[Yusaku]

Hi all,

I'm a newbie to the Mac world but I've ran across a weird Win xp bootup issue ever since I installed it under bootcamp 1.2 on my Macbook Pro. Win xp pro would crash at least 33% of the time on boot up. The computer would log in and show the desktop and then all of a sudden reboot itself for no reason(and make that macbook jingle of course). Sometimes this would happen twice or 3 times in a row before windows actually starts up successfully.

I tried searching everywhere online with little information on how to solve it. But through random trial and error I discovered at after I switched Win xp's default desktop theme to "windows classic" theme on the display properties, the boot up problem disappeared. It's been more than a week since I switched to windows classic theme and I have not had a failed boot thus far.

I'm not sure if this is a sure fix, but I thought I'd post my experience here and hope it might help others who may have a similar problem. It's a very simple thing to do and might be worth a try.

[ghporter]

Welcome to the MacNN Forums!!

What you stumbled on is not so much a fix as evidence that something went wrong with your XP installation. Apparently your desktop theme had something in it that, 1/3 or so of the time, crashed XP. You could certainly try a repair reinstallation (which will NOT remove or overwrite anything but Windows files, and will preserve both your documents and programs) to see if your original desktop (which I'm assuming was the default XP desktop) starts working properly.

[Lev]

I also have XP crashed after a few months working flawlessly ( crashed due to Fusion VM ).

I can select partition ( Mac, XP or CD ). But if I select XP or CD, my keyboard input is disabled. So I can't boot from XP CD to try to recover; neither could I try to select last Normal configuration.

I'm running original Bootcamp 1.02.

Thanks in Advance!

[Cold Warrior]

If you can't boot from the windows xp install disc at all, you may have to run boot camp to 'restore' your mac's HD, thus wiping your windows xp install, and then running boot camp again to recreate a windows partition. From there, reinstall windows xp. I'd just update to Boot Camp 1.3b before restoring and repartitioning, just to make sure you're running the latest tool.

[ghporter]

I agree. An inaccessible partition is worthless to you, so using the Boot Camp Utility to restore the drive to a single partition and starting over is a good option. However, if you have data on that partition, it would be a good thing to remember that OS X CAN read either NTFS or FAT32 partitions, so you can copy your important data from the Windows partition and then do the dirty work to rebuild your Windows installation.

[Lev]

thanks guys. I'd hate to give up on the partition. I'll play with it more. If I find a way to get it working - I'll update this thread. If you hear something before me, please post as well. I've seen a few messages on the boards where VMWare crashed like this, I expect we'll hear more...

[cf7]

Originally Posted by Lev 

I also have XP crashed after a few months working flawlessly ( crashed due to Fusion VM ).

I can select partition ( Mac, XP or CD ). But if I select XP or CD, my keyboard input is disabled. So I can't boot from XP CD to try to recover; neither could I try to select last Normal configuration.

I'm running original Bootcamp 1.02.

Thanks in Advance!

I've got a corrupt system file on my Windows partition at the moment (WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll) and have also been having trouble booting from my XP Installation CD due to not being able to use the keyboard. I've found out that it does in-fact work, but only once every dozen times or so

I find it finds the keyboard mostly when you start clicking a key (I use the 'a' key for no particular reason) when the screen goes black after you select the CD from the boot menu and until the 'click any key to boot from CD' message goes away. It's annoying, but should still be worth a try... well lots actually.

As Cold Warrior suggested, you should probably get Boot Camp 1.3b (that's what I'm using by the way, as well as Parallels 3 using the Boot Camp partition) and also backup any important files onto you Mac side like ghporter said, but you should be doing that anyway

BTW: If anyone knows any other methods for fixing a corrupt hal.dll file that isn't described in the first 7 resolutions from this page: Missing Hal.dll - Missing Or Corrupt Hal.dll Error Message in Windows XP - Fix Hal.dll
(not even a clean reinstall seemed to work for more than a day! ), please tell me, as I am finding this to be quite a problem

[ghporter]

cf7, WELCOME!

The hal.dll file is one of a number of installation-specific files. Windows' installer is supposed to choose the correct HAL (hardware abstraction layer) for your hardware and then install the appropriate version of hal.dll to interface between Windows and the hardware. This process works 99.99999% of the time. When it doesn't, it's often caused by something incredibly simple: a dirty CD. Really. The Windows installer is jam packed with incredible technology-but it isn't smart enough to tell you when it thinks it made a mistake (this is sometimes written in a log file somewhere, but that's awfully hard to find), or worse yet, when it can't correctly copy or create essential files. It just lets you think it got it right and go on your merry way.

