winxp pro won't start?

[tekhed]

I tried installing Asound's drivers for their PCI slot Express II soundcard. I had two identical machines, and installed it on one without any problem. This machine I'm having trouble with wouldn't notice the new drivers from the start. It would 'find' the new card at startup, and xp knew exactly what it was, but the device wouldn't work. Ok, so I used device manager to update the drivers from xp to the ones that came with the hardware, from a CD. Well the cd didn't have any winxp 'specific' drivers, so I tried the ones for win2k. Didn't work, but then I remembered I had used the ones for NT4.0 in the pc I didn't have any problems with. After uninstalling and re-installing these drivers 2 or 3 times, the pc seemed to accept everything. Good, so I clicked on the ok button, and the system reset. And reset, and reset . Now all that happens is the system will start and run post/bios, 'Now Loading WINXP' will appear, and just before it gets to the desktop it'll restart again. I have no clue as to whats going on now, and when I try and use the winxp pro disk to recover or something, it tells me 'this program will not run in dos mode'. Go figure. Any tips would be greatly appreciated! Thanks, Mike

[redduc900]

Welcome to the forums tekhed...

You may want to boot into Safe Mode and remove the sound card drivers from there. You can access Safe Mode by restarting your computer and start pressing the F8 key on your keyboard. If your computer is configured for booting to multiple OS's, you can press the F8 key when you see the Boot Menu.

When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, select an option (preferrably Safe Mode (SAFEBOOT_OPTION=Minimal): This option uses a minimal set of device drivers and services to start Windows.

When the Boot menu appears again, and the words "Safe Mode" appear in blue at the bottom, select the installation that you want to start, and then press ENTER.

You could also try using the Recovery Console to disable the drivers...

Start your computer with the Windows boot disks, or with the Windows CD-ROM if your computer supports starting from the CD-ROM drive (from the BIOS, you'll need to set up your CD-ROM as the first boot device).

When the Welcome to Setup dialog box is displayed, press R to repair, and then press C to start the Recovery Console.

Choose to install Windows and log on to your computer with the Administrator account.

From the %SystemRoot%\System32 folder at the command prompt, type listsvc, and then press ENTER.

Locate the service or driver that's causing the problem...in the list that's provided. (If you select the wrong service or device, you may experience more problems).

Type disable <servicename> (where <servicename> is the name of the service), and then press ENTER.

Type exit, and the PC will restart automatically.

I've included a link to a MSKB article which describes the Recovery Console...

Description of the Windows 2000 Recovery Console (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q229716)

...and also how to use the Recovery Console:

HOW TO: Install and Use the Recovery Console in Windows XP (http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q307654) ;)

[tekhed]

Thanks for the warm welcome. However, no dice on the ol' XP problem. Thanks SO MUCH for you help tho. I followed all of those steps, and they helped me understand the machine a bit better, and helped me get a few steps farther. But whenever I start in safe-mode, I get the BSoD for a split second and then it restarts itself. Starting windows any other way will cause the pc to lock-up, and I have to power off from the PSU because the buttons aren't responding. I then used the XP Pro CD-Rom, (which DID boot by the way :p ) and followed the start-up recover steps, as well as disabling ALL drivers for that device. I even physically removed the sound card from the PC (bad idea?). I now am able to get a few seconds pass the "WINDOWS NOW LOADING" screen, and it doesn't restart on me, but it will lock up and be unusable. Thanks again for your help, and let me know if you have any more tips! Thanks, Mike