Windows Longhorn bootup loop

[yourepicfailure]

Just to get the message out for some,
This is on real, Longhorn "Compliant" Hardware!!

Now that that's done, time to get to the picture. I'm attempting to install Longhorn TWIWMTB on REAL hardware.
However, when I start setup from the PE, the boot screen just loops. Let it sit overnight... next morning it was frozen. So no ham tonight.

Not a problem. Imaged it onto the hard disk with ximage, and same issue. Trying safe mode freezes after caching files for the kernel.
No BSOD, no error code or anything.

Problem is, the last version of Longhorn Pre to run on this machine was 4066. However, it refused to load half of the essential devices because of some "Out of Resources" issue. And it had to be sysprep-imaged onto the machine.

Any ideas? No, I'm not worrying about the 4066 issue right now, I'll get there later.

Specs (Because I actually WANT help)

Computer: Dell Latitude XT1
Ram: 3GB DDR2 PC2-6400
CPU: Intel Core2Duo 1.33GHZ U7700
HDD: 32GB Parallel-ATA ZIF 1.8"
Motherboard: Dell 0y041C
Chipset: Xpress 1250
Latest A09 Bios

Offtopic Comment

500th post!

[wasabilee]

tried upgrade 4066->4074 ?

[Windows OS]

Hmm. This is one of these issues that the /SOS boot.ini boot switch might help. However, since we're dealing with WinPE, especially Pre-Reset LH PE, I do not know how to apply that switch. Have you tried LH Packet? That may still work with 4074 TWIWMTB

[yourepicfailure]

Hmm. This is one of these issues that the /SOS boot.ini boot switch might help. However, since we're dealing with WinPE, especially Pre-Reset LH PE, I do not know how to apply that switch. Have you tried LH Packet? That may still work with 4074 TWIWMTB

LH Packet looped/froze on bootscreen.

tried upgrade 4066->4074 ?

Setup loads WinPE, and then boots it to complete Upgrade Process, and WinPE is completely useless here. And yes, I've tried.

[Lukas Marsik]

Tried swapping drivers that are related to drives?

[jimmsta]

Are you certain that you don't have any hardware faults? Things like missing services/drivers leads me to think you may have a bad stick of ram or a failing drive. Make sure to cross those off your diagnostics list before tearing your hair out over installing LH on the system

[yourepicfailure]

Are you certain that you don't have any hardware faults? Things like missing services/drivers leads me to think you may have a bad stick of ram or a failing drive. Make sure to cross those off your diagnostics list before tearing your hair out over installing LH on the system

I recently installed a bigger stick, and since this is an older dell, it will run a whole diagnostics check on startup.
However, I'm not here to argue, so I'll do a memory check with 7 and the bios.
My drive has about another year to live, so that's on my list.

[ovctvct]

Not sure if related, but I have an old PC around with USB 1.1 and when an USB stick is plugged in, it BSOD's every startup(it has XP).

[yourepicfailure]

Memory passed on both BIOS and Win7. HDTune just confirmed my disk has about a year and a half before I need to replace it.

EDIT: Imaged install from a VM of 4074, and driver_irq'd (bsod'd) on bootanim.sys. I believe it's related to my new banimres.sys driver. I'll resolve that and see what happens.

EDIT2:

"Boot" Loops for breakfast.

EDIT3:

Tried swapping drivers that are related to drives?

Just tried that, however it reboots after the bootscreen. Bootscreen transitions to a black screen, then reboots. No BSOD.
FOLLOW-UP:
SafeMode WILL initialize. Cursor pops up and is moveable. However, I get approximately 5 seconds of this until a reboot. Any suggestions?
FOLLOW-UP2:
It actually DOES initialize. However, something forces the system to reboot. How do I know? I commanded it to bootlog. If an error occurs during bootup, the bootlog won't be created. However, a bootlog was created. So, what's causing it to reboot?

EDIT4:
I have an i386 version of 4074. I'll install with that, then copy over TWIWTB goodies.

[Windows OS]

EDIT4:
I have an i386 version of 4074. I'll install with that, then copy over TWIWTB goodies.

Good idea. I think the only real benefit of TWIWMTB is the Aero theme with glass borders and the APPA, all of which can be easily ported over. In fact, Longhorn.ms has a Aero theme for 4074: http://longhorn.ms/download/dwm-aero-theme-for-4074
From what can I remember from the last time I tried it, it seemed identical to the theme in TWIWMTB.

[wasabilee]

HDTune just confirmed my disk has about a year and a half before I need to replace it.

thats a myth
HD tune wrote 2 years ago it has few months to live
and voila it still works flawlessly, and to make things interesting
it is still magnetic one from 2001

don't trust such programs
they only do statistics and probability, not absolute

[yourepicfailure]

HDTune just confirmed my disk has about a year and a half before I need to replace it.

thats a myth
HD tune wrote 2 years ago it has few months to live
and voila it still works flawlessly, and to make things interesting
it is still magnetic one from 2001

don't trust such programs
they only do statistics and probability, not absolute

I don't do the "two years to live". I use the statistics such as burst, bad sectors, read count errors, etc to estimate. Really, I trusted a program's time estimate before my own, and paid the price when a drive almost failed a week later. It claimed 2 years, and I claimed a month. So I was off, but still fairly close.

Anyways,

First start after i386:


First DCE start:


TWIWMTB goodies ported:



^DCE Alt+Tab Got cut off because I had to press "Alt" to keep it showing.^

So, i386 works. However, I'm running into a problem with ACPI as I had to set the PC setting to "Standard PC" in textmode.
And that problem being, the BIOS somehow is still controlling power, even though I'm in protected mode.