TECHNICAL NOTE

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Number: TN240

Compiled by: David Phillips

Date: 02/05/2008

Version: 1.0

Revision: 1.0

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Re: Recovery of a Loma X4 PC from a Start up Error with the Operating System

This technical note covers the correct procedure for repairing the Microsoft XP
operating system. If the Operating System proves un-repairable then the re-cloning
procedure in section two should be used. This completely copies, bit for bit, an
image of the hard drive from a Compact Flash card, back on to the PC.

PCN0975 details this hardware upgrade. Systems from early 2008 have been fitted
with this compact flash card as standard.

The main symptom of this problem is the PC only booting up as far as the Windows
XP logo screen and going no further. The most common cause of this operating
system corruption is multiple rapid cycling of power to the PC during boot up.

Section 1 : Loma X4 Operating System Recovery Procedure

1) 1) Connect a USB or PS2 keyboard to the rear of the PC (the front panel USB is
not powered until windows starts so will not allow you access to BIOS).
2) Select option 2 from the following boot loader choices on screen:
1. Start Windows normally (default).
2. Start the Microsoft Recovery Console.
NB: You will have only 2 seconds to select the Second option

3) This will start to boot the recovery console.

4) When asked which OS to log onto select option 1: c:\windows

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5) When prompted to enter the Administrator password enter "Administrator", this is
a case sensitive password.
6) Once logged on, type "CHKDSK /R" at the C:\ command prompt
7) Check disk will run and try to repair the damaged files
8) When this is complete, re-start the system by typing "exit". If the system was
repaired succesfully it should now boot without errors.
9) If the system still does not reboot then the Cloning procedure below will need to
be adopted.

Section 2 : Loma X4 Re-Cloning Procedure

It is high desirable that either the Commissioning Engineer or the customer take a
clone of the Loma X4 hard disk post commissioning. The clone provided as standard
on the CF card is a base clone and will not have any of the customer products
included and will not have any special software included, additionally the user will be
required to register Windows and set OS and machine parameters. The procedure to
make a clone is in Section 3.

This section covers how to restore an Operating System image on to the PC HDD
from the Compact Flash Card

1) Connect a USB or PS2 keyboard to the rear of the PC (the front panel USB is not
powered until windows starts so will not allow you access to BIOS).
2) Make sure the Compact Flash Card is Inserted in to the card reader in the back
right hand side of the PC.
3) Reboot the PC and press Delete to enter the BIOS set up.
4) Select Advanced BIOS Features
5) Select First Boot Device and change this to USB-HDD
6) Press F10, y, CR to save and exit
7) The system should then boot from the Compact Flash Card and show a Windows
98 splash screen before loading the Ghost environment from command line.
8) If prompted to mark drives useable by Ghost, click OK.
9) Press OK to the Ghost splash screen
10) From the menu, select Local / Disk / From Image
11) To restore a customer clone select the customer directory, if only a factory
restore is available then select factory directory.
12) Select the desired .gho file.
13) Select destination drive as the large drive (either 40 or 80GB). If the drive size is
highlighted press TAB to move to the Yes key.
14) Proceed with restore Select Yes.
15) The clone should take around 45 minutes
16) When the clone is complete select Reset Computer
17) Press Delete on start up to enter BIOS set up
18) Select Load (LCD) defaults from the front menu.
19) Press F10, y, CR to save and exit
20) Note that if a customer clone has been restored then steps 21 to 49 should not
be necessary.
21) Welcome to Windows Press Next

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22) Accept the End User License Agreement
23) Enter the product key (This will be printed on a label on the top of the PC). And
select Next
24) Is the Computer in a Domain? Select No then Next
25) Checking Internet Connectivity
26) How will this computer connect to the internet? Select Skip
27) Ready to Activate Windows. Select No followed by Next.
28) Who will use this computer? Enter Loma under Your Name and select Next.
29) Select Finish.
30) Allow the system to restart
31) Select the User Spectrum
32) Enter the password spectruminspectionsystems
33) Windows Product Activation: Select Yes
34) Select Yes, I want to telephone
35) Select location as United Kingdom
36) Call number in screen and follow on screen and telephone instructions
37) The system will start the X4 software
38) Go to Windows Start Menu and select Run
39) Enter control userpasswords2
40) Remove Loma as a user
41) Select Spectrum and uncheck User must enter a user name and password to
use this computer
42) Press Apply and enter spectruminspectionsystems as the password.
43) In the system properties dialog (press Win + Break), select the advanced tab,
then click startup and recovery settings. Change the two display times from 30
seconds to 2 seconds and press OK.
44) Whilst still in the system properties dialog, select computer name, then change.
Set the computer name to the machine serial number in the form AAAnnnnn-
nnnnnA. Press OK, and accept the prompt to reboot the system.
45) The system should restart using the suto-logon details supplied and bring up the
X4 software automatically.
46) Use Alt + F4 or task manager to close the X4 application.
47) Open the machine.ini and edit the system serial numbers to the correct values,
then close and save.
48) Open the system.ini and edit the system serial numbers to the correct values,
then close and save.
49) Via the windows start menu restart the system (this makes sure all the settings
are saved).

Section 3 : Making a Copy of the Loma X4 Hard Drive on to Compact Flash

1) Connect a USB or PS2 keyboard to the rear of the PC (the front panel USB is not
powered until windows starts so will not allow you access to BIOS).
2) Make sure the Compact Flash Card is Inserted in to the card reader in the back
right hand side of the PC.
3) Reboot the PC and press Delete to enter the BIOS set up.
4) Select Advanced BIOS Features
5) Select First Boot Device and change this to USB-HDD
6) Press F10, y, CR to save and exit

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7) The system should then boot from the Compact Flash Card and show a Windows
98 splash screen before loading the Ghost environment from command line.
8) If prompted to mark drives useable by Ghost, click OK.
9) Press OK to the Ghost splash screen
10) From the menu, select Local / Disk / To Image.
11) Highlight the HDD (80GB at time of writing), then OK.
12) Select the customer directory, and enter an appropriate filename in DOS 8.3
format with a .gho extension. Extra notes can be added in the file descriptions
dialogue, and it is suggested that this is done to assist in selection of the most
appropriate clone in the future.
13) When prompted, select high compression.
14) Do not enable spanning.
15) If warned about drive space ignore - there is space on the CF card for three high
compression drive images.
16) Click Yes to proceed with image file creation.
17) Image file creation may take up to one hour.
50) When the image writing is complete select Reset Computer
51) Press Delete on start up to enter BIOS set up
52) Select Load (LCD) defaults from the front menu.
53) Press F10, y, CR to save and exit

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