Member Avatar for SomeDharmaBum

Here's the situation:

Installed Windows 7 RC7100 (64-bit) onto its own partition. Needed to setup dual boot. Obtained WinXP Pro 64bit and installed onto new partition. After installation, PC reboots and hangs at the WindowsXP screen for about 15 seconds, then automatically restarts. It WILL NOT boot into Safe + Network, or Last Known Config--ONLY Safe Mode. I have installed chipset, video, and NIC drivers, but this did not solve the problem.

Additionally, Device Manager says Audio Driver/Sound Card is not functioning properly. Tried installing those drivers, but Creative's software states that no compatible sound card can be detected. I completely uninstalled the devices in Device Manager. After booting back into Safe Mode, Windows stated it has "Found New Hardware" (the sound card). Again, Creative installer says it can't detect a card. Not sure if these issues are related....

I am receiving several "Driver Not Loaded" entries in the bootlog, and several system errors in EventViewer. FYI--everything worked fine on the Windows 7 partition.

Specs:

Dell Dimension 5100
Pentium 4 3.0
4 GB 533 Mhz DDR2
Onboard Intel NIC
HIS Radeon HD2600 XT

Thank you in advance for your assistance!
-David

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Only booting into Safe Mode is almost always a driver/service conflict rather than a core Windows corruption. As suggested, first confirm every device driver is the correct 64‑bit build, but follow a methodical isolation sequence so the offending item can be identified instead of guessed.

Enable useful F8 options (from the XP boot menu): disable automatic restart on system failure to catch a STOP code, choose VGA mode to rule out the vendor video driver, and enable boot logging. Inspect C:\Windows\ntbtlog.txt after a failed normal boot and look for non‑Microsoft .sys files that “did not load” or show errors — those filenames point to the vendor driver to target next.

From Safe Mode run msconfig and do a selective startup: on the Services tab check “Hide all Microsoft services” then disable the rest; on Startup disable everything. Reboot normally. If the system comes up, re-enable groups of services/startup items to binary‑search the culprit. Also in Device Manager disable (don’t uninstall yet) nonessential add‑ons — especially the Creative PCI audio and any extra PCI/USB cards — then test normal boots. Because Safe Mode with Networking also fails, the network stack or a network filter driver is a suspect; disable the NIC in Device Manager while in Safe Mode to test that theory.

Additional checks: run chkdsk /r from Recovery Console, run memtest86+ to rule out RAM errors, and run sfc /scannow from the XP x64 CD to repair system files. If a particular .sys driver is named in the boot log or BSOD, search that filename to find the vendor driver/version and either update to an official x64 package or remove the device. If nothing isolates it, try a clean XP x64 reinstall with an integrated service pack (slipstream SP3), apply chipset/BIO S updates first, then add third‑party drivers one at a time. This sequence isolates driver/service conflicts without blind reinstalls.

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Member Avatar for HoustonIT

Try completely disabling the hardware that is throwing out dings in the event viewer. Also, are the drivers for the sound card 64 bit?

Member Avatar for SomeDharmaBum

Try completely disabling the hardware that is throwing out dings in the event viewer. Also, are the drivers for the sound card 64 bit?

Event Viewer is showing only an error with "DCOM". Is this referring to a hardware issue?

The sound card is the Creative Sound Blaster Live! 24-bit internal PCI. I'm downloading the most recent drivers, which state they are both Vista and XP x64 compatible.

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