D
Dave Jenkins
[I also posted this under Windows Servers by mistake - should have been here
all along, I think. Sorry.]
I'm using XP SP3, on a Dell desktop that's been installed and running
essentially flawlessly for a few years.
Over the last 6 months, it has been experiencing this problem: About 65% of
the time, when booting, it will freeze at the Windows splash screen. I will
force it to power down by holding the Power button in, and then re-attempt
the boot. It will then offer the Safe Mode choice screen, and if I choose
Last Known Good Configuration, the boot will complete normally.
I have modifed the system to log all boots to ntbtlog.txt, but when I do the
forced power down, the log of the aborted boot doesn't get written out.
So I have a couple of questions:
1. Is there a graceful way restarting the system out of the freeze, that
will allow the log of the aborted boot to complete?
2. Is there any utility/tool that I can use to log all boot activity, (I
guess closing and reopening the file for each entry?) so that I can find out
just exactly where the boot is freezing?
As an aside: I *think* this problem started happening roughly about the
time I installed an HP Photosmart All-in-One printer. I (and myriads of
others) have had a lot of problems with an installed HP service that seems to
run amok - it's the service that discovers the printer on my wired home
network. I did disable the service (and then I couldn't send faxes from the
HP Solution Center software :-( ) and was able to boot successfully for a
couple of times. I changed the service to Manual start, but the boot freeze
continues to occur. None of that is proof positive, though, that this dang
HP service is the heart of the problem, but I just have this sneaky feeling
that
HPSLPSVC might be part of the problem. What I'm looking for is a way to find
out *exactly* what's happening at the point of the freeze.
Thanks.
all along, I think. Sorry.]
I'm using XP SP3, on a Dell desktop that's been installed and running
essentially flawlessly for a few years.
Over the last 6 months, it has been experiencing this problem: About 65% of
the time, when booting, it will freeze at the Windows splash screen. I will
force it to power down by holding the Power button in, and then re-attempt
the boot. It will then offer the Safe Mode choice screen, and if I choose
Last Known Good Configuration, the boot will complete normally.
I have modifed the system to log all boots to ntbtlog.txt, but when I do the
forced power down, the log of the aborted boot doesn't get written out.
So I have a couple of questions:
1. Is there a graceful way restarting the system out of the freeze, that
will allow the log of the aborted boot to complete?
2. Is there any utility/tool that I can use to log all boot activity, (I
guess closing and reopening the file for each entry?) so that I can find out
just exactly where the boot is freezing?
As an aside: I *think* this problem started happening roughly about the
time I installed an HP Photosmart All-in-One printer. I (and myriads of
others) have had a lot of problems with an installed HP service that seems to
run amok - it's the service that discovers the printer on my wired home
network. I did disable the service (and then I couldn't send faxes from the
HP Solution Center software :-( ) and was able to boot successfully for a
couple of times. I changed the service to Manual start, but the boot freeze
continues to occur. None of that is proof positive, though, that this dang
HP service is the heart of the problem, but I just have this sneaky feeling
that
HPSLPSVC might be part of the problem. What I'm looking for is a way to find
out *exactly* what's happening at the point of the freeze.
Thanks.