1. The XP SP3 RTM Infinite Reboot Loop
Jesper Johansson was among the first to signal this problem after installing XP SP3 on an AMD-based computer, an operation which lead to: “incessant reboots. The computer booted, apologized for not being able to boot properly, asked if I wanted to boot into safe mode, defaulted to normal boot, rebooted, and so on and so on. At this point, I want to clarify that the endless rebooting is not at all related to SP3 per se. The problem is that with some configurations, SP3 causes the computer to crash during boot, and Windows XP, by default, is set up to automatically reboot when it crashes.”
This is by no means an isolated case. In fact, end users have been crowding to the support forum for Windows XP SP3 signaling the very same problem, as well as variations from this issue. In response, Microsoft published Knowledge Base article 888372 detailing the issue. Essentially users are presented by a “Stop 0×0000007E” error message, having performed and upgrade to XP SP3 from SP2 on what Microsoft referred to as a non-Intel-processor-based computer.
“After you upgrade a computer that uses a processor other than an Intel processor to Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) or Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3), you may receive the following error message after you restart the computer: ‘A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer…Technical information: *** STOP: 0×0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xFC5CCAF3, 0xFC90F8C0, 0xFC90F5C0) SYSTEM_THREAD_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED’,” reads Microsoft’s description of the problem.
According to the Redmond company, not all systems affected by the “Stop 0×0000007E” error message behave the same, or from identical causes. Microsoft already has resources in place designed to help end users troubleshoot a Stop 0×0000007E error in Windows XP, and there are additional causes to implementing Service Pack 3 that may conduct to this scenario. Still, this does not mean that XP SP3 is off the hook.
“Most computers include an image that the manufacturer created by using the System Preparation (Sysprep) tool. Sysprep lets the computer manufacturer generate an image that can be used on different computers. The problem Windows XP Service Pack 1 (SP1) Sysprep image is created on an Intel-processor-based computer and if the Sysprep image is then deployed on a non-Intel-processor-based computer. Under this configuration, after the computer is upgraded to Windows XP SP2 or SP3, the Intel processor driver (Intelppm.sys) may try to load because an orphaned registry key remains from the original Sysprep image,” Microsoft said.
But at the same time this is also valid for original XP SP2 and XP SP3 Sysprep images that have been built on an Intel-processor-based machine, only to be subsequently deployed onto computer powered by a processor which is not from Intel. At fault is the same Intelppm.sys driver. Apparently all it takes is a registry tweak in order to resolve the problem. The end users first have to reboot their machine into Safe Mode and then make their way in the registry to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE – SYSTEM – ControlSet001 – Services – Intelppm and then modify the Value data by entering 4 in the box. A restart is necessary for the mitigation to come into effect.
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