Boot problems

[Guest]

My system is XP-SP2-Home. Security programs running include Windows Defender,
AVG-Free AV, AVG-Free Antispyware, Comodo firewall, Mailwasher free,
Winpatrol and Spyware Guard.,
Lately I have been having a problem with booting that after the XP logo the
screen goes blank and nothing happens necessitating a hard reset. Then I get
the startup menu. Selecting "last good configuration" sometimes helps but
usually not. If I enter safe mode, log on to my account and then perform
restart I then get into the entry screen normally. However this whole
process takes too much time and clearly something is wrong. I performed
routine maintenance o cleaning up temp files and cleaning the registry
(CCleaner), but hat didn't improve matters.
I would appreciate any suggestions.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

For a single problematic boot please check Event Viewer for Warning /
Error Reports in the System and Application logs and post copies.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Administrative Tools, and
Event Viewer. When researching the meaning of the error, information
regarding Event ID, Source and Description are important.

HOW TO: View and Manage Event Logs in Event Viewer in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;308427&sd=tech

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double click
on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a button
resembling two pages. Double click the button and close Event Viewer. Now
start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of the message. This
will paste the info from the Event Viewer Error Report complete with links
into the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from Event
Viewer.


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Malke]

My system is XP-SP2-Home. Security programs running include Windows
Defender, AVG-Free AV, AVG-Free Antispyware, Comodo firewall,
Mailwasher free, Winpatrol and Spyware Guard.,
Lately I have been having a problem with booting that after the XP
logo the
screen goes blank and nothing happens necessitating a hard reset.
Then I get the startup menu. Selecting "last good configuration"
sometimes helps but
usually not. If I enter safe mode, log on to my account and then
perform
restart I then get into the entry screen normally. However this whole
process takes too much time and clearly something is wrong. I
performed routine maintenance o cleaning up temp files and cleaning
the registry (CCleaner), but hat didn't improve matters.
I would appreciate any suggestions.

You've got a ton of stuff running resident. Perhaps something is causing
a conflict. Ask yourself:

The First Question Of Troubleshooting: what changed between the time
things worked and the time they didn't?

If that doesn't help pinpoint the culprit, do clean-boot
troubleshooting:

Clean boot in Windows XP - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353

Clean-boot advanced troubleshooting in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP -
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

Malke

 

[Gerry Cornell]

RB

Are you saying that the problematic is in Safe Mode rather than Normal Mode?

Can you post a copy of the Report listing the drivers?

Are there any yellow question marks in Device Manager? Right click on
the My Computer icon on your Desktop and select Properties. Hardware,
Device Manager. If yes what is the Device Error code?


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[NewScience]

Have you performed a chkdsk /r on your hard disk?

 

[JS]

Of all the software you listed was any added/installed recently, as this
might be the problem.

JS

 

[Gerry Cornell]

RB

Have you tried to run chkdsk?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

As you are having problems involving your C drive you will need to reboot,
which may or may not cause problems. The tool runs before booting to
the Desktop. I did wonder whether improper shutdowns were causing
this tool to automatically run. Running chkdsk can take some time but
I think you might have noticed it if it was running.

Please let me know how you get on.

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

RB

An explanation of the new /C and /I Switches that are available to use with
Chkdsk.exe
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314835

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/.../proddocs/en-us/bootcons_chkdsk.mspx?mfr=true

I would try HD Tune (freeware).
Download and run it and see what it turns up.
http://www.hdtune.com/

Select the Info tabs and place the cursor on the drive under Drive letter
and then double click the two page icon ( copy to
Clipboard ) and copy into a further message.

Select the Health tab and then double click the two page icon ( copy to
Clipboard ) and copy into a further message.

Also do a full surface scan with HD Tune.

What is the make and model of the hard drive?

--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

..

 

[Ron Martell]

My system is XP-SP2-Home. Security programs running include Windows Defender,
AVG-Free AV, AVG-Free Antispyware, Comodo firewall, Mailwasher free,
Winpatrol and Spyware Guard.,
Lately I have been having a problem with booting that after the XP logo the
screen goes blank and nothing happens necessitating a hard reset. Then I get
the startup menu. Selecting "last good configuration" sometimes helps but
usually not. If I enter safe mode, log on to my account and then perform
restart I then get into the entry screen normally. However this whole
process takes too much time and clearly something is wrong. I performed
routine maintenance o cleaning up temp files and cleaning the registry
(CCleaner), but hat didn't improve matters.
I would appreciate any suggestions.

I would suspect a conflict between some of the software you are
running.

