help! i can only boot in safe mode

[rektek]

when i saw the "found new hardware" balloon after plugging in my friends usb-stick i was very sceptical about letting it install anything (as i am almost always very cautious installing anything)
to my horror, the computer will now stall at the windows logo everytime i turn it on, and i am only able to actually boot up in safe mode.

i uninstalled the driver (in: add remove programs) for that damned usb-key, but the problem still persists.

i should also note that when booting in safe mode, it stalls for about a minute only, but at the file: GIVEIO.SYS (in sys32 folder)

can anyone offer some advice?
is there another way to completely remove all of the usb stick files and drivers?

or should i delete the GIVEIO.SYS driver manually?

thanx

[Golden Dragoon]

http://www.neuber.com/taskmanager/pr...iveio.sys.html

http://www.file.net/process/giveio.sys.html

These two links may give you a clue as to what it is, I personaly think it is a part of Speed Fan, or mbm, so removing either of these programs (if you have them) in safe mode may well help.

[rektek]

well i read those links (thanx) and uninstalled speedfan and MBM (even though i already had them installed forawhile and they cause the problem)

unfortunately it did not fix the issue

can i just delete the giveio file in explorer?

[rektek]

also,

is there any way i can "UNDO" the last thing i installed in the computer?

or some sort of registry history or something?

[DougMcDonald]

What seems a little strange to me with your situation is that a usb key needed drivers. What OS are you running?

From thr 'foung new hardware' bubble you describe I would have assumed it was XP; in that case, you shouldn't really need drivers for a usb key, unless you are talking about an old motherboard and installing the USB drivers themselves.

Have you used other USB devices before this without any probems?

One solution to your situation, albeit a little extreme, would be to acquire another HDD from somewhere, switch your existing one and set it to slave, then install windows on the new drive, boot successfully, then then copy off anything you want to keep (onto the new drive).

You could then format and re-install windows on your original drive and mount the new drive as a slave, and copy back the things you wanted to keep. You could then return the second drive (if borrowed )

This does of course rely on the problem being software based, if it is related to the fan or something else hardware based, this would not solve the problem.

[Supershanks]

Don't u get the option to restore to last config that worked assuming your using xp

[DougMcDonald]

You can get to certain restore options, but it depends on you having them turned on or not in windows, you should be able to find them in something like:

Start>Accessories>System Tools>System Restore

At a long shot, you could boot from your windows cd, which should be able to take you into the 'setup' type options. It will detect and existing copy of windows and there should be an option to 'repair' the install (again only if its a software based problem)

I'm not sure how effective the windows repair would be, could be worth a pop if you're running out of ideas though

[Supershanks]

I'm talking about windows startup menu. normally if xp fails to load it comes up with the start menu which shows safe mode etc., plus the option i mentioned. if this menu doesn't appear pressing[f6] brings it up.

By default system restore is active so unless rektek has disabled it it should be there.

[rektek]

thanx to everyone for helping!
seriously appreciate it

so ive tried unplugging everything usb and booting but there was no difference.

i have also thought about the fact that IT COULD BE something AFTER the GIVEIO driver (but i cannot see what it is) maybe ill try disabling it in device manager.
and if that doesnt work: is there any way of finding out the sequence of the drivers installing upon bootup?

i should also mention that this is my audio DAW computer and it is heavily tweaked for performance (turned off many services including auto system restore etc..) however it has been stable for years until now.

also, the newest discovery is that even in normal mode, the computer WILL BOOT but it takes like 10 minutes! (while in windows logo with load-bar)

and now i noticed that my second hard drive is not showing up in 'my computer' could that be related?

[Lucio]

Best thing to do is System Restore, seriously.

Simply go to Start -> Run and type in restore, then run rstrui.exe in the folder that pops up. Select a date about a week before you used the USB stick.

[rektek]

lucio, my system restore is disabled and has been for years

[Golden Dragoon]

Best thing to do is System Restore, seriously.

Simply go to Start -> Run and type in restore, then run rstrui.exe in the folder that pops up. Select a date about a week before you used the USB stick.

He has it turned off.

i should also mention that this is my audio DAW computer and it is heavily tweaked for performance (turned off many services including auto system restore etc..) however it has been stable for years until now.

[acrobat]

The second hard drive could have died. Windows not being able to detect the drive properly could cause windows to take longer to boot up. You could try checking all the leads are still plugged into it ok, and they haven't popped off. If they are and it still doesn't boot properly, you could try unplugging the disk, or disable it in your bios. Then boot on your main disk as usual and see if that helps.

I think personally if I was having this problem though, and I couldn't do a system restore, I would back up all my important stuff, and reformat the main disk and reinstall windows on it. Its a hassle that, but it lets you know if all your hardware is working ok, or if it was a software issue that was causing the problems. If you can get your second disk working, and its big enough, you could hopefully back up any important stuff from your main disk onto that one. Then reinstalling windows you could do in an evening, and then just copy your stuff back across.

If you where to back up onto the second disk by the way, it might be worth running a disk check on it first. You can get stuff like "HD Tune" for free, which can run an error check on a disk for you.

[Lucio]

He has it turned off.

Ahh didn't see that part

Anyhow, alternatives to system restore are doing a repair installation of XP or if you're really stuck, it might be worth getting a copy of System Mechanic from www.zonelabs.com. Tends to help out in fixing problems with the registry.

[rektek]

well it seems like my second hard drive (data/audio) is dead?

i cant access it anywhere.

is there a way to know for sure?

[rektek]

i had a problem one time (virus maybe) which made it look like i had no optical drives installed.
but they were there and working (opening closing) it was just hat windows could not see them.

i want to make sure this is not the case with the hard drive as there is alot of data on there i would really not want to loose.

is there any way of knowing the drive is dead for sure?