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Debugging Windows NT Setup STOP Screens

Article ID: 123750 - View products that this article applies to.

This article was previously published under Q123750

SUMMARY

If a reproducible STOP screen error appears when you run Windows NT Setup, you can usually debug the error either locally or remotely. Since Setup does not run in debug mode by default, you must first change the Setup configuration to allow debugging, and then run Setup again. How you then proceed depends upon whether the STOP screen occurs during the text portion or the Graphical User Interface (GUI) portion of Setup.

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MORE INFORMATION

The STOP Screen Occurs While Booting the System from

the Setup Floppy Disk or During the Text Portion of Setup

If the STOP screen occurs while booting the system from the Setup floppy disk or during the text portion of Setup, and Setup was able to load enough of the operating system to invoke the debugger, you may be able to set up a debug session. To configure Setup for debugging when booting from the Setup floppy disks:

Make a copy of the disk labeled "Setup Boot Disk." If you created your boot floppy disks using the WINNT or WINNT32 installation methods, use disk one of the three-disk set.
Edit the Txtsetup.sif file on the copy of the Setup Boot Disk.
Change the OsLoadOptions = "/nodebug" entry to read:
OsLoadOptions = "/debug"
NOTE: You can also add other debug parameters to the string inside the quotes. For example:
OsLoadOptions = "/debug /debugport=com2 /baudrate=19200"
Save the changed file and boot from this modified disk.

If the startup sequence gets past the point at which Ntoskrnl.exe is loaded, then the debugger is loaded.

The STOP Screen Occurs During the Text

Portion of a WINNT /B or WINNT32 /B Installation

If the STOP screen occurs during the text portion of a WINNT /B or WINNT32 /B installation, and your boot drive uses a File Allocation Table (FAT) partition, edit the Txtsetup.sif file on the root of drive C and change the OsLoadOptions = "/nodebug" entry to read:

OsLoadOptions = "/debug"

NOTE: You can also add other debug parameters to the string inside the quotes. For example:

OsLoadOptions = "/debug /debugport=com2 /baudrate=19200"

Save the changed file and reboot into setup.

NOTE: You need to edit the C:\Txtsetup.sif file before booting to begin Setup but after WINNT or WINNT32 has finished copying the temporary files to the hard drive.

The STOP screen Occurs During the GUI Portion

of Setup and Your Boot Drive Uses a FAT Partition

If the STOP screen occurs during the GUI portion of Setup and your boot drive uses a FAT partition, edit the Boot.ini file on drive C, and add the /debug switch to the correct line in the [operating systems] section of the Boot.ini file. To do this, boot from an MS-DOS floppy disk after the text portion of Setup completes, change the Boot.ini file, and then reboot from the hard disk.

The Boot.ini file entry you need to edit should look similar to the following:

   multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows NT Server
   Version 3.5"

The /debug switch should be added after the text in quotation marks.

The STOP Screen Occurs During the GUI Portion

of Setup and Your Boot Drive Uses an NTFS Partition

If your boot drive uses a Windows NT file system (NTFS) partition and you need to debug the GUI portion of Setup:

Create a boot disk for NTFS.
Add the /debug switch to the correct entry in the [operating systems] section of the Boot.ini file, as well as any other switches needed to configure the computer for a remote or local debug. The entry to edit should look similar to the following:
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Windows NT Server Version 3.5"
The /debug switch should be added after the text in quotation marks.
After Setup completes the text portion and prompts you to remove all floppy disks from the disk drives and reboot, place the boot disk you have created into drive A and reboot the system. This puts the system into debug mode for the GUI portion of Setup.

NOTE: The Windows NT Setup process uses standard NT kernel and system files during setup. To load the appropriate debugging symbols, copy the entire contents of the Support\Debug\<Hardware Platform>\Symbols folder of the installation compact disc to your symbols folder. For example, when you attempt to debug the Windows NT 3.5 setup, load the debug symbols from the Windows NT 3.5 compact disc.

For additional information about the Boot.ini and its contents, query on the following words here in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

   Boot.ini and arc and path

For more information on debug Setup for Windows NT (such as how to configure the modem for dial in and additional debug settings and parameters), see the Windows NT Executive Messages chapter in the "Windows NT Messages" guide of the Windows NT 3.1 and 3.5 Resource Kits.

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