# XP won't boot into safe mode. Virus? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 23, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837 "2009-10-23T10:09:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 10:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/1 "2009-10-23T10:09:14Z")
When I try to boot into safe mode, it starts scrolling the itemized list up the screen, but after that it bluescreens for a fraction of a second then reboots. The bluescreen goes by too fast to read. Is this possibly a virus? ---
**Author:** ![HorseloverFat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/8e8cbc/32.png) [@HorseloverFat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HorseloverFat)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/2 "2009-10-23T14:11:14Z")
Not typically but possible. A blue screen is usually a hardware or driver issue. If it wont boot at all usually the easiest and perhaps quickest remedy is to just do a repair install. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2009, 3:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/3 "2009-10-23T15:17:56Z")
Ugh. Automatic reboots make it impossible to tell what’s going on. This won’t help the OP, but for everyone else, I strongly recommend turning off the automatic reboots. With XP, it’s pretty easy: Right-click “My Computer” and select Properties. When the System Properties window opens, click on the Advanced tab. Click on Settings in the Startup and Recovery section. Uncheck the “Automatically restart” option. Click OK. Click OK. Now, if you ever have a startup failure, your PC will not endlessly keep trying, and you’ll actually be able to see the error message. ---
**Author:** ![icbm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@icbm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/icbm)\ **Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/4 "2009-10-24T02:58:56Z")
There is at least one virus that deliberately removes essential registry entires to prevent you from using Safe Mode to fight it. It is a really effective dirty trick. Something done by one virus will soon be copied by other scumbag virus authors. Here are some tips on a blog: > **[Save Safeboot?](https://blog.didierstevens.com/2006/06/22/save-safeboot/)** > > There was a new run of the e-mail virus Bagle this week. W32/Bagle.fb@MM, to be more precise. While reversing it with OllyDbg (in a virtual machine VMware), I discovered that this virus employs a n… > **[Restoring Safe Mode with a .REG file](https://blog.didierstevens.com/2007/02/19/restoring-safe-mode-with-a-reg-file/)** > > I posted about a virus that disables Safe Mode by deleting the SafeBoot registry keys, and later I talked about tricks to restore the SafeBoot keys. Now I’m posting another way to restore the… Good luck! ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/5 "2009-10-26T02:38:11Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > This won’t help the OP, Well, maybe it did. At least I can read the damn message: > [@](#): > > A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. > > If this is the first time you have seen this stop error screen, restart you computer. > > If this screen appears again, follow these steps: > > Check for viruses on your computer. Done and done, with a number of different products, including several online scanners. All report the system is clean. > [@](#): > > Remove any newly installed hard drives or hard drive controllers. Check your hard drive to make sure it is properly configured. N/A > [@](#): > > Run CHKDSK /F to check for hard drive corruption, and then restart your computer. Done. > [@](#): > > Technical Information: > > \*\*\* STOP 0x00000078 (0xF789#524, 0xC000034, 0x0000000, 0x0000000) Does anyone outside of Microsoft know what this crap means? The system seems to be working fine when booted into regular mode. It just won’t go into safe mode without generating the above error. :mad::mad::mad: ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/6 "2009-10-26T02:52:20Z")
> [@icbm](#): > > Something done by one virus will soon be copied by other scumbag virus authors. Anyone convicted of authoring a virus should be strapped to an anthill in the middle of the desert and covered with honey. I support the death penalty, but in general think it should be applied in a painless fashion. Virus authors should be given more “imaginative” methods for their demise. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/7 "2009-10-26T02:53:55Z")
That is a rare error code, invoked at the very start of the kernel booting. Could be virus-induced, I suppose. One guy had it back on Win NT because he put a “/break” command in his boot.ini. Other people say this: > [@](#): > > If your system BSODs with a STOP 0x00000078, it may be that NonPagedPoolSize value in the registry is set above 7/8 of RAM. Edit > > HKey\_Local\_Machine\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management > > Double click on NonPagedPoolSize and make sure it is less than seven-eighths of the physical memory. The default for this type REG\_DWORD value is 0, which allows the system to calculate the Non-Paged Pool size. Be sure to use the decimal radix. REBOOT after that. Are you sure it’s 0x78 and not 0x7B? 7B is very common, caused when windows can’t read the hard drive (because it’s missing drivers or other). ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/8 "2009-10-26T03:32:58Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > Are you sure it’s 0x78 and not 0x7B? 7B is very common, caused when windows can’t read the hard drive (because it’s missing drivers or other). Yes, you are correct. 7B. So, what can I do about it? Assuming it is not a virus, this is still a problem. I may need to boot into safe mode for some other reason, and my computer does not seem to be able to do it. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/9 "2009-10-26T04:38:44Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > Yes, you are correct. 7B. So, what can I do about it? Assuming it is not a virus, this is still a problem. I may need to boot into safe mode for some other reason, and my computer does not seem to be able to do it. :eek: You can’t. My guess is you have a board that windows does not have an integrated SATA driver for. This often involves downloading the sata drivers to a floppy Pressng f6 During windows install to load SATA drivers from the floppy, then proceeding with the install. It is a PITA You have a floppy drive? One other possibility is flipping your SATA configuration in bios to a different compatibility mode. Sometimes they are set to RAID to facilitate OEM RAID configurations that are no big deal to them because of the preloaded driver on the drive image. This is not always obvious how to do this. ---