If you bought this disc specifically for your Mac, I suggest a two-step approach to a resolution. First, clean the living snot out of the data side of that disc! It should be mirror bright and free of anything even remotely resembling a fingerprint or smudge. Once it's clean, try to install Windows again-you may be very pleasantly surprised. This has apparently been a real life (and sanity) saver for a lot of people. However, if this step fails, TAKE THE DISC BACK TO WHERE YOU BOUGHT IT and demand a replacement disc. I'll point out that there are a number of U.S. retailers who will balk at replacing a disc, but if you can show them that the disc just will not work, they usually relent. Being firm but remaining calm is the key here.

Finally, if you (like many people) are using a slipstreamed XP install disc (inserting SP2 this way, or maybe even some software), then you probably need to burn a new disc. I have had issues with slipstreamed XP discs on basic PC hardware because of the disc's file structure or just a bad burn, so it's quite easy to imagine a burning goof turning into a bad install.

[cf7]

Thanks for the reply

I was starting to wonder if it was something to do with the disc, as the first time I installed Windows using it (mid March this year), but all subsequent attempts at reinstalling with it have resulted in that file being corrupt after the first restart.

I'll try cleaning the disc, as that seems the most likely cause at the moment from what you said, and see how it goes.

If that doesn't work though, I can easily get a new disc from TAFE tonight as I'm signed up for the MSDNAA (Microsoft Developers Network... um... Association Alliance? I think that's it... trust Microsoft to have long, hard-to-remember acronyms for things ). So the AU$50 (~US$42.29) I spent to sign up for that basically allows me to burn a ton of MS software (including the OS, but not the Office Suite) from the TAFE's servers & get the activation keys from the head of the IT department (no needing to call MS ).

[Lev]

In VmWare fusion ( the one that messed up my bootcamp to begin with ), XP was crashing but receiving keystrokes. So, from the Windows boot menu, I chose - "invoke last known good configuration". That fixed the native bootcamp ( the VM now boots to login screen but there is no keyboard or mouse there - who cares though... )

The other thing that I think might have worked was to select install Windows from bootcamp ( without formatting the drive ), then I'd hope it would be able to overwrite drivers to the point where it would read the CD. Then I could have run repair from the CD.

Hope this helps.

[tabbyappleton]

Hi all!

I'm having a similar problem and was hoping to get some advice.

In, let's say April, I installed XP with bootcamp. It ran perfectly up until this morning. Today when I went to start in XP it did a disk check, at the end it said it amended 4 files (or something like that) then when XP launched, it ran for about 30 seconds before restarting and booting back to OSX. Every time i launch Windows now it does this same routine: check disk, 30-second run, restart to OSX.

Could the check disk have done something? like 'amended' some boot camp file that was needed?
I really didn't use XP for much at all and never made any real changes to it. It's sole purpose was so I could play Oblivion for a few hours to break up the working day! And I remember installing XP and boot camp was such a process that I'd rather not go through that again.

How would I do the 'repair reinstallation' that was mentioned earlier, if that is a good solution?

Thanks!

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by tabbyappleton 

Hi all!

I'm having a similar problem and was hoping to get some advice.

In, let's say April, I installed XP with bootcamp. It ran perfectly up until this morning. Today when I went to start in XP it did a disk check, at the end it said it amended 4 files (or something like that) then when XP launched, it ran for about 30 seconds before restarting and booting back to OSX. Every time i launch Windows now it does this same routine: check disk, 30-second run, restart to OSX.

Could the check disk have done something? like 'amended' some boot camp file that was needed?
I really didn't use XP for much at all and never made any real changes to it. It's sole purpose was so I could play Oblivion for a few hours to break up the working day! And I remember installing XP and boot camp was such a process that I'd rather not go through that again.

How would I do the 'repair reinstallation' that was mentioned earlier, if that is a good solution?

Thanks!

I'll put money on your not having a great antivirus-or at least not being careful about where you surf. This sounds like the classic symptoms of a trojan horse or similar malware being installed on your computer. A repair install is a possible fix (just put in the CD and run the installation program again), but since it's supposed to be nondestructive, it may leave the culprit untouched.

First, get a couple of spyware scanners. Spybot S&D is a good one to start with. Set it to look for everything, and then scan the living stuff out of your Windows installation and let Spybot take as long as it wants to scan everything. It will identify all sorts of relatively benign stuff, but it will also find a lot of other crapware if it's there. Have Spybot clean up everything it can, then follow up with something else, such as Ad-Aware, another good product. Oh, and if you ARE running an antivirus program, update it and run a full scan. Then download another antivirus product, turn off the first one, and again scan the stuff out of the installation. While it's not good to run two antivirus products at the same time, running one scan after another's scan will be helpful because sometimes the bad guys manage to actually hack the antivirus software. They can't hack what they didn't know about when they infected your computer, so that makes the secondary scan very effective.

[tabbyappleton]

Thanks for the reply ghporter.

I tried spybot and adware updated scans in safe mode. I also tried mcafee and trend micro housecall online on both the XP partition and my Mac one. Besides a few tracking cookies, nothin'. I've never used XP to access the web, and I don't think I've even set up it's network connection, so I guess it's pretty safe. The only progress I made is now the disk check doesn't run before Windows starts...
I'm bummed. i don't really know what it could be. Like I said, I honestly use XP for NOTHING besides that one game. So there are no other installed programs and no web history and no tweaking or anything. I don't know why it's crashing everytime now when it worked flawlessly before.

