[kevruckus]

help!
when I boot up win 2000 it will come right up to the desktop screen, the "windows starting" box will come up and then the "preparing network connections" box. It just stays on "preparing network connections" and nothing happens. The little blue bar keeps moving and I can move the mouse arrow so it is not frozen or locked up. I cannot restart or shutdown w/out holding the power button down. I've tried logging in safe mode and all the other options on the advanced options menu with the same results.

before this happened I had been running on a dsl connection and had just downloaded the win 2000 service pack 2. I installed sp2 and restarted. Ever since I have not been able to get back on.

thanks.

 

[Flail128]

is the computer attached to a hub or DSL modem? If so, try removing Ethernet cable and restart in safe mode without networking. If you kept your archived files, you can uninstall SP2 and try it again. Try downloading the whole service pack locally instead of using the web based install. Here's the link

http://download.microsoft.com/download/win2000platform/SP/SP2/NT5/EN-US/W2KSP2.exe

 

[crjdriver]

I agree that you should download the full sp. Next question, why are you using sp2? Unless there is a compelling reason not to use sp4, download and install sp4. Now on to your problem; first try the suggestion above in regard to the dsl line. Next thing to try is a repair of win2k; boot with your win2k cd [cd set as first boot device in the bios] from the first menu choose install not repair. The next menu will show your current win2k install and give you the option to repair it; let it do so. After a repair of win2k you will need to reapply any service packs, hot fixes, patches, DirectX updates. I also reapply the chipset / mb drivers. You may have to reinstall your video, and sound drivers.

How do you connect to dsl? Do you have an always on connection or do you have some connection software that you need to run before you get online? If you have connection software that you need to run before connecting, I would disconnect the dsl before doing the repair. If it is an always on type of connection through a router, then leave it connected during the repair.

 

[DaveBurnett]

When he says SP4, you don't need the intermediate ones, just go straight to SP4

 

[kevruckus]

thanks for responding guys. i will try to repair windows from the CD when i get home. just as an update...i tried to disconnect ethernet and restart in safe mode. this time i get a window that says:"LOG ON MESSAGE Unable to logo on because the netlogon service is not running on this machine." maybe that will help if the repair doesn't work.

also, the reason i tried to download sp2 is because i was trying to download Adobe to view a web page. when i tried to install adobe it said i needed to download sp2. then all hell broke loose...

 

[kevruckus]

okay. if i set CD as first boot device in BIOS the same "preparing network connection" screen comes up. if i set CD as all 3 boot devices a message saying it is unable to boot from disk comes up. i am pretty sure there is nothing wrong with my copy of windows because it is a pretty new CD.

 

[crjdriver]

On some rare instances the computer will not boot from the cd. In this case make the four startup disks; they can be made from your win2k cd. Boot with these and then run the repair install.