**Author:** ![Mama\_Zappa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/71e660/32.png) [@Mama\_Zappa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mama_Zappa)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/10 "2009-10-26T18:30:32Z")
I don’t _think_ we had a virus earlier this year, but our computer was misbehaving. We couldn’t update iTunes, or re-install our Palm Pilot desktop software; troubleshooting the error message we got from the Palm software suggested we needed to go into Safe Mode - and _that_ failed also. I wound up reinstalling Windows and it’s behaved perfectly since then. I guess we had some drivers messed up, or some other system files had gotten corrupted. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/11 "2009-10-26T18:55:20Z")
Try booting off your XP CD to the Recovery Console. Then run CHKDSK C: /F ---
**Author:** ![Mindfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mindfield/32/19759_2.png) [@Mindfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mindfield)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/12 "2009-10-26T19:04:48Z")
Fuggeddabout it. The recovery console is next to useless in most common circumstances. In all probability some sort of essential system driver or component has become corrupted or deleted. The easiest way to fix this is to get out your XP CD and boot from it. Let it load all of its drivers and other crap; do NOT go into the recovery console, but instead go past that part to the point where it asks you where you want to install XP to. There will be an option “R” available to repair your existing XP installation. Choose that option. It will go through the motions of effectively reinstalling your OS, but only the critical components, drivers, etc. Your installed programs, the registry, and other stuff like that will be untouched. Let it do its thing and then reboot. In most cases you should be thrown back into XP like nothing ever happened. If not, then the problem very well might be virus-related, or some other sort of malware. If you can get into Windows any case, run a thorough virus check, preferably with whatever antivirus you’re using, plus a third party’s, such as the online scan [HouseCall at TrendMicro](http://housecall.trendmicro.com/). Also scan for malware and spyware and stuff with relevant programs just to get whatever you can found and eliminated. If nothing else works, then it might be hardware-related. It could be your hard drive is dying (consistently crapping out at the same point), flaky RAM (inconsistent errors at seemingly random places) or flaky power supply (similar symptoms as flaky RAM). ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2009, 11:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/13 "2009-10-26T23:25:14Z")
> [@Mindfield](#): > > Fuggeddabout it. The recovery console is next to useless in most common circumstances. This is not my experience. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 4:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/14 "2009-10-27T04:39:24Z")
> [@drachillix](#): > > You can’t. My guess is you have a board that windows does not have an integrated SATA driver for. > > This often involves downloading the sata drivers to a floppy > > Pressng f6 During windows install to load SATA drivers from the floppy, then proceeding with the install. It is a PITA > > You have a floppy drive? > > One other possibility is flipping your SATA configuration in bios to a different compatibility mode. Sometimes they are set to RAID to facilitate OEM RAID configurations that are no big deal to them because of the preloaded driver on the drive image. > > This is not always obvious how to do this. Well, the Gigabyte website has a driver, but XP is already installed. Any way to install the SATA driver AFTER XP has been set up, or am I basically screwed for ever getting into safe mode? ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/15 "2009-10-27T05:02:36Z")
> [@Stan\_Shmenge](#): > > Well, the Gigabyte website has a driver, but XP is already installed. Any way to install the SATA driver AFTER XP has been set up, or am I basically screwed for ever getting into safe mode? Safe mode hasn’t worked after the clean install? ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/16 "2009-10-27T05:12:33Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > Safe mode hasn’t worked after the clean install? I am doing everything I can do avoid a clean install. I just did one a couple of months ago because of these damn viruses and malware (virumonde) and it takes me DAYS to get my system back to where it was. I cannot afford to have that kind of downtime right now, or actually ever. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/17 "2009-10-27T05:23:36Z")
I have no idea why safe mode gives 0x7B, especially since you _haven’t_ installed any 3rd party drivers. That’s all I got to say. That, and virus checks can be run by booting from special CDs. Or moving the hard drive to another computer. ---
**Author:** ![Stan\_Shmenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/94ad74/32.png) [@Stan\_Shmenge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stan_Shmenge)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 5:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/18 "2009-10-27T05:47:19Z")
> [@Alex\_Dubinsky](#): > > I have no idea why safe mode gives 0x7B, especially since you _haven’t_ installed any 3rd party drivers. That’s all I got to say. > > That, and virus checks can be run by booting from special CDs. Or moving the hard drive to another computer. Well, there may not BE a virus at this point, but it would still be nice to be able to boot into safe mode. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/19 "2009-10-27T07:34:31Z")
Go into the BIOS and set the SATA mode to Compatible. ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_Dubinsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dbc845/32.png) [@Alex\_Dubinsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_Dubinsky)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2009, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837/20 "2009-10-27T16:56:02Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > Go into the BIOS and set the SATA mode to Compatible. Is that one of those changes that creates a 7B on any system, or does setting it to “compatible” have some other effect? There is RAID, AHCI, and IDE emulation (in increasing order of compatibility, but all causing 7B’s when changed afaik). What would “compatible” mode be? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/xp-wont-boot-into-safe-mode-virus/514837.md?page=2)