PC POSTs but won't load Windows

[zmike6]

Since installing a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro, (that's about when the
problem started) my PC will sometimes crash when it tries to load
Windows XP. It only happens about 10-25% of the time, not on every
boot. Previous video card was a Ti4200. The system goes thru the BIOS
memory test and hardware detection normally, but when it comes time to
load Windows it just sits there with a black screen (no Windows
loading screen.) At this point it is locked solid, as ctrl-alt-delete
does nothing, and even caps lock/num lock doesn't function.

After this crash I have to do a hard reset, and upon the next reboot I
get an error message that Windows failed to start normally last time,
and gives me some options (safe mode, normal boot etc.) If I choose
normal boot, WinXP loads normally. I don't have problems in games
over a wide range of resolutions, so I don't see why the vid card
would cause a lockup when just booting into windows.

The problem even happens on a cold boot, where heat should not be an
issue. And I can't imagine it's my power supply, since that seems to
provide adequate juice in gaming situations where the CPU and video
card are much more heavily taxed than booting into Windows.

I've run Adaware scans, virus scans, and checkdisk, none of which
found or corrected a problem. System temps look OK. The last thing I
may try is a defrag, although Windows says I don't need one. System
info is as follows:

Windows XP Home SP1, DirectX 9.0b

420 Watt Power Supply ("Works" brand)
Athlon 2600+ CPU (16x133 version)
MSI KT3 Ultra 2-C (MS-6593) motherboard
768 MB DDR RAM (Kingston/corsair mix running at 266, CAS2)
Sapphire 9800 Pro OEM version (Catalyst 4.1, same prob with 3.7)
Plextor 40-12-40 CDRW
Maxtor 40 gig, 7200 rpm hard drive
SB Live 5.1

 

[johns]

Catalyst 4.1 to 4.3 caused lots of crashes. When I
finally moved to Cat 4.5, all of my lockups stopped.
I did a very clean install of 4.5, carefully removing any
traces of old drivers that I could find. I'm using Cat
4.6 now on a 9600XT with no problems. You could
probably see which driver was the culprit loading in
safe mode, and watching the files load. One of them
is going to take a long time. I suspect that will be it.
However, you are best to just clean the old drivers
and install Cat 4.6 for a start.

johns

 

[Blaedmon]

so youve gone from nvidia to ati - make SURE youve removed all of the nvidia
drivers. There are cleaners for such things - guru3d.com has one. Called nfr
or nastyfileremover, etc, etc. Windows is prolly trying to load wrong
drivers or something.

 

[Bandit]

I had the same problem with the cat 3.7's and the cat 4.1's they
have to be the worst drivers ATI made i'm using the cat 4.4's now
and all is good

 

[Ben Pope]

Since installing a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro, (that's about when the
problem started) my PC will sometimes crash when it tries to load
Windows XP. It only happens about 10-25% of the time, not on every
boot. Previous video card was a Ti4200. The system goes thru the BIOS
memory test and hardware detection normally, but when it comes time to
load Windows it just sits there with a black screen (no Windows
loading screen.) At this point it is locked solid, as ctrl-alt-delete
does nothing, and even caps lock/num lock doesn't function.

After this crash I have to do a hard reset, and upon the next reboot I
get an error message that Windows failed to start normally last time,
and gives me some options (safe mode, normal boot etc.) If I choose
normal boot, WinXP loads normally. I don't have problems in games
over a wide range of resolutions, so I don't see why the vid card
would cause a lockup when just booting into windows.

The problem even happens on a cold boot, where heat should not be an
issue. And I can't imagine it's my power supply, since that seems to
provide adequate juice in gaming situations where the CPU and video
card are much more heavily taxed than booting into Windows.

I've run Adaware scans, virus scans, and checkdisk, none of which
found or corrected a problem. System temps look OK. The last thing I
may try is a defrag, although Windows says I don't need one. System
info is as follows:

Windows XP Home SP1, DirectX 9.0b

420 Watt Power Supply ("Works" brand)
Athlon 2600+ CPU (16x133 version)
MSI KT3 Ultra 2-C (MS-6593) motherboard
768 MB DDR RAM (Kingston/corsair mix running at 266, CAS2)
Sapphire 9800 Pro OEM version (Catalyst 4.1, same prob with 3.7)
Plextor 40-12-40 CDRW
Maxtor 40 gig, 7200 rpm hard drive
SB Live 5.1

Defrag won't change a thing.

Check your voltages is thats my first thought. Although it seems like it
could be drivers from what you've described.

Try turning off fast writes and going to AGP4x

Whilst you're checking things, memtest86+ is always a good one, too.

Ben

 

[rat]

Since installing a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro, (that's about when the
problem started) my PC will sometimes crash when it tries to load
Windows XP. It only happens about 10-25% of the time, not on every
boot. Previous video card was a Ti4200. The system goes thru the BIOS
memory test and hardware detection normally, but when it comes time to
load Windows it just sits there with a black screen (no Windows
loading screen.) At this point it is locked solid, as ctrl-alt-delete
does nothing, and even caps lock/num lock doesn't function.

