Updating WinXP Pro: no taskbar or icons

On 10/26/2011 10:48 AM, Ian Wade G3NRW wrote:

___Original Message_________________________________________
From: John John MVP
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 Time: 08:32:49

Boot to Safe Mode with Networking and run the command from there.

I wish I could do that, but Windows refuses to run in Safe w/Networking
Mode because it isn't activated yet. It tells me to boot in Normal mode
to do the activation, but that's what just doesn't work.

Or do you know of any workaround to let me activate Windows when in Safe
w/Networking Mode?

You will have to call and activate by phone.

What do you mean by "Updating WinXP Pro on a machine which was
successfully installed earlier, using the exact same WinXP disk and the
exact same hardware as before."

Is this a clean installation with a disk format or is it an in-place
(repair) install?

If you ask me something went wrong during the installation, if it's a
clean installation I would scrap it and start again from scratch.

John

___Original Message_________________________________________
From: John John MVP
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 Time: 11:43:01

You will have to call and activate by phone.

I have done that before, a long time ago on another machine. As I recall
the phone-in process will give me some numbers/letters that I have to
enter into an Activation box somewhere. But in the current machine
state, I won't be able to enter *anything* into the system (except in
Safe Mode).

What do you mean by "Updating WinXP Pro on a machine which was
successfully installed earlier, using the exact same WinXP disk and the
exact same hardware as before."

Is this a clean installation with a disk format or is it an in-place
(repair) install?

I didn't want to muddy the waters with lots of superfluous detail, but
the sequence of events is summarized thus:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Machine working fine for a long time (~2 years).

2. A few days ago tried to update from AVG9 to AVG2012. Update
apparently went smoothly until the next reboot. Thereafter, each time
the machine was rebooted, it only ran normally for about 10-20 seconds,
then it spontaneously rebooted.

3. In Safe Mode, removed all traces of AVG9 and AVG2012.

4. On rebooting, the machine still only ran in Normal mode for about
10-20 seconds before rebooting.

5. Went back to an earlier Recovery point, but the symptoms remained.

6. Repeated Step 5, to an even earlier Recovery point. Same again.

7. Decided to do a Windows Repair (in-place install). This required
several attempts, because the machine hung indefinitely in the final
9-minute Registration phase each time. (A known bug, apparently). On the
final attempt, the repair ran smoothly (having made no changes to
anything between the attempts).

8. Machine rebooted into Normal Mode as expected. Logged in (OK), then
discovered I could not do *anything*, because of the absence of taskbar,
icons, Start button etc. Which is where I started this thread.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you ask me something went wrong during the installation

Agreed. The "9-minute" hang period that actually lasted several hours
(overnight in one attempt) indicates to me that something was seriously
wrong, yet the final attempt went through without a hitch, following the
exact procedure as earlier.

, if it's a clean installation I would scrap it and start again from
scratch.

That was my inclination right at the start. Problem is, the machine
isn't mine, and the owner didn't want to lose several programs installed
under C:\Program Files. I made backups of everything, including the
registry, once I realized there was a problem, and I guess I could
(eventually ...) recover everything if I did a clean Windows install.

Quick question: (If I remember correctly) I can do a clean install
either by allowing the installation to create/format a brand new C:
partition, or by installing into the existing C: partition. If the
latter, will the C: drive be blown away completely, or will the folder
structure and any non-Windows files therein be retained?

Ian

On 10/26/2011 1:25 PM, Ian Wade G3NRW wrote:

___Original Message_________________________________________
From: John John MVP
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 Time: 11:43:01

You will have to call and activate by phone.

I have done that before, a long time ago on another machine. As I recall
the phone-in process will give me some numbers/letters that I have to
enter into an Activation box somewhere. But in the current machine
state, I won't be able to enter *anything* into the system (except in
Safe Mode).

What do you mean by "Updating WinXP Pro on a machine which was
successfully installed earlier, using the exact same WinXP disk and
the exact same hardware as before."

Is this a clean installation with a disk format or is it an in-place
(repair) install?

I didn't want to muddy the waters with lots of superfluous detail, but
the sequence of events is summarized thus:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Machine working fine for a long time (~2 years).

2. A few days ago tried to update from AVG9 to AVG2012. Update
apparently went smoothly until the next reboot. Thereafter, each time
the machine was rebooted, it only ran normally for about 10-20 seconds,
then it spontaneously rebooted.

3. In Safe Mode, removed all traces of AVG9 and AVG2012.

4. On rebooting, the machine still only ran in Normal mode for about
10-20 seconds before rebooting.

I suspect that the AVG filter driver remained in place and that with AVG
gone this filter driver caused the machine to reboot. When these kind
of spontaneous reboots happen you can disable Automatic Restart on
System Failure at the F8 Advanced Boot Menu and rather that rebooting
the machine will halt at the BSOD and you may be able to get relevant
information from the bugcheck error message. You can also look in the
Event Log and see if you can get information about reboot and the
bugcheck error message.

