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starting cmain() no pxe stack
Does anyone recognize this message:
starting cmain() no pxe stack I get that every time I boot winXP. I didn't used to. I get around it by having Hiren's Boot CD in my CD drive, and a moment after that message appears, the first Hiren's menu appears. One of the choices is Boot from Hard Drive Windows XP (NTLDR) and i move my cursor down to that and press Enter and it boots fine after that. I've googled the message just above and don't find anything related to this problem. I don't think Hirens provides a help file explaining the boot-up problems and how it helps. Googling for the first message gives only 322 hits, and in just about every language, even though my chosen language is English. I don't even recognize all the languages, but I'm going to start clicking on Translate this Page. Still, I was hoping someone here could explain the problem in native English. ;-) |
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#2
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starting cmain() no pxe stack
micky wrote:
Does anyone recognize this message: starting cmain() no pxe stack I get that every time I boot winXP. I didn't used to. I get around it by having Hiren's Boot CD in my CD drive, and a moment after that message appears, the first Hiren's menu appears. One of the choices is Boot from Hard Drive Windows XP (NTLDR) and i move my cursor down to that and press Enter and it boots fine after that. I've googled the message just above and don't find anything related to this problem. I don't think Hirens provides a help file explaining the boot-up problems and how it helps. Googling for the first message gives only 322 hits, and in just about every language, even though my chosen language is English. I don't even recognize all the languages, but I'm going to start clicking on Translate this Page. Still, I was hoping someone here could explain the problem in native English. ;-) In your BIOS, is an entry to enable or disable the NIC. Underneath that, indented, is a setting called "LAN Boot ROM". On an Intel system that might be your support for PXE boot. My LAN Boot ROM is disabled, to keep the snack-happy PXE at bay. I don't run PXE servers, so don't need to see any PXE BIOS messages, thanks. If no floppy, no CD, no hard drive is available to boot from, the BIOS will consult PXE boot and try to find a boot server on your LAN. Now, I cannot tell you anything about your current situation, as I don't use Hirens and don't know where this message is coming from. Maybe you were supposed to "press a key" to boot from Hirens ? And by not pressing the key, you forced the BIOS to try PXE ? As usual, Wikipedia has some info on PXE if you want it. We used to use BootP at work for stuff, but without PXE ever being mentioned. Some of our products booted that way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboo...on_Environment Paul |
#3
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starting cmain() no pxe stack
micky wrote:
Does anyone recognize this message: starting cmain() no pxe stack I get that every time I boot winXP. I didn't used to. I get around it by having Hiren's Boot CD in my CD drive, and a moment after that message appears, the first Hiren's menu appears. One of the choices is Boot from Hard Drive Windows XP (NTLDR) and i move my cursor down to that and press Enter and it boots fine after that. I've googled the message just above and don't find anything related to this problem. I don't think Hirens provides a help file explaining the boot-up problems and how it helps. Googling for the first message gives only 322 hits, and in just about every language, even though my chosen language is English. I don't even recognize all the languages, but I'm going to start clicking on Translate this Page. Still, I was hoping someone here could explain the problem in native English. ;-) As Paul mentions, something has changed in your BIOS settings. One way to boot is from a remote host where you download via the network the boot loader to run on your local host. The network interface (card or onboard) must be working and your BIOS must be capable of working with it. See: http://www.howtogeek.com/57601/what-...an-you-use-it/ http://searchnetworking.techtarget.c...on-Environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboo...on_Environment Rather than use the BIOS to discover the first bootable device and try to find the boot loader there, your host goes to a network to ask for a server to send the boot code. You boot using that code instead of what is in the boot sector on your HDD or SDD. Instead of bootstrapping from a local storage device, you bootstrap from the network. This means you may not even have an OS installed on your computer. Instead you boot using the OS loader that comes from the server and the OS also comes over the network. It allowed a company to lock down what OS image their employees used versus letting their employees pollute and screw up the sysprep images stored onto local drives. Every time the employee booted, they got the company's desired OS and how it was configured in its image rather than use what the employee might alter locally. The local host may not even have a hard disk if the company doesn't want their employees storing data locally and instead force them to store their work on networked file servers that get backed up. If you didn't change your BIOS settings then perhaps someone you granted physical access to your computer made the changes. Perhaps it was configured this way for a long time and even when you got the computer but you saw a long delay during boot. If you don't have a network for your host to broadcast a message to get the