Difficult to start XP normally

[Kirk]

Leaving my Windows HP home ed PC overnight , and it does not start up at
all. It hangs at the point I would be expecting the splash screen to appear,
with a blank black screen , and no sign of hard drive activity- the fan
stays at full speed so there may be some processor activity.
Press the 'off' button, and it goes to 'off' as expected after 4 or 5
seconds.
Now press the off-on a second time and it burst into life offering the 'safe
mode' options. Chose Safe mode and its starts and suns normally. From Safe
Mode, select shut down, restart and it starts and then behaves perfectly.
I have checked the device manager looking for errors and there are none, I
have run the antivirus , trojan etc software.
The setup is Windows XP home 2002 service pack 2 with a pentium 4 CPU 3.4GhZ
with 2GB of RAM
I have run SFC , and tried registryfix letting it correct any errors. it
still behaves the same so I have restored to the previous 'good' point. I
have restored back as far as I can.
I have not suffered virus attacks, or added any software or hardware ( that
comes to mind) that my caused any problem.
Any offers what may be wrong or how to diagnose it.

 

[PvdG42]

Leaving my Windows HP home ed PC overnight , and it does not start up at
all. It hangs at the point I would be expecting the splash screen to
appear, with a blank black screen , and no sign of hard drive activity-
the fan stays at full speed so there may be some processor activity.
Press the 'off' button, and it goes to 'off' as expected after 4 or 5
seconds.
Now press the off-on a second time and it burst into life offering the
'safe mode' options. Chose Safe mode and its starts and suns normally.
From Safe Mode, select shut down, restart and it starts and then behaves
perfectly.
I have checked the device manager looking for errors and there are none, I
have run the antivirus , trojan etc software.
The setup is Windows XP home 2002 service pack 2 with a pentium 4 CPU
3.4GhZ with 2GB of RAM
I have run SFC , and tried registryfix letting it correct any errors. it
still behaves the same so I have restored to the previous 'good' point. I
have restored back as far as I can.
I have not suffered virus attacks, or added any software or hardware (
that comes to mind) that my caused any problem.
Any offers what may be wrong or how to diagnose it.

This sounds like a possible hardware issue.
I'm guessing here, based on the symptoms you describe, but I've seen this
when the PSU (power supply) is marginal or failing. By marginal, I mean just
enough to run your PC, but not enough to supply the needed current for a
cold start. These symptoms can appear inconsistently.
I have had two different PC's that exhibited your symptoms, and a better PSU
cured both.
To determine if I'm on the right track, ask yourself the following:
Is your PC from a major mfg, such as Dell, Gateway, HP, etc.? If so, the
supplied PSU is probably the bare minimum for the factory configuration. You
also need to check with the mfg to be sure a standard ATX PSU can be
installed in their PC.
How old is the computer and is the PSU a known quality brand or just
something that came with the case.
Most PSU's have a sticker on the side that show the wattage ratings for the
various voltages (+12v, +5v are the most important). What are they?
Since acquiring the computer, what hardware devices have you changed or
added?
Finally, PSU's can degrade over time, so if your PSU was just good enough
for the original PC configuration when new, and/or you have changed the
configuration to use more power, your PSU could be the culprit.
Unfortunately, the only way to test this theory is to acquire a new PSU,
known to have more than adequate capacity, install it and see if the boot
problem goes away.
Without knowing the details of all your hardware, it's impossible to make
specific PSU capacity recommendations.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

i think the program
below will be of help.

install it to run
at each boot time:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/PageDefrag.mspx


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..

 

[Kirk]

Thanks guys for the two replies... The hardware is about 3 years old now,
and the only thing added has been an external USB hard drive- self powered,
but I did wonder about PSU failing slowly. I also thought 3 years old, hard
drive begining to fail, so I downloaded harddisc monitor or something
similar to that and ran that a few times...it showed no failures and 100%
good drive.
Ive downloaded the defrag prog and I will install before closing tonight. I
will be back with some results of what it does in a couple of days.
Regards
And Thanks

 

[AJR]

Kirk - If computer runs OK via Safe Mode but problematic in normal mode - a
driver is at fault.. Consider using the bootlog option on the F8 menu or a
selective startup via msconfig.

