problem[s] with booting

[albert]

I also posted this over in microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter. It's
occurred to me that the kind of problem I describe in this post might be
more in line with the subject of this newsgroup. TIA for any help you can
offer.


I am having problems with Windows MCE and would like some detective help.
It is an OEM edition on a 3 month old Gateway PC it came on [Pentium D,
3Ghz, 2 Gb Ram. Not hooked up to a TV or Home Theatre setup, I use it
primarily as a business PC].

I keep it fully patched and up to date. I use Norton's AV and Firewall.
Recently the PC began to have long boot times -- it would boot at normal
speed up to the desktop wallpaper, and then take a long time before the
desktop icons appeared. During that time, the machine would seem to
repeatedly access the HD [a brief, quick flash of the HD LED], then sit as
if waiting for a response. Finally, the icons would appear, and the boot
would complete at normal speed.

Yesterday Windows MCE refused to complete its boot. This time, it only got
to the splash screen, seemed to go part way through that process, and then
froze -- never even getting to "welcome".

The machine would, however, do a Safe Mode boot without any problem.

I did a full Scan -- Chkdsk and repair. No problems were found.
I reinstalled an earlier Norton Ghost full disk image, one I knew was good
and ran OK. I got the same problem -- this restored disk image would boot
to Safe Mode, but not complete a regular boot.

Then, after the restored image's first Safe Mode only boot, the second boot
went all the way through to normal mode [with the long pause described
above, after the desktop wallpaper came up].

I am thinking this may be a machine problem -- something loose or needing to
be reseated, perhaps -- but I am not sure. Below is an excerpt from the
"ntbtlog.txt" file. The file itself is very long ~320K [about 68 pages of
text]. I could post the whole thing, if necessary, but perhaps the excerpts
below will be sufficient:

I will be opening the case some time this weekend, and will reseat
everything. [At this moment, the machine has been on since I got it
successfully booted many hours ago, so everything is likely nice and warm
and firmly seated, and I need to leave it like this the rest of the day, so
I will not be rebooting].

Any help in leading me to where and what I should be looking at --
machine-wise, OS-wise, otherwise -- will be much appreciated.

TIA
Albert


Here are the NTBTLOG.TXT excerpts:

===============
first, the file reads with successful loads, beginning with these:
===============

Service Pack 211 24 2006 00:52:49.375
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\KDCOM.DLL
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\BOOTVID.dll
Loaded driver ACPI.sys


===============
The last listings in the consecutive sequence of successful loads are these:
===============

Loaded driver ohci1394.sys
Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\1394BUS.SYS
Loaded driver Mup.sys
Loaded driver agp440.sys
Loaded driver alim1541.sys
Loaded driver amdagp.sys
Loaded driver agpCPQ.sys

================
at this point the log file starts a long sequence of "did not load"s [with
an occasional "loaded driver" line] --- repeatedly listing these drivers,
not always in the same order:
================

Did not load driver NVIDIA GeForce 6200 TurboCache(TM)
Did not load driver SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
Did not load driver ATI Unified AVStream Driver
Did not load driver PCI Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP
Did not load driver Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host
Controller
Did not load driver Printer Port
Did not load driver Communications Port
Did not load driver Audio Codecs
Did not load driver Legacy Audio Drivers
Did not load driver Media Control Devices
Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
Did not load driver Video Codecs
Did not load driver Intel Processor
Did not load driver Intel Processor

Did not load driver WAN Miniport (L2TP)
Did not load driver WAN Miniport (IP)
Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPPOE)
Did not load driver WAN Miniport (PPTP)
Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
Did not load driver Packet Scheduler Miniport
Did not load driver Direct Parallel

Did not load driver Broadcom NetXtreme Gigabit Ethernet
Did not load driver ATI Unified AVStream Driver
Did not load driver PCI Soft Data Fax Modem with SmartCP
Did not load driver Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host
Controller

================
the very end of the log file reads as follows:
================

Did not load driver Legacy Video Capture Devices
Did not load driver Video Codecs
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ndisuio.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\rdbss.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb.sys
Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\srv.sys
Did not load driver \SystemRoot\system32\DRIVERS\ipnat.sys

=================

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

I also posted this over in microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter. It's
occurred to me that the kind of problem I describe in this post might be
more in line with the subject of this newsgroup. TIA for any help you can
offer.


I am having problems with Windows MCE and would like some detective help.
It is an OEM edition on a 3 month old Gateway PC it came on [Pentium D,
3Ghz, 2 Gb Ram. Not hooked up to a TV or Home Theatre setup, I use it
primarily as a business PC].

I keep it fully patched and up to date. I use Norton's AV and Firewall.
Recently the PC began to have long boot times -- it would boot at normal
speed up to the desktop wallpaper, and then take a long time before the
desktop icons appeared. During that time, the machine would seem to
repeatedly access the HD [a brief, quick flash of the HD LED], then sit as
if waiting for a response. Finally, the icons would appear, and the boot
would complete at normal speed.

