Member Avatar for ashling

Well I'm assuming it's SP2 anyway. I have a Pentium 4 2.8 running windows XP. I installed service pack 2 without any hitches but upon restarting the computer freezes during the boot screen. The little progress bar thingy (I believe 'thingy' is the technical term) runs through twice before freezing. I've tried booting into safe mode and all it's variants (command prompt and networking) but every time it freezes at the file

agp440.sys

Does anyone have any advice they can offer me? Any advice specfically about fixing this problem would be even better. Though if you have advice on making a really nice cup of tea - well thats groovy too.

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Short summary and root cause notes: the boot hang at "agp440.sys" almost always points at the AGP/video subsystem rather than the XP logo itself — agp440 is the OS AGP filter driver that the video stack relies on. ’s report that SP2 froze even after a clean install fits the classic pattern where the OS loads a chipset/video driver that the installed card/firmware doesn’t like. (pcreview.co.uk)

Quick, low-risk checks to try first (no reinstall yet): remove any CDs/DVDs and unplug nonessential USB devices, try F8 → “Enable low-resolution video (640×480)”, and try Last Known Good Configuration. Also try booting with the AGP card removed and using onboard video (or vice‑versa) if the board supports it — many people get past the hang this way, then reinstall correct vendor drivers. If SP2 introduced DEP-related breakage with old codecs/filters, uninstalling those codecs (DivX/filters) is another common quick step. (learn.microsoft.com)

When the machine won’t reach safe mode, use Recovery Console / WinPE to prevent the AGP driver from loading so Windows can start in plain VGA and you can fix drivers. Two common offline options are shown below — do these only after backing up important files:

(From Recovery Console)
listsvc
disable agp440
ren C:\Windows\System32\drivers\agp440.sys agp440.sys.disabled
exit

Or boot WinPE/installation media, run regedit, File → Load Hive on C:\Windows\System32\config\SYSTEM and change the Services\agp440\Start value to 4 (disabled), then Unload Hive. Both approaches are standard Recovery Console / offline-registry techniques. (learn.microsoft.com)

If Windows boots after those changes: immediately reinstall the correct chipset/graphics drivers from the card or motherboard vendor, run chkdsk, and update BIOS/chipset drivers. If those steps don’t help, a repair install (not a blind format) or hardware diagnostics (RAM, motherboard, disk) are the next practical moves — some hangs are caused by failing disks or unexpected hardware mismatches. Note that and both flagged codec/KB-style compatibility tips earlier; they’re relevant starting points but follow the offline steps above when the system won’t boot. (learn.microsoft.com)

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Member Avatar for DuncanIdaho

Have a look in the sticky post at the top of the forum about SP2, (actually, I'll link it here).

http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread10031.html

The DiVX fix has solved problems for some other issues, (though not all).

Of course, not being able to boot up won't help matters much. :(

Good luck!

Member Avatar for ashling

Thanks for the message. Didn't actually work out as well as I'd like given that I had to format in the end. But thanks for the effort. Oh and as a side note - Installing SP2 after a clean install still caused the problem (freeze at boot. Same file actually) so just adding my tale of woe to the cautionary pile.

Member Avatar for DuncanIdaho

You should add that to the SP2 sticky topic, dlh6213, that's a useful little tip you got. :)

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