winxp unable to boot - argh I hate windows

My favorite winxp machine has crashed and upon reboot it displays the error:

services.exe can not start

LSASS.exe bad image

and stops. This error is reported all over the net, but the files LSASS.exe and SAMASARV.dll aren't even mentioned on the Microsoft site. I have found no viable solution reading several pages of problems reported but mostly unanswered.

I have tired some fixes, but none of them did anything. So now the only thing left is to a reinstall. However I don't remember what kind of windows was on this machine ie: pro, home, sp1, sp2, oem or upgrade. I have tired several winxp disks I have but all fail in mid reinstall with the error:

catalog missing components

specifically "asms" is the first reported missing, which I take to mean I need a particular disk to reinstall with. Is there any way to discover the original product key I installed with? Is there any way to discover what kind of windows was installed? I was hoping maybe the registry would preserve such information somewhere.

I have what I think was the original i386 folder on the hard drive, but I don't know how to extract any information from that folder. Unfortunately it is possible the i386 folder is from another disk and I just copied it there thinking one was as good as another....apparently not!!

You could try slaving the drive to another PC & run Magic Jellybean. I know it can find the key and it might tell you the specific type of install.
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder/

I would check the RAM.

RJARRRPCGP said:

I would check the RAM.

Click to expand...

First thing I would check as well, especially given the asms error during reinstall.

Windows is officially as dumb as a sack of hammers.

The reason winxp couldn't find its own files on the CD was because after copying files to the hard drive, it rebooted and then promptly forgot what a CD was. The only way to fix this is to reverse the boot order of the actual cables so that the HD is first on the list of things to boot from. It seems Windows by default expects the CD to be 2nd and if it isn't then it doesn't know a CD exists.....absolutely brilliant!!

I spent HOW MANY HOURS trying to solve this puzzle and switching cables fixed it?

............... ARGH ........................

[SOLVED]

orion456 said:

Windows is officially as dumb as a sack of hammers.

Click to expand...

orion456 said:

The reason winxp couldn't find its own files on the CD was because after copying files to the hard drive, it rebooted and then promptly forgot what a CD was. The only way to fix this is to reverse the boot order of the actual cables so that the HD is first on the list of things to boot from. It seems Windows by default expects the CD to be 2nd and if it isn't then it doesn't know a CD exists.....absolutely brilliant!!

I spent HOW MANY HOURS trying to solve this puzzle and switching cables fixed it?

............... ARGH ........................

[SOLVED]

Click to expand...

Wow, glad you got it sorted. What a pita.

orion456 said:

Windows is officially as dumb as a sack of hammers.

The reason winxp couldn't find its own files on the CD was because after copying files to the hard drive, it rebooted and then promptly forgot what a CD was. The only way to fix this is to reverse the boot order of the actual cables so that the HD is first on the list of things to boot from. It seems Windows by default expects the CD to be 2nd and if it isn't then it doesn't know a CD exists.....absolutely brilliant!!


[SOLVED]

Click to expand...

That's a motherboard issue. Not a Microsoft issue.

RJARRRPCGP said:

That's a motherboard issue. Not a Microsoft issue.

Click to expand...

BIOS to be exact

RJARRRPCGP said:

That's a motherboard issue. Not a Microsoft issue.

Click to expand...

How is it a bios issue if the drive was visible to Windows when it initially started the setup and then disappeared after Windows rebooted itself? The BIOS was still presenting the same information as before, so it must be Windows that suddenly decides not to see what it saw before. No?

This isn't some old BIOS/mobo either, its a fairly recent version that is capable of doing quads.