In particular the antispyware stuff. You have:
Windows Defender
AVG-Free antispyware
Winpatrol
Spyware Guard
all doing basically the same job and quite possibly conflicting with
each other. Choose one repeat one of these apps to be your primary
real time resident antispyware protection and either reconfigure the
others so they only run when you manually launch them, or uninstall
them. My personal choice would be to keep Windows Defender but your
preferences may differ.

Also there is a possible conflict between the email scanning functions
in AVG Antivirus and Mailwasher free. I sugges that you reconfigure
AVG to turn off the active email scanning. AVG will still protect you
from virus-infected attachments if you attempt to open one.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Gerry Cornell]

RB

How were the original partitions created and what utility was used to format
the drive as FAT32?
What cluster size is reported by chkdsk? How many cluster are there in each
partition?

Limitations of the FAT32 File System in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=314463

Why was the disk formatted as FAT32 rather than NTFS?



--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Gerry Cornell]

RB

The first thing I discover is that there is an available BIOS update.
http://downloadfinder.intel.com/scr...XP+Home+Edition&lang=eng&strOSs=45&submit=Go!
if link broken try
http://snipurl.com/14nkw

http://downloadmirror.intel.com/df-support/11738/ENG/README.txt


http://downloadmirror.intel.com/df-support/11738/ENG/GC_0313_ReleaseNotes.pdf
if link broken try
http://snipurl.com/14nls

There do seem to have been a number of updates fixing various issues over
the last 12 months.

You cannot create FAT32 partitions over 32 gb with Microsoft tools in
Windows
XP. A third party utility is needed. FAT32 partitions once created by a
third party
utility can, however, be read by the system. Have you installed existing
older
programmes and mentioned that it was your intention to do so to the store
staff
before purchase? If yes what might they be?

This information from the chkdsk report is pertinent to your problem:
"Windows found errors on the disk, but will not fix them
because disk checking was run without the /F (fix) parameter"

Try this:
1. Click Start, and then Run.
2. In Open, type cmd, and then press ENTER.
3. Type "chkdsk C:/F" without the quotes, and then press ENTER.

Note If one or more of the files on the hard disk are open, you will receive
the
following message:
Chkdsk cannot run because the volume is in use by another process.
Would you like to schedule this volume to be checked the next time the
system restarts? (Y/N)
Type Y, and then press ENTER to schedule the disk check, and then
restart your computer to start the disk check


--

Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Guest]

Thank you for your response. The problem seems to occur only on a cold boot
not from restart. Then after the initial XP logo the screen goes black and I
do not even get to the entry screen of Windows or even see the blue "Windows
is starting" screen. Are any of the security programs even running at that
point?
What I do is enter safe mode then do restart and Windows starts normally
and goes right to the entry screen.
I disabled Spyware guard, Winpatrol and Windows Defender and that didn't
help. Mailwasher doesn't scan anything but only looks into my mailbox (I
think) and shouldn't be a problem. The computer is nearly a year old and
these problems only started recently (past few weeks). I recently replaced
Kaspersky AV with AVG but don't remember if the problem started then or
earlier (I think earlier).

 

[Ron Martell]

Thank you for your response. The problem seems to occur only on a cold boot
not from restart. Then after the initial XP logo the screen goes black and I
do not even get to the entry screen of Windows or even see the blue "Windows
is starting" screen. Are any of the security programs even running at that
point?

That puts a different complexion on the problem. With those specific
symptoms there is a strong possibility that it is a hardware related
issue, with some component not functioning properly until it has been
under power for a few minutes and has warmed up. These problems can
be very difficult to diagnose. About the only thing you can do is to
start replacing components until the problem goes away, at which point
you will know that the last item you replaced was the culprit. That
can be time consuming and expensive. The other option is to just live
with the problem until such time as it gets worse, at which point
identification of the problem component will likely be easier.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2006)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
Syberfix Remote Computer Repair

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

 

[Guest]

I have a new latitude D620 laptop. Since my last windows update in december,
my system has been doing the same thing. When I boot, I get the login and
then the screen goes blank. I have to hard boot. I can boot in safe mode
okay. If I use system restore to roll back the updates, the system works
okay. If I install the updates again, the system does the same thing. I
would really appreciate any thoughts you have on this. My system has been
solid since I got the PC four months ago. It seems to be related to the
security updates. Also, when they did work, I found IE7 would not function
properly. I removed IE7 and installed the other updates and the black screen
came back. I removed them and then it worked again. This is a stock system
from Dell and I have not added programs to it.

 

[Guest]

My problem turned out to the the CMOS battery on the motherboard. I removed
and cleaned it and the contacts and returned and everything was fine.

 

[Guest]

Turned out to be the CMOS battery on the motherboard. It just needed
cleaning and then everything returned to normal.

 

[Gerry Cornell]

RB

Thanks for recording the solution.


--

Regards.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England

Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~