5. Went back to an earlier Recovery point, but the symptoms remained.

6. Repeated Step 5, to an even earlier Recovery point. Same again.

7. Decided to do a Windows Repair (in-place install). This required
several attempts, because the machine hung indefinitely in the final
9-minute Registration phase each time. (A known bug, apparently). On the
final attempt, the repair ran smoothly (having made no changes to
anything between the attempts).

8. Machine rebooted into Normal Mode as expected. Logged in (OK), then
discovered I could not do *anything*, because of the absence of taskbar,
icons, Start button etc. Which is where I started this thread.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you ask me something went wrong during the installation

Agreed. The "9-minute" hang period that actually lasted several hours
(overnight in one attempt) indicates to me that something was seriously
wrong, yet the final attempt went through without a hitch, following the
exact procedure as earlier.

, if it's a clean installation I would scrap it and start again from
scratch.

That was my inclination right at the start. Problem is, the machine
isn't mine, and the owner didn't want to lose several programs installed
under C:\Program Files. I made backups of everything, including the
registry, once I realized there was a problem, and I guess I could
(eventually ...) recover everything if I did a clean Windows install.

Quick question: (If I remember correctly) I can do a clean install
either by allowing the installation to create/format a brand new C:
partition, or by installing into the existing C: partition. If the
latter, will the C: drive be blown away completely, or will the folder
structure and any non-Windows files therein be retained?

When you clean install you format the drive and everything on the drive
is lost. When you do an in-place upgrade (aka repair install) Windows
is installed atop the existing installation and most everything will be
kept, this is what you did. The other option that I think you might be
thinking of is a parallel install, that is when you keep everything as
it is but install a separate new copy of the operating system in a
different folder, by default Windows XP creates and installs itself in
the WINDOWS directory, in a parallel installation you would instruct
Windows to install in a different folder, like Windows2. Parallel
installations are really only used as last ditch measures to try to work
on the failed Windows installation or to salvage files. Because of the
shared folders these parallel installations can be very problematic and
difficult to maintain, I strongly advise against these installations
except as last ditch recovery attempts.

How to perform an in-place upgrade (reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978788

This is pretty well the same for Windows XP:

What an in-place Windows 2000 upgrade changes and what it does not change
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/306952

At this stage you can keep on trying to fix the borked machine but my
feeling is that the installation may be damaged beyond repair, you will
have to decide when to cut your losses. You can use an imaging program
to create an image of the current installation and keep a copy of the
image on another drive then do a clean install of the operating system.

John

On 10/26/2011 2:28 PM, John John MVP wrote:

On 10/26/2011 1:25 PM, Ian Wade G3NRW wrote:

___Original Message_________________________________________
From: John John MVP
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 Time: 11:43:01

You will have to call and activate by phone.

I have done that before, a long time ago on another machine. As I recall
the phone-in process will give me some numbers/letters that I have to
enter into an Activation box somewhere. But in the current machine
state, I won't be able to enter *anything* into the system (except in
Safe Mode).

What do you mean by "Updating WinXP Pro on a machine which was
successfully installed earlier, using the exact same WinXP disk and
the exact same hardware as before."

Is this a clean installation with a disk format or is it an in-place
(repair) install?

I didn't want to muddy the waters with lots of superfluous detail, but
the sequence of events is summarized thus:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
1. Machine working fine for a long time (~2 years).

2. A few days ago tried to update from AVG9 to AVG2012. Update
apparently went smoothly until the next reboot. Thereafter, each time
the machine was rebooted, it only ran normally for about 10-20 seconds,
then it spontaneously rebooted.

3. In Safe Mode, removed all traces of AVG9 and AVG2012.

4. On rebooting, the machine still only ran in Normal mode for about
10-20 seconds before rebooting.

I suspect that the AVG filter driver remained in place and that with AVG
gone this filter driver caused the machine to reboot. When these kind of
spontaneous reboots happen you can disable Automatic Restart on System
Failure at the F8 Advanced Boot Menu and rather that rebooting the
machine will halt at the BSOD and you may be able to get relevant
information from the bugcheck error message. You can also look in the
Event Log and see if you can get information about reboot and the
bugcheck error message.

PS.

In Safe Mode these filter drivers become Phantom Devices. You can find
and remove them, see here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315539

John

___Original Message_________________________________________
From: John John MVP
Date: Wed, 26 Oct 2011 Time: 14:28:28

[Lots of useful information snipped]

Everything you say makes very good sense. I will follow up your
recommendations and report back.

Many thanks for your help.

Ian