Windows Xp Boot Menu Has Two Options After Fresh Install [Solved]

on Boot Menu i get

Microsoft Windows
Windows (Default)

and i have to select the top one for Windows to load otherwise the default gets a hal.dll or something issue and Windows won't load


so i checked boot.ini:

[Boot Loader]Timeout=30Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS /usepmtimer[Operating Systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

Hi Manuleka,

Remove usepmtimer switch from default windows option line of your boot.ini.

[Boot Loader]Timeout=30Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS[Operating Systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

Or if you want to use usepmtimer switch put name windows installed at default line of boot.ini.

[Boot Loader]Timeout=30Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /usepmtimer[Operating Systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

thanks agyat, will edit boot.ini and report

Hi Manuleka,

 

Remove usepmtimer switch from default windows option line of your boot.ini.

 

 

 

[Boot Loader]Timeout=30Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS[Operating Systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

 

 

Or if you want to use usepmtimer switch put name windows installed at default line of boot.ini.

 

 

[Boot Loader]Timeout=30Default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /usepmtimer[Operating Systems]multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect /usepmtimer

 

 

This is quite weird why you would see two entries when obviously you only have 1 entry going by the how many are listed in the operating system section.

The problem is the switch, as you don't put switches used in the boot loader section. I don't recall being able to put switches in this line so it's quite strange that it shows up there. Not only that, it's repetitive of what is already being used in the operating system section.

Since this is solved, I'll just explain what those switches do:

/noexecute=optin This option usually only affects 32-bit operating systems. This switch actually suggests whether Data Execution Protection (DEP) should be applied or not to programs that requests it. the other values you can have is alwayson which is what 64bit will always use, optout which is similar to optin except this gives the program the ability to get out of it, if it wants to and alwaysoff which does not use DEP at all.

/fastdetect basically means that ntdetect.com will skip the detection for serial devices, like serial mice, or any device on the communication (COM) ports. You can even specify which com port/number to skip if you wanted to.

/usepmtimer is usually used for AMD processors, it's a method of getting precision timing when you have multiple processors (and possibly cores). If you get the hal.dll error, it could be related to this. PM_Timer would be used over Time Stamp Counter (TSC), as with TSC it is hard to synchronise the time between multiple processors, which is why PM_Timer gets used. Intel does not seem to suffer from this issue. Whether you need this option or not is hard to say, if it works with it, then keep it, if not, remove it.

Cheers,

MC

This is quite weird why you would see two entries when obviously you only have 1 entry going by the how many are listed in the operating system section.

 

The problem is the switch, as you don't put switches used in the boot loader section. I don't recall being able to put switches in this line so it's quite strange that it shows up there. Not only that, it's repetitive of what is already being used in the operating system section.

 

Since this is solved, I'll just explain what those switches do:

 

/noexecute=optin This option usually only affects 32-bit operating systems. This switch actually suggests whether Data Execution Protection (DEP) should be applied or not to programs that requests it. the other values you can have is alwayson which is what 64bit will always use, optout which is similar to optin except this gives the program the ability to get out of it, if it wants to and alwaysoff which does not use DEP at all.

 

/fastdetect basically means that ntdetect.com will skip the detection for serial devices, like serial mice, or any device on the communication (COM) ports. You can even specify which com port/number to skip if you wanted to.

 

/usepmtimer is usually used for AMD processors, it's a method of getting precision timing when you have multiple processors (and possibly cores). If you get the hal.dll error, it could be related to this. PM_Timer would be used over Time Stamp Counter (TSC), as with TSC it is hard to synchronise the time between multiple processors, which is why PM_Timer gets used. Intel does not seem to suffer from this issue. Whether you need this option or not is hard to say, if it works with it, then keep it, if not, remove it.

 

Cheers,

 

MC