After this crash I have to do a hard reset, and upon the next reboot I
get an error message that Windows failed to start normally last time,
and gives me some options (safe mode, normal boot etc.) If I choose
normal boot, WinXP loads normally. I don't have problems in games
over a wide range of resolutions, so I don't see why the vid card
would cause a lockup when just booting into windows.

The problem even happens on a cold boot, where heat should not be an
issue. And I can't imagine it's my power supply, since that seems to
provide adequate juice in gaming situations where the CPU and video
card are much more heavily taxed than booting into Windows.

I've run Adaware scans, virus scans, and checkdisk, none of which
found or corrected a problem. System temps look OK. The last thing I
may try is a defrag, although Windows says I don't need one. System
info is as follows:

Windows XP Home SP1, DirectX 9.0b

420 Watt Power Supply ("Works" brand)
Athlon 2600+ CPU (16x133 version)
MSI KT3 Ultra 2-C (MS-6593) motherboard
768 MB DDR RAM (Kingston/corsair mix running at 266, CAS2)
Sapphire 9800 Pro OEM version (Catalyst 4.1, same prob with 3.7)
Plextor 40-12-40 CDRW
Maxtor 40 gig, 7200 rpm hard drive
SB Live 5.1

Had a 'similar' thing happen with a newly built system using same graphic
card as you but different mobo and with an Audigy 2 so this might not apply
but worth a shot..try moving the soundcard to different pci slot.
HTH
rat

 

[V Green]

Had a 'similar' thing happen with a newly built system using same graphic
card as you but different mobo and with an Audigy 2 so this might not apply
but worth a shot..try moving the soundcard to different pci slot.
HTH
rat

damn good advice...although very few mobo mgfrs. tell
you, the AGP shares an IRQ with the PCI slot next to it...

 

[Hard Bastard]

Since installing a Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro, (that's about when the
problem started) my PC will sometimes crash when it tries to load
Windows XP. It only happens about 10-25% of the time, not on every
boot. Previous video card was a Ti4200. The system goes thru the BIOS
memory test and hardware detection normally, but when it comes time to
load Windows it just sits there with a black screen (no Windows
loading screen.) At this point it is locked solid, as ctrl-alt-delete
does nothing, and even caps lock/num lock doesn't function.

After this crash I have to do a hard reset, and upon the next reboot I
get an error message that Windows failed to start normally last time,
and gives me some options (safe mode, normal boot etc.) If I choose
normal boot, WinXP loads normally. I don't have problems in games
over a wide range of resolutions, so I don't see why the vid card
would cause a lockup when just booting into windows.

The problem even happens on a cold boot, where heat should not be an
issue. And I can't imagine it's my power supply, since that seems to
provide adequate juice in gaming situations where the CPU and video
card are much more heavily taxed than booting into Windows.

I've run Adaware scans, virus scans, and checkdisk, none of which
found or corrected a problem. System temps look OK. The last thing I
may try is a defrag, although Windows says I don't need one. System
info is as follows:

Windows XP Home SP1, DirectX 9.0b

420 Watt Power Supply ("Works" brand)
Athlon 2600+ CPU (16x133 version)
MSI KT3 Ultra 2-C (MS-6593) motherboard
768 MB DDR RAM (Kingston/corsair mix running at 266, CAS2

Take out one stick of the Corsair...and one stick of of the kingston...Ram
the Corsair into your left eye...and the kingston into your right eye.... u
should'nt see any problems after that!

 

[John Hall]

I guarantee that this is caused by a hardware conflict and the video card is
the culprit, or at least the video card in combination with your mobo and
other cards you have installed in your system. Go to the Device Manager and
check to see what IRQ is used by your video card and see if it is sharing it
with any other card in your system. Normally this should not be a problem,
but some mobo's do it better than others and XP sometimes hiccups in IRQ
sharing. For instance, I have a rarely used modem that shares an IRQ with
my 9800 pro. When the modem is enabled, video performance is not bad, just
not all that it can be. So normally I set the modem to disabled in Device
Manager and this solves the problem

However, in your case you may need the sharing card all the time, in which
case, the best solution is to move the card to another PCI slot so it no
longer shares an IRQ with your video card. This should solve the problem.

JK

 

[CyBeRKiD]

You are using a card that doesn't support windows xp driver signing with the
original drivers... check the ATI website for updated versions of the
drivers for your platform and you may be able to correct this issue.

CyBeRKiD

"We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in
which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology." (Carl
Sagan)

 

[whistlersma]

I tried that when I installed Everquest as the game reccomended I update my
drivers. Stuffed up everything so I uninstalled the lot and went back to my
original ATI installation disk. I guess that some things are just not meant
to be - reitman