Boot Problem

[Guest]

Hi,

I have a rather unusual problem which I hope you might be able to offer
a suggestion on. I built a computer and have a problem I have not found
mentioned anywhere.

On reboot, BIOS screens all run normally, then there is a 50/50 chance
of either a greyed out XP boot screen (meaning the cover screen for the
driver loading, with "crawling ants"), or the progress bar on the normal
screen freezing and eventually resuming after several minutes only to freeze
again, then start again. Sometimes driver loading completes after 30-60
minutes, other times not after hours. One time in 25 or so, it will boot
normally - quick and clean. Same thing happens with Safe Mode. Once booted up
the computer behaves normally, with no problems. Runs great, really.

The computer has done this since new (over a year), and nothing I've
tried has affected it. The variety of symptoms should make it easy to track
down - it seems only a limited number of things could cause this, but I get
nowhere. Don't even remember whatall I've tried by now. No error messages,
nothing in Event Viewer.

Does this sound like something you've encountered before? Computer has
good spyware, virus, firewall protection. As you can see, there is no exotic
equipment hooked up. Overclocker parts used for additional stability. Thanks
for any answer.


Windows XP Home (currently SP1-no better with SP2)
Abit IC7-G (no overclocking)
Intel Pentium 3.0 (Prescott)
Kingston HyperX 1gb (stock timing)
2 Hitachi Deskstar 250gb
ATI 9800xt
Plextor DVD and CD-only burners
OCZ 500w power supply
Logitech mouse and keyboard
Excellent cooling

 

[thecreator]

Hi Bill,

Install Service Pack 2 and instead of going into Hiberation, trying
shutting down the computer, instead. Also run a Scheduled Chkdsk on the Hard
Drive's operating system partition and defrag the Hard Drive.

Also run a Windows Registry Cleaner, like TuneUp Utilities 2007.

 

[Anna]

Hi Bill,

Install Service Pack 2 and instead of going into Hiberation, trying
shutting down the computer, instead. Also run a Scheduled Chkdsk on the
Hard Drive's operating system partition and defrag the Hard Drive.

Also run a Windows Registry Cleaner, like TuneUp Utilities 2007.

Bill:
Just to clarify your problem...

At the very outset of your describing your problem you state that "On
reboot..." (and then follows your description of the problem).

Are you thus indicating that on a cold boot there is *no* problem. The
system boots and functions properly? It's only when you reboot (restart the
machine) that you run into the problem you describe?

If you want, respond to the above and we can go on from here.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Hi Anna,

Sorry to take so long getting back to you.

Cold boot or reboot is the same - no noticeable change in frequency of
the problem. I'm thinking at this point that it is two separate problems.
Something in the BIOS causing the greyed-out loading screen, and possibly a
driver problem causing the hangup. The fact that it occasionally starts
normally is what makes it so mysterious.

The same problem remained after installing SP2, so I removed it to
track it down. Checkdisk /r did not affect it. Have Repair installed twice,
and fresh installed twice. Haven't defragged yet because of time constraints,
but it was a fresh install to a blank hard drive and it did it from the start.

It also stops going into Safe Mode at agp440.sys. I have tried several
solutions that were suggested for that to no avail. Have tried several
different versions of ATI drivers, refreshed ESCD, etc.

As it can take an hour or more to get it booted up, experimenting with
new options can take a lot of time. It's a whole-day project just to try
something new. Computer runs really nice once I get it booted up, so the
problem seems to be with XP and if it can get past it when booting there are
no issues, so I don't see how it can be a hardware problem. I'll try
stripping off all extra hardware again when I get the time.

I don't see any mention of the grey-out loading screen anywhere else.
Is that something anyone has run across?
................Bill

 

[Anna]

Hi Anna,

Sorry to take so long getting back to you.

Cold boot or reboot is the same - no noticeable change in frequency of
the problem. I'm thinking at this point that it is two separate problems.
Something in the BIOS causing the greyed-out loading screen, and possibly
a
driver problem causing the hangup. The fact that it occasionally starts
normally is what makes it so mysterious.

The same problem remained after installing SP2, so I removed it to
track it down. Checkdisk /r did not affect it. Have Repair installed
twice,
and fresh installed twice. Haven't defragged yet because of time
constraints,
but it was a fresh install to a blank hard drive and it did it from the
start.

It also stops going into Safe Mode at agp440.sys. I have tried
several
solutions that were suggested for that to no avail. Have tried several
different versions of ATI drivers, refreshed ESCD, etc.

As it can take an hour or more to get it booted up, experimenting with
new options can take a lot of time. It's a whole-day project just to try
something new. Computer runs really nice once I get it booted up, so the
problem seems to be with XP and if it can get past it when booting there
are
no issues, so I don't see how it can be a hardware problem. I'll try
stripping off all extra hardware again when I get the time.

I don't see any mention of the grey-out loading screen anywhere else.
Is that something anyone has run across?
................Bill

Bill:
It certainly sounds like a hardware problem at this point. If I had to make
a wild guess (and it would be "wild" at this juncture) I would say there's a
good chance it's your graphic card - either improperly seated, connected, or
simply defective. Do you have another graphics card at your disposal to
substitute?

If not the graphics card, some other misconnected or defective component.
And judging from your description of the problem (unfortunately for
diagnostic purposes) it could be virtually any of your major components -
power supply, motherboard, RAM, etc. It's really hard (if not impossible) to
tell at this point. (I assume you've monitored the system temperatures and
have discovered no problem in that area). And, of course, you've checked
your BIOS settings to determine that all settings are correct for your
installation.

One of the more simple diagnostic procedures you can try at this time is to
check out your boot HDD to determine whether that component is the culprit,
so I would suggest downloading the diagnostic utility from Hitachi's
website.

Assuming at this point there's no indication the problem results from a
defective disk or graphics card and it doesn't appear it's a software
problem, then the basic diagnostic procedure would be to disconnect all
peripherals and just power on with only the CPU, RAM, graphics card,
monitor, keyboard/mouse connected and see if you get a screen display and no
other anomalies.
Anna

 

[Guest]

Hi Anna,

Thanks for taking the time. I'll be trying to look for hardware issues
for a while as time allows. Everything is new, and I've reseated the video
card a few times. There's an answer somewhere I suppose.

One thing I would like to see in Windows in the future is better
diagnostics support. It would be nice if you could set the order for drivers
and start-up programs to load, and be able to stop any of them from loading.
That would make a problem like this much easier to solve. Event Viewer and
other Windows tools just don't help much. Heck, I'd be happy if I could just
see a red X next to something, but it either won't boot or works perfectly.

...........Bill

 

[Guest]

Hi Anna and All,

I finally got this one figured out. It turned out to be the Plextor DVD
burner. I had originally set it up with the CD burner as master and the DVD
as slave. I used the DVD to install Windows so I "knew" it was working OK and
didn't consider that it might be the problem. Apparently that DVD burner
cannot function in the slave position, so it was causing all the above
effects. Works with the BIOS but not with Windows except for the occasional
boot. Pretty strange problem if you ask me. The manual on the DVD burner
wasn't really very clear about it either, when it should have had a big
bold-type warning about not using it as a slave.

Thanks for all advice.

..........Bill