boot code then it may then complain about the lack of finding the server host when networking is available versus just timing out when there is a network. It has been over a decade since I worked on any hosts that used PXE to get their boot code from another host over the network so I don't how your BIOS behaves regarding network or no network when it tries to get bood code via the network. It is also possible the CMOS table copy of the BIOS (the hardware boots using the BIOS that gets copied into CMOS, not directly from the EEPROM chips where the BIOS is stored) got corrupted which probably means your CMOS battery is weak or dead. How old is your computer? I replace CMOS batteries after 3 years although most will last for 5 years. If you replace the CMOS battery, be sure to reset the CMOS (clear it to force a reload of default settings from the BIOS in the EEPROM). If you had customized settings in the BIOS then you will have to replace them after resetting the CMOS table. You never mentioned your brand and model of computer. The above is generic information because you left the computer unknown. Until that info is known, no one can help guide you through the BIOS screens to change the boot device. Of course, you could read the manual, if there is one, for the motherboard to see how to configure its BIOS (in CMOS). The Acer that I has a manual that is so dumbed down that it is useless for seeing what settings are in the BIOS and their values to which they can be set. So you may have to delve into the BIOS settings when you boot to see if you can find the PXE setting. Of course, if the setting has changed then your BIOS settings have changed which means someone changed something they didn't understand or the settings are flaky (bad CMOS battery). |
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starting cmain() no pxe stack
On Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:03:57 -0400, Paul wrote:
micky wrote: Does anyone recognize this message: starting cmain() no pxe stack I get that every time I boot winXP. I didn't used to. I get around it by having Hiren's Boot CD in my CD drive, and a moment after that message appears, the first Hiren's menu appears. One of the choices is Boot from Hard Drive Windows XP (NTLDR) and i move my cursor down to that and press Enter and it boots fine after that. I've googled the message just above and don't find anything related to this problem. I don't think Hirens provides a help file explaining the boot-up problems and how it helps. Googling for the first message gives only 322 hits, and in just about every language, even though my chosen language is English. I don't even recognize all the languages, but I'm going to start clicking on Translate this Page. Still, I was hoping someone here could explain the problem in native English. ;-) In your BIOS, is an entry to enable or disable the NIC. With regard to booting, you mean? Underneath that, indented, is a setting called "LAN Boot ROM". On an Intel system that might be your support for PXE boot. My LAN Boot ROM is disabled, to keep the snack-happy PXE at bay. I don't run PXE servers, so don't need to see any PXE BIOS messages, thanks. If no floppy, no CD, no hard drive is available to boot from, the BIOS will consult PXE boot and try to find a boot server on your LAN. I will take a look. Now, I cannot tell you anything about your current situation, as I don't use Hirens and don't know where this message is coming from. If the first message goes away, the second message will too. Maybe you were supposed to "press a key" to boot from Hirens ? And by not pressing the key, you forced the BIOS to try PXE ? I had to refresh my own memory. When I didn't have the CD in place, it wouldn't boot then either. That's why I put it in, but it's been months and I don't remember the details of what happened without the CD. I *thought* that I got that same message iln the subject line. I'm trying to make a bootable clone, and plan to change harddrives, so I wanted the current one to work right before the last time I clone from it. As usual, Wikipedia has some info on PXE if you want it. We used to use BootP at work for stuff, but without PXE ever being mentioned. Some of our products booted that way. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboo...on_Environment It didnt' occur to me to search for PXE. It's a good thing I'm not in charge. Paul Thanks. |
#5
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starting cmain() no pxe stack
On Wed, 24 Jun 2015 15:45:03 -0500, VanguardLH wrote:
micky wrote: Does anyone recognize this message: starting cmain() no pxe stack I get that every time I boot winXP. I didn't used to. I get around it by having Hiren's Boot CD in my CD drive, and a moment after that message appears, the first Hiren's menu appears. One of the choices is Boot from Hard Drive Windows XP (NTLDR) and i move my cursor down to that and press Enter and it boots fine after that. I've googled the message just above and don't find anything related to this problem. I don't think Hirens provides a help file explaining the boot-up problems and how it helps. Googling for the first message gives only 322 hits, and in just about every language, even though my chosen language is English. I don't even recognize all the languages, but I'm going to start clicking on Translate this Page. Still, I was hoping someone here could explain the problem in native English. ;-) As Paul mentions, something has changed in your BIOS settings. One way to boot is from a remote host where you download via the network the boot loader to run on your local host. The network interface (card or onboard) must be working and your BIOS must be capable of working with it. See: