aswRvrt.sys reboot loop, XP won't start in safe mode

Viruses and worms
1

I am running XP, 32-bit, a 7-year-old image that I would like to keep if at all possible.

Here are the recent changes (which may point to a solution):

  1. I had been running an XP install for around 7 years, patched up to date as of about 2 weeks ago, when
  2. My Gigabyte GA-M55SLI-S4 rev 1.0 motherboard got cooked. A spring-loaded heat sink clip had popped off, causing the chipset on the motherboard to get cooked.
  3. I wanted to keep my RAID XP install going, and couldn’t find the exact model on ebay, so I opted for a Gigabyte GA-M720-ES3. It works with my processor, memory and video card.
  4. The motherboard detects my RAID array and gives me the XP boot option.
  • Booting Windows normally causes the XP booting screen to load for only a few seconds and then the PC reboots.
  • Attempting last known good config produces the same results.
  • Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, and Safe Mode with Command Prompt all show the individual drivers loading until aswRvrt.sys, at which point it hangs for a few seconds and reboots. So this is where I am stuck.
  • Edit: additionally, Windows Recovery Console indefinitely shows a non-functional blinking cursor on a black screen.

I’m posting here as searching for aswRvrt.sys lead me to this forum, and I can’t find a forum example of what to do when not even safe mode will boot, halting on aswRvrt.sys, so I am not sure where to start.

I have another PC from which I’m making this thread, that I can use to obtain utilities, etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

2

I have exactly the same problem, used several repair progs, but nothing worked so far…
Hoping an appropriate sollution will follow soon.
Might be good to start a new thread…

3

The problem file is not aswRvrt.sys as that is the last driver to load successfully

Please print these instruction out so that you know what you are doing

[*]Download OTLPENet.exe to your desktop
[*]Ensure that you have a blank CD in the drive
[*]Double click OTLPENet.exe and this will then open imgburn to burn the file to CD

[*]Reboot your system using the boot CD you just created.
Note : If you do not know how to set your computer to boot from CD follow the steps here
[*]As the CD needs to detect your hardware and load the operating system, I would recommend a nice cup of tea whilst it loads :slight_smile:

[*]Your system should now display a Reatogo desktop.
Note : as you are running from CD it is not exactly speedy
[*]Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
[*]Select the Windows folder of the infected drive if it asks for a location
[*]When asked “Do you wish to load the remote registry”, select Yes
[*]When asked “Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning”, select Yes
[*]Ensure the box “Automatically Load All Remaining Users” is checked and press OK
[*]OTL should now start.
[*]Drag and drop this attached scan.txt into the Custom scans and fixes box
[*]Press Run Scan to start the scan.
[*]When finished, the file will be saved in drive C:\OTL.txt
[*]Copy this file to your USB drive if you do not have internet connection on this system.
[*]Right click the file and select send to : select the USB drive.
[*]Confirm that it has copied to the USB drive by selecting it
[*]You can backup any files that you wish from this OS
[*]Please post the contents of the C:\OTL.txt file in your reply.

4

essexboy is correct here…though i think the rest of his post is wishful thinking :slight_smile:

You switched chipsets, you very rarely want to do that without reinstalling windows…even more rarely when you are booting from raid…im assuming this is raid0? You would want to some how get the raid drivers over to the windows installation. I can not think of an easy way to accomplish this but then again I mostly deal with online computer repair…not situations like this.

Edit: er I mean i cant think of an easy way without reinstalling windows =P.

5

I am the eternal optimist, and sometimes it works :slight_smile:

6

Oops, looks like I never got back to this thread. That was 1.5 years ago and I ended up wiping and re-installing XP on that machine, although I appreciate the advice and tips!

7

i had the same problem, industrial PC card P4 800Mhz etc, I’d put some memory in from other machines and thought it was ok, it ran and I went to watch tv, heard the m/c blleping and going through the cycle, rebooting on the aswrvrt .sys as above. So I removed all mem except one DIMM , hey presto it seems to work again. Dont blame windowze immedialty (I always do grrr) when you see something like that it may just be the h/w, think it through…