Oh well, thanks for the help. Guess I'll just reincorporate that partition back to my Mac in a week or so when I've officially given up on it... and never look back at Windows again. What rubbish.

[ghporter]

I wouldn't give up right now. If you're NEVER connected to the Internet, then what you're seeing could be a corrupted file that happened during installation (XP's installer does not test file writes, so it could have hiccuped and screwed up a file that is not used terribly frequently. Unlike OS X, XP is built on a mesh of different files that interact; that makes it less resilient when something bad happens to one file.

Try the reinstall route before you give up-and CLEAN THE CD THOROUGHLY before you start.

Good luck!

[jrh072]

Originally Posted by Yusaku 

Hi all,

I'm a newbie to the Mac world but I've ran across a weird Win xp bootup issue ever since I installed it under bootcamp 1.2 on my Macbook Pro. Win xp pro would crash at least 33% of the time on boot up. The computer would log in and show the desktop and then all of a sudden reboot itself for no reason(and make that macbook jingle of course). Sometimes this would happen twice or 3 times in a row before windows actually starts up successfully.

I tried searching everywhere online with little information on how to solve it. But through random trial and error I discovered at after I switched Win xp's default desktop theme to "windows classic" theme on the display properties, the boot up problem disappeared. It's been more than a week since I switched to windows classic theme and I have not had a failed boot thus far.

I'm not sure if this is a sure fix, but I thought I'd post my experience here and hope it might help others who may have a similar problem. It's a very simple thing to do and might be worth a try.

I found this posting after Googling "Macbook Pro Boot Camp Windows Crashes"- I thought I'd better throw in my experience. I'm running XP Pro on a MacBook Pro T7600 2.33, 2GB. I have had trouble from the start with occasional windows crashes on startup. After logging in, while windows loads, the computer just stops and restarts- no BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death), no errors. I noticed that many times I will have just tried to bring my computer out of suspend mode only to have it chime and start up as if it were previously shut down. This just happened again after a couple of weeks of trouble free use.

I had previously tried just about every toubleshooting method under the sun, including uninstalling anti-virus, firewall programs etc. with no success. I noticed on another posting elsewhere that uninstalling the display adapter in safe mode would sometimes fix the issue. Although that did help me on one occasion, here's what has always worked for me when this happens:

1. Restart in safe mode. Uninstall display adapter driver in the Device Manager (Radeon X1600).
2. Shut down Macbook, remove battery. (maybe not necessary: hit the power button to discharge any power remaining in capacitors). Replace battery and start back up. Problem gone!

I don't really understand how this could fix a startup problem, but it does work! Maybe someone else can shed some light on this? It almost seems that a device could be some type of data error loop running that is killed when full system power is lost when the battery is removed (just s stab in the dark). Anyone?

Hope this helps some others that have this mysterious problem!

Justin

[ghporter]

Originally Posted by jrh072 

Hope this helps some others that have this mysterious problem!

Justin

So do I.

Does this sound like a "PRAM Reset" type action to anyone else? (Yes, I know it's not called that on Intel Macs, but the concept is still there.)

[arjunM]

I have the same problem except I'm using Vista.

It seems to happen when I restart from OSX and boot directly into Vista, instead of Shutting down OSX.
However for me, once it boots into Windows, reboots again, goes into Windows the second time, things are okay again.
I think it might have something to do with my USB Hub/some USB devices. I will experiment some more to try and figure out exactly what is causing it as I'm not totally sure.

But my hunch is that it has something to do with my USB drive being plugged in the last time I shut down windows, and if it is unplugged the next time it boots, it causes some kind of problems and reboots on me. So the USB configuration might have to be the same as when it shut down last. Just a guess as I haven't actually had time to play with my system to test it yet.

But I suppose for me the problem isn't as drastic as you guys with XP. For me it only needs to reboot once and things are okay.

[arjunM]

Well I tried what I thought it might be, and it doesn't seem to be affected by the USB device configuration. I thought maybe it was a strange conflict between USB and Video card, but it could be something else. I will try the new Catalyst 7.6 drivers next.

[psherman]

Same problem: MacBook Pro (T2600 @ 2.16), Windows XP SP2, Bootcamp 1.3 (recent install), crashes after desktop displays: reboots to black screen (Windows default). Have to power down and restart. Sometimes it happens several times in a row. I thought it was the USB configuration too, but can't be sure. Will update thread if I can reproduce it. I was getting ready to sell my old PC. I wonder if I should keep it for a backup.

[psherman]

I think I have figured it out. I run Avast! antivirus. It has a "Test memory during application start-up" feature. Since I turned it off I haven't had any crashes. Was anyone else running Avast!?