Gateway laptop with SSD not finding Vista sp2 wont start PXE-E76

[ralphyde]

I have a Gateway P-6301 Laptop computer that had a failing hard drive in 2013, which I successfully replaced with a Crucial SSD, then recovered the factory Windows Vista from the recovery partition, then applied all the updates to bring it up to SP-2, and reinstalled my programs, including some that will only run on 32 bit machines (like AmiPro).

It has been running flawlessly since then, as I keep it healthy with Malwarebytes Pro and System Mechanic. So it had no malware on it, and was running fine through August 20.

But when I tried to start it on August 21, it got only to the black screen with the cursor in the middle, and stayed that way forever. instead of bringing up the Windows icon and password dialog. Pressing the start button would shut it down after about 50 seconds.

Starting it with PF8 would bring up the repair choices, but Windows would not come up in Safe mode either, nor would command prompt, or directory services.

The Repair Computer option, would allow me to access the Gateway System Recovery Options screen showing the following choices: startup repair, system restore, Windows complete PC restore,Windows Memory diagnostic tool, command prompt, and recovery manager.

Startup repair ran through several tests all of which came back with code 0x0, then "boot status indicates that the OS booted successfully". and "Startup Repair could not detect a problem."

System Restore didn't do anything.

The Memory diagnostic tool ran successfully.

When I try to startup with PF12, it shows whats happening quickly, and the Error PXE-E76 flashes by "Bad or missing multicast discovery address" Then PXE-M0F "Exiting PXE-ROM"
I tried changing the start device order in the BIOS to no avail.

It seems like the link to the part of the strartup routine that puts up the Windows icon and the signon dialog is lost.

If all else fails, it appears that I'll have to bite the bullet and do a recovery from the recovery partition, saving data but putting Vista back to 2008 status, then have to update to SP2 again. I'm hoping there's something easier than that long process..

I would appreciate any assistance with this problem.
Thanks
ralphyde

 

[Patonb]

Might be worth double checking the drive is still properly seated.

 

[ralphyde]

Well, I bit the bullet today, and ran the Windows restore (with saving data option) program from my recovery partition. It ran flawlessly and installed the 2008 version of Windows Vista, along with 60 associated programs and Windows update.

I turned on wi-fi and tried to run Windows Update, to get some of the early updates, with setting of - Let me decide which ones to download and install. I hoped to create smaller more manageable batches to install. But that old version of Windows Update wouldn't give me anything.

I then installed and ran my copy of Malwarebytes Pro to shield the system while on wi-fi, and ran a scan, finding no problems.

Now I need to find out how to bring my Windows Vista up to SP2 level. :huh:
Can someone please tell me how? Can I skip the individual fixes and go right to Sp1, and then straight to SP2? And will that give me an updated Windows Update as; well? I appreciate any knowledge about this. Thanks.

 

[townsbg]

There are full size downloads for both sp1 & sp2; try googling it or searching Microsoft's website. Choose the correct architecture (32 or 64 bit). Sp1 must be installed first.

 

[ilikefree]

Could try the bottom of this page
http://www.heidoc.net/joomla/technology-science/microsoft/57-windows-vista-direct-download-links

 

[ralphyde]

Successful startup, but two new problems to deal with. I have also downloaded and installed SP-1 and SP-2 successfully.


Windows Update has not been working since startup. It was an old version, 7.0, so I thought a newer version might get around the problem, so I installed the 7.4 agent, since the latest 7.6 wasn't available for downloading and installing. But with 7.4 agent, I'm still having problems, says it isn't started, though I have put in the recommended settings.


The other problem or question is: How to use the BACKUP file from the rebuild run to replace the new (old - 2008) system that was restored.


The Recovery from the recovery partition (with saving data) built a folder called BACKUP with folders under the Local Disk (C directory entry
It has the same directory structure as the newly built one all the way down through WINDOWS, with all the previous contents.


What I need to know is whether I can just replace the newly built structure with the Backup structure, that would put the computer back the way it was before the problem and would be the ideal solution if it could be done.


Thanks for any assistance with either of the two problems
Ralphyde