continuous beep/unresponsiveness after boot in XP

[Phillip]

I've got a generic home-built system about a year old,
based on an Intel D845TGBV motherboard and P4 processor.
Only additional hardware is a modem, hard drive, and Cd-
RW and floppy drives.

The system initially had Win 98 installed on it, and had
no problems.

I just upgraded it to XP pro, and once I updated a few
drivers, just after the XP splash screen goes away, it
starts emitting a continuous 440Hz beep. The login
screen comes up, but the system is almost completely
unresponsive - seems whatever's creating the beep is
tying up the system enough so it doesn't pick up the
mouse clicks, though the mouse tracks very sluggishly.
The beep is continuous, except that mouse clicks
interrupt it for a few milliseconds.

The beep is coming from the vicinity of the processor,
but I can't locate it more precisely. It's not coming
from the modem or the internal system speaker.

The system is unusable in this state, because it's so
unresponsive - can't even log in.

However - if I press F8 during the XP splash screen, the
system boots normally - no beep, and everything works
fine. If the system goes to Standby, then when it comes
back, the beep and unresponsiveness start.

Any ideas on what the problem is, or how to fix it?

What does F8 do to the system when pressed during the XP
splash screen?

BTW - all the hardware and drivers are certified as being
XP compatible.

Thanks!

 

[Lem]

I've got a generic home-built system about a year old,
based on an Intel D845TGBV motherboard and P4 processor.
Only additional hardware is a modem, hard drive, and Cd-
RW and floppy drives.

The system initially had Win 98 installed on it, and had
no problems.

I just upgraded it to XP pro, and once I updated a few
drivers, just after the XP splash screen goes away, it
starts emitting a continuous 440Hz beep. The login
screen comes up, but the system is almost completely
unresponsive - seems whatever's creating the beep is
tying up the system enough so it doesn't pick up the
mouse clicks, though the mouse tracks very sluggishly.
The beep is continuous, except that mouse clicks
interrupt it for a few milliseconds.

The beep is coming from the vicinity of the processor,
but I can't locate it more precisely. It's not coming
from the modem or the internal system speaker.

The system is unusable in this state, because it's so
unresponsive - can't even log in.

However - if I press F8 during the XP splash screen, the
system boots normally - no beep, and everything works
fine. If the system goes to Standby, then when it comes
back, the beep and unresponsiveness start.

Any ideas on what the problem is, or how to fix it?

What does F8 do to the system when pressed during the XP
splash screen?

BTW - all the hardware and drivers are certified as being
XP compatible.

Thanks!

F8 starts in "safe mode" -- with a minimum set of drivers. If this
works, you may have a non-xp driver being loaded. This seems especially
likely because your problem started after you "updated a fiew drivers."
More than likely, at least one of these drivers isn't an XP driver.
From your description, it seems as if the "beep" isn't really a signal
(if it's not coming from a speaker), but some other vibration. Perhaps
your video driver is set at an inappropriately high refresh rate. See
if you can "roll back" the drivers you updated.:
To use the Roll Back Feature:
Start Device Manager.
Double-click the device for which you want to restore the driver.
Click the Driver tab, and then click the Roll Back Driver button.

Or, roll back the entire system using System Restore to a time before
you installed the updated drivers.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;306084

 

[Guest]

-----Original Message-----

F8 starts in "safe mode" -- with a minimum set of drivers. If this
works, you may have a non-xp driver being loaded. This seems especially
likely because your problem started after you "updated a fiew drivers."
More than likely, at least one of these drivers isn't an XP driver.
From your description, it seems as if the "beep" isn't really a signal
(if it's not coming from a speaker), but some other vibration. Perhaps
your video driver is set at an inappropriately high refresh rate. See
if you can "roll back" the drivers you updated.:
To use the Roll Back Feature:
Start Device Manager.
Double-click the device for which you want to restore the driver.
Click the Driver tab, and then click the Roll Back Driver button.

Or, roll back the entire system using System Restore to a time before
you installed the updated drivers.
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;306084

.

The devices I for which I installed new drivers weren't recognized at all
after the upgrade from Win 98. Presumably they were Win 98 drivers.
So, installing new drivers was required to get the system working at all,
and rolling back isn't an option. And, all the drivers I installed were
listed as being XP compatible.

I know that F8 at initial boot brings up the option of booting into Safe
Mode. I tried booting into Safe Mode, and the problem still occurs
when running in Safe Mode. However, if I hold down F8 after the XP
splash screen comes up, then the problem doesn't occur, and I'm not
quite in the same state as when I press F8 at the start of boot and
select Safe Mode boot - e.g. the Administrator user doesn't show at
login when I wwait to press F8 until the splash screen shows.

So, pressing F8 starting at the splash screen seems to do something
different than either pure Safe Mode, or normal boot, but I'm not sure
what. If I knew what, it might help to diagnose the problem.

I'll try the video refresh rate, but can't at the moment - the computer's
at a friend's house.

 

[Malke]

The devices I for which I installed new drivers weren't recognized at
all
after the upgrade from Win 98. Presumably they were Win 98 drivers.
So, installing new drivers was required to get the system working at
all,
and rolling back isn't an option. And, all the drivers I installed
were listed as being XP compatible.

I know that F8 at initial boot brings up the option of booting into
Safe
Mode. I tried booting into Safe Mode, and the problem still occurs
when running in Safe Mode. However, if I hold down F8 after the XP
splash screen comes up, then the problem doesn't occur, and I'm not
quite in the same state as when I press F8 at the start of boot and
select Safe Mode boot - e.g. the Administrator user doesn't show at
login when I wwait to press F8 until the splash screen shows.

So, pressing F8 starting at the splash screen seems to do something
different than either pure Safe Mode, or normal boot, but I'm not sure
what. If I knew what, it might help to diagnose the problem.

I'll try the video refresh rate, but can't at the moment - the
computer's at a friend's house.

It sounds to me like hardware failures. First try a different keyboard.
If that doesn't do it, try a different mouse, video card, test the RAM,
etc. Do one thing at a time and see what happens.

Malke