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Thread ID: 91999 2008-07-25 06:50:00 XP Media Center Problem Driftwood (5551) Press F1
Post ID Timestamp Content User
692046 2008-07-25 06:50:00 Have a HP Pavilion a1555a Media Center here which would only boot up to a black screen with the mouse curser showing.
It would boot to desktop in safe mode, so with the help of speedy, wainuitech & MalwareBytes I was able to get rid of AntiviXP08 & it then booted up fine.
I then tidyed up the system, uninstalled AVG & Nortons, ran Ccleaner etc. I then installed Avast Home & Super Antispyware, done the updates & rebooted. We are now back to the black screen & now it won't start in safe mode. I removed the HD, slaved it to another system & scanned it with Avast home. Got heaps more trojans, spyware, worms & even a virus all from the documents folder. Also scanned it with Antispyware but got nothing else.
Put it back in, still no go. Tryed the HP recovery from the HD partition which only took me to a dos prompt. Ran chkdsk repair which made some changes but didn't help. Havent got a XP Media Center CD of course so did a repair install from a XP pro CD. Looked quite promising but after the reboot, back to the black screen.
There is a windows key on the case so at present are trying to track down a Media center CD to do a full install.
Any other ideas would be appreciated.
Driftwood (5551)
692047 2008-07-25 08:28:00 Are you able to boot into safe mode with command prompt.

To see, keep tapping F8 on start up, see if you get a menu, if it works, select Safe mode with command prompt, hopefully it will give you a command box that will say C:documents and settings\your name\

Also - What part of the country are you in. ?
wainuitech (129)
692048 2008-07-25 08:43:00 No, goes to black screen with safe mode written in the corners & the windows version across the top. It's the same for all the safe modes.

I'm about 1000k's from you.
Driftwood (5551)
692049 2008-07-25 08:51:00 Oh Crap! Ok the reason I was asking where you were is I do have access to a Media Center CD, and if you were local, I will be out and about all over the wgtn area tomorrow, I could have loaned it to you.

Shame the repair install was done - there is away to run restore and put it back to how it was before cleaning and at least it would boot into safe mode, BUT the repair install will have wiped the restore points.

You can try this may or may not have any effect, Boot from the XP Pro CD -

When the Windows XP Professional/Home Setup screen appears, press R to enter Recovery Console.

It will load, and ask which installation you would like to load, normally its 1, so press 1 then enter

At the Administrator password request,press Enter. and it should carry on loading unless you have given it a password in the past.

Once at the command prompt, type in fixboot, Press Enter - agree to any prompts, when completed type in exit, Press enter - reboot, see if it loads up correctly, or any better.
wainuitech (129)
692050 2008-07-25 09:02:00 Is this the same prob as this ? (pressf1.co.nz)

If it is, you should keep the same prob / topic in the same thread

Or else people will have no idea, what youre talking about

I've asked the mods to merge the 2
Speedy Gonzales (78)
692051 2008-07-25 09:11:00 I did try the hp system restore 1st as instructed on the support site for that model but the various restore options didn't present themselves, it just went straight to the prompt, just the same as when you use the xp cd.
I think someone else may have been there before me.
I'm waiting to talk to the owner about his options now.
Driftwood (5551)
692052 2008-07-25 09:12:00 No, goes to black screen with safe mode written in the corners & the windows version across the top. It's the same for all the safe modes.

I'm about 1000k's from you.

In the first post you said it didnt boot into safe mode. Whats the above then??

Its safe mode. Do you know what safe mode is, or what it looks like?
Speedy Gonzales (78)
692053 2008-07-25 09:14:00 Yes but you cant do anything with it, there is no desktop. Driftwood (5551)
692054 2008-07-25 09:24:00 Was XP SP3 for Windows Media Centre edition as well?

This wasnt installed as well was it ?

What version of Windows / XP is on this ?

What did you have that was Nortons/Symantec?
Speedy Gonzales (78)
692055 2008-07-25 09:30:00 It was SP2
It had a previous version of Nortons that hadn't been uninstalled properly.
I ran the unistall software.
There was actually no running antivirus on it at all & the firewall was turned off as well.
Driftwood (5551)
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