Yesterday I experienced a problem where my 2nd (SLAVE) SATA drive would only show as “unformatted’ in both Windows XP Disk Management and in Easus Partition Manager 4.0 Home. Subsequent googling revealed that a solution that has worked for that problem is to install any service pack for XP. I downloaded and installed XP SP3 Network, and installed if from my DVD drive. After the install, however, my computer got into a constant rebooting phase. I could boot into Safe Mode fine, but it would reboot after loading the Windows splash screen.
So, I googled the problem, and I found this article, by someone who experienced a similar issue:
Does your AMD-based computer boot after installing XP SP3?
Here are the important points to takeaway from this article:
SUMMARY
- This is a known issue that occurs (mostly) on HP or Compaq desktop PC’s running AMD processors. HP deploys same XP image to AMD PC’s as they do Intel PC’s.
- The intelppm.sys driver is a driver for Intel Power Management, which is only unsed on Wintel machines, but is also installed on AMD machines.
- “Ordinarily, having intelppm.sys listed in the registry on an AMD-based computer appears to cause no problems, so long as the binary does not actually run.” (1)
- HP laptops appear unaffected.
- Driver intelppm.sys must both exist on the hard drive, and the registry has to be configured to load it to cause the stated problem.
- “HPs images have the registry key set but no driver on disk. When the service pack is installed the pre-existing directive in the registry is read, the installer lays down the driver on the disk, and on the next reboot it launches, causing the crash.” (1)
SOLUTION
- Boot into Safe Mode.
- Click on “Run” in the Start Menu.
- Type “sc config intelppm start= disabled” (without the quotes), and press Enter.