I have a very peculiar problem with my XP Home edition (SP2)

After a jam and a hard reboot, the system doesn't load the system services. Resulting in almost a complete infuctionability of the system and programs like firewall and anti-virus.

I've tried to reboot after playing with the msconfig, but the system never boots normally, always leaving most of the services not started. (and they cannot be started manually) No error messages appear, and I cannot even start the windows help. Most programs just simply not start, without any error message whatsoever. If I try to start the XP firewall it says: [Cannot show the settings of the firewall because the required services have not been loaded... ] Not even copying/moving of files is possible.

I'm reaching out for some help, because I cannot seem to find anything similar on the net. Doing a system repair is not very nice, and I'm not sure if it would help, so pleaze help someone... (and tell me it's not a dirty virus)

Cheers! - Petter

Have you tried booting into Safe Mode and doing a System Restore to before the point when you had the crash?
Always worth a go.

A system repair is relatively easy operation to do.
Just a case of booting to an XP CD and following the install path. Just before it starts reinstalling there's an option to do a repair (NOT recovery console).
Select this and it will rebuild XP without looseing any of your personnal settings and data.

For this option to work you need a normal XP CD, NOT a recovery disc as this WILL wipe your system

I tried booting into safe mode, but this didn't help.

I've never done a repair before, will I have to reinstall all my software?

I would also be very interested in knowing what in the world has happened to the system to make it act like it does. But answering this can be quite difficult I guess. Still I have a feeling that the error might be just some small thing in a file somewhere, that the crach caused.

Thanks for your help Curlyben, I'll try the system repair.

- Petter

BTW, I tried to do a system restore (when windows starts). Unfortunately the windows restore program doesn't run either (And I cannot remember if I created a restore point lately). Where can I see all the restore points that have been created?

Here's some help with a system repair (http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm).
And another (http://www.techspot.com/vb/topic8356.html)
Last one, probably the easiest to read (http://www.help2go.com/Tutorials/Windows/How_To_Repair_XP_and_Avoid_a_Full_Reinstall.html)
Please read it all before you start.

With a repair all you settings and data will be saved and you don't have to reinstall anything.
This is some times known as an inplace rebuild.

Okay...

I've run in to some more problems now.

From the whole beginning and some time back windows has not been able to view CD-rom contents. (Claiming that a black CD-RW disk is inserted no matter what CD I insert) But it hasn't had any problems viewing DVD:s (starngely enough). The drive is a DVD/CD-RW Combo. Now the problem persists, which causes even more problems because I cannot load the windows CD to do the repair.

I thought that the problem was only with windows (since I read something similar due to problems with services as well), but the computer doesn't seem to boot from a bootable CD of any kind. I've read some about similar problems with booting from CD:s and I have tried all the different possible solutions concerning BIOS (except flashing). Is it possible that the problem lies in the hardware? That the DVD works, but not the CD? Can anyone think of a possible solution for repairing XP. Perhaps by booting from USB and copying the install files from the XP CD? Unfortunately the computer doesn't have a floppy drive that I could easily boot from.

Thanks - Petter

Have you tried running a CD Lens cleaning disc through your system first.
Always worth a try.

Nope...

Unfortunately I don't have one... and can't think of any place where I could buy one. I read something about some drives causing ultra thin cables to work their way out which causes problems with reading CD:s or DVD:s... don't know if this only goes for some models with two lenses or what.

Do you think I could try cleaning the lens with some ultra-fine-fibre cloth made fot cleaning photographic lenses? Or would that make the drive completely useless?

Anyhow I think I will give it a try...