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Blank Windows Screen or ISAPNP.sys Hang = A Zero Bytes .Sys Driver

By on July 29, 2010 in Anti-Malware HowTo

I had one hell of a mystery on my hands the other day.  A client called me and said she had a blank screen every-time she booted up her Windows XP computer.  I was pretty busy, so I told her I’d pick it up and work on it over the weekend.  I just figured it was a bad vid card or a corrupted Windows XP install.

Here are the things I tried:

  1. Full Scans using my UBCD4WIN…nothin found…
  2. I tried to load safe-mode but it hung on isapnp.sys everytime.
  3. I ran checkdisk /r
  4. I did an in-place Windows XP repair

….nothing would work.

As I was doing a visual check for standard Windows XP drivers I discovered there was a randomly named zero kb .sys file in c:windowssystem32drivers.  I simply deleted the file and the PC booted up completely normal.

I just wanted to put this out there because it looks like it’s something new.  I’m not sure if it affects other versions of Windows or not.

Please +1 this post if you like me :)

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  • Mitch

    Argh! Had the same issue on a netbook… I ended up recovering all data and installing Netbuntu… Client was happy and I didnt have to worry bout seeing her computer over and over (habitual virus magnet) but I woulda liked to have tried this… Never like to get beat…

  • malwarekilla

    Me either (getting beat that is), but it was just sheer luck that I spotted it. I was barely paying attention. Turns out there are more and more posts on the net about this exact same issue, so it appears to be spreading.

  • nick

    hi matt

  • http://www.pccyber.com Thomas

    Thanks for the tip Matt!

  • TheFreshPrince

    Had the same issue on a notebook – deleting the file also helped – funny that Windows tries to boot an zero byte *.sys-file that isn’t even needed by the system…

  • Thomas

    How do you know what to delete?
    Oh and how can i get the system 32 stuff from my windows installation disk?

  • David

    You have been very helpful. I am trying to clean a friend’s pc and it won’t load windows all the time. I try to boot in safe made and it stalls on a .sys file. sometimes it loads to windows but after a few minutes it locks up because of all the “junk” on it. Do you think this might help? And how would I delete the file?

  • http://sites.google.com/site/boelectronic/ Omid Farhang

    only delete files or remove their entries via SystemInternals Autoruns too? :-)

  • Jason Schoon

    I honestly did not think this would work, but it worked great. Thanks

  • grasshopper

    worked great for me – thanks!

  • Bow-Man

    Worked for me. Had a malware .sys file in there. Renamed it to a .sys.bak and rebooted.
    Was able to get to the desktop.
    Deleted the file, and finished cleaning the malware off it.

    Thanks! Great find!

    • malwarekilla

      @Bow-man – thanks! I’m actually seeing more of these now.

  • dz

    great worked for me too


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