 

[Kirk]

Thanks for that AJR, I will try that at the next start up. To the gent that
suggested pagedefrag, I have installed, it ran, and the screen locked after
defragging ( or should I say I didn't go any further) I have checked drivers
thru the Device manager and it doesnt show any problem driver.
Thanks for the suggestions guys.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

well,

as we know you are able
to start in safe mode and this
is a major clue.

therefore, something is installed
in normal mode that is causing
the issue and it could be a third
party driver or a third party process
as the other intuitive responders
suggest and the experts in the links
below.

there are several methods to
analyze what is causing the problem.

1) method is to turn on boot logging feature.
this will log the events into a text file as you
boot in normal mode and until it stalls.
then when you reboot into safemode,
you can review that log and see
where the boot encounters failure.

http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&q=boot+logging+

2) another method is to use the "clean boot"
method.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

however, in addition to the instructions by the
experts at the above link here's a tip
from us users that you can try
first and before the above:

press and hold down the shift key
right after the o.s. boot menu and
hold it down until the desktop loads,
if it loads that is, as the shift key will
disable startups before loading
the desktop.

if you still have pagedefrag
installed, just keep the shift key held
down and don't release it even
during the defrag. release the key
after the desktop loads your
icons.

something to keep in mind that
even though we defragged your
hives, the program does not remove
corrupted keys from the registry,
that is if there are any and may be
a cause for the stall.

but we can help take this particular
issue that affects your particular
configuration, one step at a time.



--

<)))º>·´¯`·.¸. , . .·´¯`·.. ><)))º>`·.¸¸.·´¯`·.¸.·´¯`·...¸><)))º>

..

 

[dloj333]

well,

as we know you are able
to start in safe mode and this
is a major clue.

therefore, something is installed
in normal mode that is causing
the issue and it could be a third
party driver or a third party process
as the other intuitive responders
suggest and the experts in the links
below.

there are several methods to
analyze what is causing the problem.

1) method is to turn on boot logging feature.
this will log the events into a text file as you
boot in normal mode and until it stalls.
then when you reboot into safemode,
you can review that log and see
where the boot encounters failure.

http://search.microsoft.com/results.aspx?mkt=en-US&setlang=en-US&q=bo...

2) another method is to use the "clean boot"
method.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434

however, in addition to the instructions by the
experts at the above link here's a tip
from us users that you can try
first and before the above:

press and hold down the shift key
right after the o.s. boot menu and
hold it down until the desktop loads,
if it loads that is, as the shift key will
disable startups before loading
the desktop.

if you still have pagedefrag
installed, just keep the shift key held
down and don't release it even
during the defrag. release the key
after the desktop loads your
icons.

something to keep in mind that
even though we defragged your
hives, the program does not remove
corrupted keys from the registry,
that is if there are any and may be
a cause for the stall.

but we can help take this particular
issue that affects your particular
configuration, one step at a time.

--



.

Seems to me that when you received the blank screen during bootup
something crashed and considering windows gave you the safe mode
option on the next startup it would seem that it was windows. You can
always go buy a power supply tester for 10 to 20 bucks and test the
power supply and make sure it does give the correct voltages. The
event logging though sounds like a good idea as it will tell you where
the error occurred. Troubleshooting is a step by step process. One
of the things I would suggest are these, 1) Under any circumstances if
your computer fails for some reason do NOT load any more software on,
especially third party, even though some may think it is a wonder app
you have just added another piece to the puzzle. If during the
troubleshooting process you have changed something, like added another
piece of software, if the problem is not fixed remove that software
immediately or put the switches back to where they were, if you have
messed with the motherboard. In other words if you try something and
it doesn't work go back to the original position before you try any
thing else. Good Luck.
dloj

 

[Kirk]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, but I am fast coming to the conclusion
it may be the PSU failling. Once the PC is started after going <power up>
<Lockup before splash screen> <reset via off on switch><safe mode><close
down/restart> <power up correctly> then any further shut downs , even power
off, then restart is normal... Not bothering to test PSU, as they are cheap,
so I'll be getting a new one from the computer fair nearby tomorrow.. Thanks
for the suggestions guys, much appreciated, if it still fails after , like
schwarzenneger , I'll be back...
Regards

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?_db_=B4=AF`=B7.._=3E=3C=29=29=29=BA]

ok

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