WinXP Pro won't boot due to digital camera driver software conflict

donweinstein · January 5th, 2009, 10:36 PM

Greetings, TechIMOers,
I have an IBM ThinkCenter desktop with Windows XP Pro at SP3 level which has been working fine for months.
Problem : I installed a polaroid i534 digital camera with a USB cable. I also installed the i534 digital camera software including Photo Express 5.0, Photo Explorer 8.0, and PC-CAM Driver. Now after rebooting,
Win XP pro will not boot to the desktop. After the XP logo I get "sorry but Windows was unable to initialize, probably due to some hardware / software conflict. Please select one of these below:"

SafeMode, SafeMode for Networking, Restore from last Known good configuration, or Boot Windows normally.

Choosing any of the selections causes the pc cycle back to the WinXP logo and then the error message pops up again 3 times before it goes to a blank black screen. I have to hard boot ( pressing the on/off switch) but I'm unable to get into SafeMode.

I have removed the USB cable and the camera from the port with the same result. Once I did that, I can get into Pc-Doctor for Dos by pressing PF12 or PF11 right after power on.

Support: at Polaroid believes hardware conflicts with polaroidxx.sys or .dll hardware drivers. months ago I had a Canon digital camera which I sold. Is this possible?
Support: at Lenovo wants $175 minimum for off warranty tech support, or $45 for a Lenovo xp recovery diskette.
Support: at Microsoft wants $59 since the operating system was preloaded.
Warranty support with Solectron has expired. What should I do?
I have a WinXP sp 2 recovery diskette but its for a prior Dell system I owned. Should I use it? Or how do I look at the BIOS to confirm / remove conflicting software? Should I disable the USB port? If so, how?

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Don

fraksken · January 6th, 2009, 03:32 AM

Boot in safe mode where you can choose what needs to boot.
Try to see the drivers the polaroid support gives you and deny them to boot.

Otherwise:
Boot your system with a boot disk and remove the drivers by hand. (you'll have to find em first ofcourse)

bigBonehead · January 6th, 2009, 05:46 PM

I would try the recovery disc. It's OS specific, and should work. If not, do you have the XP install disc. You can do a system recovery with that.

Nude_Lewd_Man · January 6th, 2009, 05:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fraksken

Boot in safe mode where you can choose what needs to boot.

He can't get into Safe Mode.... That's part of the problem...

Quote:

Originally Posted by donweinstein

...I'm unable to get into SafeMode...

Nude_Lewd_Man · January 6th, 2009, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by donweinstein

I have a WinXP sp 2 recovery diskette but its for a prior Dell system I owned. Should I use it? Or how do I look at the BIOS to confirm / remove conflicting software? Should I disable the USB port? If so, how?

Hi Don,

Personally, I don't think it would make any great difference to disable the USB port, which would be done in the BIOS, but (at first) it does sound as if that computer is trying to boot from the USB device - which you can change in the BIOS.

To access the BIOS you would (normally) need to press <DEL> just after the computer POSTs. You should be able to see the code when it does this, but often you need to be fairly prompt...

Once inside the BIOS you should (hopefully) be able to find where it gives the options for what to use, and which order to try them in... I can't say exactly where this menu is, but if you make changes you can always exit without saving, then go back in again anyway.

From my experiences, I normally use:
1) Floppy (if you have a floppy drive installed)
2) CD/DVD
3) HDD - this is the one you have to be careful about if you have multiple HDDs installed/attached...
4) USB - for just in case, but I often just leave it out of (or disable) this option.

With regards to the XP SP2 disk, I would try it - but choose the Repair option when prompted. This should allow you to repair the current installation, albeit possibly back to SP2 - but you can always just re-SP it...

Let us know how you get on....

bigBonehead · January 6th, 2009, 10:50 PM

Doh... did I say 'Recovery' Sorry bout that! Sometimes I types faster than I thinks....

Nude_Lewd_Man · January 7th, 2009, 12:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bigBonehead

Doh... Sometimes I types faster than I thinks....