http://www.howtogeek.com/57601/what-...an-you-use-it/ http://searchnetworking.techtarget.c...on-Environment https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Preboo...on_Environment I haven't read tthese yet, but I'll read all 3. This might have something to do with the fact that I tried to boot from the cloned drive, and it didn't seem to even be listed in the boot order. I think when I checked a year ago, an external USB drive was listed, IF it was plugged in but today it wasn't. So maybe PXE enabling messed that up, on the theory that if one is booting from the network he can't be booting from a USB drive too.. Rather than use the BIOS to discover the first bootable device and try to find the boot loader there, your host goes to a network to ask for a server to send the boot code. You boot using that code instead of what is in the boot sector on your HDD or SDD. Instead of bootstrapping from a local storage device, you bootstrap from the network. This means you may not even have an OS installed on your computer. Instead you boot using the OS loader that comes from the server and the OS also comes over the network. It allowed a company to lock down what OS image their employees used versus letting their employees pollute and screw up the sysprep images stored onto local drives. Every time the employee booted, they got the company's desired OS and how it was configured in its image rather than use what the employee might alter locally. The local host may not even have a hard disk if the company doesn't want their employees storing data locally and instead force them to store their work on networked file servers that get backed up. I understood every word. Very interesting. If you didn't change your BIOS settings then perhaps someone you granted physical access to your computer made the changes. Perhaps it was No one like that exists. configured this way for a long time and even when you got the computer but you saw a long delay during boot. No. Got it from a friend after his HD crashed and he got another computer. He worked for a law firm, but used this at home. wouldn't have done this. and anyhow, I used to make lots of changes to boot.ini and they always showed when I booted. If you don't have a network for your host to broadcast a message to get the boot code then it may then complain about the lack of finding the server host when networking is available versus just timing out when there is a network. It has been over a decade since I worked on any hosts that used PXE to get their boot code from another host over the network so I don't how your BIOS behaves regarding network or no network when it tries to get bood code via the network. This is how it behaves when there is no boot code to get! This also accounts for why there aren't many hits in google. There were so few hits, I thought you guys might not know about it, but you have both come through. Congratulations, and Usenet is wonderful too. It's pretty clear I'm going to be able to fix this, though probably not before I change to the new HD drive, which will have the same problem, but that's okay becaue Hirens solves this problem (and some others). (I can't do too much fixing now because the HDD clicks a little. But as long as I don't turn off the computer, including hibernate and sleep, it doesn't click at all. Parking seems to be the problem, and I set the power options so the HDD doesn't spin down even if not used. That's more wear on the HDD but it's failing already anyhow. I actually think I have a bootable copy, but since I haven't been able to boot from it while it's USB (In a dock) I don't have confirmation. It is also possible the CMOS table copy of the BIOS (the hardware boots using the BIOS that gets copied into CMOS, not directly from the EEPROM chips where the BIOS is stored) got corrupted which probably means your CMOS battery is weak or dead. How old is your computer? Old. But I replaced the battery once, I think. Carefully while it was running so I wouldn't have to redo my changes. This was years before the problem started. I used the Tag number to find the record on Dell suppport. January of 2004! It came wiith an XP Pro sticker but no HDD and I added 2 gigs of memory. It still works filne, not counting its problems! I replace CMOS batteries after 3 years although most will last for 5 years. If you replace the CMOS battery, be sure to reset the CMOS (clear it to force a reload of default settings from the BIOS in the EEPROM). If you had customized settings in the BIOS then you will have to replace them after resetting the CMOS table. I can't remember if I changed anything. Maybe not but I'll have to look. You never mentioned your brand and model of computer. The above is I thought this was all in the OS. generic information because you left the computer unknown. Until that info is known, no one can help guide you through the BIOS screens to change the boot device. Of course, you could read the manual, if there is one, for the motherboard to see how to configure its BIOS (in CMOS). Well I should be able to do something on my own. If I can't make my way thought the BIOS, you'll probably hear from me again. And if it's fixed I plan to let you know. The Acer that I has a manual that is so dumbed down that it is useless for seeing what settings are in the BIOS and their values to which they can be set. So you may have to delve into the BIOS settings when you boot to see if you can find the PXE setting. Of course, if the setting has changed then your BIOS settings have changed which means someone changed something they didn't understand or the settings are flaky (bad CMOS battery). I'll replace that first, so the BIOS doesn't flip again once I set it. |
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