of your programs won't work. The couple of times I've had to do something like this, the file system has become very unstable very quickly. (Ie, loading, read&write and overall response times go through the roof, stuff crashes for no apparent reason - that sorta thing.)

So, even after you get the secondary windows installed, you'll still want to backup and do a complete reformat asap.
Twisted Infinities

6 by Matthew
Elite SG Guardian
Did you try putting back the sonuds cards etc you had in it before?

Did you make sure to download proper drivers?

Did you make sure you had your coffee this morning?

7 by Hunter
Founder
I've done it. I managed to repair the original copy and use the original key, all programs and settings are more or less as they were minus a few changes in the hardware setup. :D It was a long battle...

But.. My lovely USB drive is back to 1.1 speed (I had it to 2.0!) :(

9 by Hunter
Founder
Don't really care, this computer will be used by someone else pretty soon. I'm just making sure it works for their needs. My laptop can support my USB drive at full throttle. So perfections are no longer needed.
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