Yesterday Windows MCE refused to complete its boot. This time, it only got
to the splash screen, seemed to go part way through that process, and then
froze -- never even getting to "welcome".

The machine would, however, do a Safe Mode boot without any problem.

Machines that can boot in Safe Mode but not in normal mode
have a problem with something that loads non normal mode but
not in Safe Mode. Your task is to find out what it is. Here is how
you can do it:
1. Break your Internet connection. If you don't then you might get
hit with a virus.
2. Run msconfig.exe and click the Startup tab.
3. Untick every task.
4. Reboot in normal mode.
5. Restore one or two ticks at the time until you find the culprit.

 

[Rock]

I also posted this over in microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter. It's
occurred to me that the kind of problem I describe in this post might be
more in line with the subject of this newsgroup. TIA for any help you
can offer.


I am having problems with Windows MCE and would like some detective help.
It is an OEM edition on a 3 month old Gateway PC it came on [Pentium D,
3Ghz, 2 Gb Ram. Not hooked up to a TV or Home Theatre setup, I use it
primarily as a business PC].

I keep it fully patched and up to date. I use Norton's AV and Firewall.
Recently the PC began to have long boot times -- it would boot at normal
speed up to the desktop wallpaper, and then take a long time before the
desktop icons appeared. During that time, the machine would seem to
repeatedly access the HD [a brief, quick flash of the HD LED], then sit as
if waiting for a response. Finally, the icons would appear, and the boot
would complete at normal speed.

Yesterday Windows MCE refused to complete its boot. This time, it only
got
to the splash screen, seemed to go part way through that process, and then
froze -- never even getting to "welcome".

The machine would, however, do a Safe Mode boot without any problem.

I did a full Scan -- Chkdsk and repair. No problems were found.
I reinstalled an earlier Norton Ghost full disk image, one I knew was good
and ran OK. I got the same problem -- this restored disk image would boot
to Safe Mode, but not complete a regular boot.

Then, after the restored image's first Safe Mode only boot, the second
boot
went all the way through to normal mode [with the long pause described
above, after the desktop wallpaper came up].

I am thinking this may be a machine problem -- something loose or needing
to
be reseated, perhaps -- but I am not sure. Below is an excerpt from the
"ntbtlog.txt" file. The file itself is very long ~320K [about 68 pages of
text]. I could post the whole thing, if necessary, but perhaps the
excerpts
below will be sufficient:

I will be opening the case some time this weekend, and will reseat
everything. [At this moment, the machine has been on since I got it
successfully booted many hours ago, so everything is likely nice and warm
and firmly seated, and I need to leave it like this the rest of the day,
so
I will not be rebooting].

Any help in leading me to where and what I should be looking at --
machine-wise, OS-wise, otherwise -- will be much appreciated.

<snip>

Try some clean boot troubleshooting.
How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310560

How to perform advanced clean-boot troubleshooting in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=316434

How to perform a clean boot in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/?id=310353

 

[albert]

I also posted this over in microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter. It's
occurred to me that the kind of problem I describe in this post might be
more in line with the subject of this newsgroup. TIA for any help you
can offer.


I am having problems with Windows MCE and would like some detective help.
It is an OEM edition on a 3 month old Gateway PC it came on [Pentium D,
3Ghz, 2 Gb Ram. Not hooked up to a TV or Home Theatre setup, I use it
primarily as a business PC].

Pegasus, Rock ---

Thank you for the advice. I've begun reading the webpages recommended, and
will be working thru what loads, using msconfig, starting with everything
turned off [and the Internet connection off, too].

I'll report back after systematically going thru the procedures you both
suggested.

Albert

 

[Rock]

I also posted this over in microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter. It's
occurred to me that the kind of problem I describe in this post might
be more in line with the subject of this newsgroup. TIA for any help
you can offer.


I am having problems with Windows MCE and would like some detective help.
It is an OEM edition on a 3 month old Gateway PC it came on [Pentium D,
3Ghz, 2 Gb Ram. Not hooked up to a TV or Home Theatre setup, I use it
primarily as a business PC].

Pegasus, Rock ---

Thank you for the advice. I've begun reading the webpages recommended,
and will be working thru what loads, using msconfig, starting with
everything turned off [and the Internet connection off, too].

I'll report back after systematically going thru the procedures you both
suggested.

Ok Albert, good luck.

 

[albert]

I also posted this over in microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter. It's
occurred to me that the kind of problem I describe in this post might
be more in line with the subject of this newsgroup. TIA for any help
you can offer.


I am having problems with Windows MCE and would like some detective
help.
It is an OEM edition on a 3 month old Gateway PC it came on [Pentium D,
3Ghz, 2 Gb Ram. Not hooked up to a TV or Home Theatre setup, I use it
primarily as a business PC].

Pegasus, Rock ---

Thank you for the advice. I've begun reading the webpages recommended,
and will be working thru what loads, using msconfig, starting with
everything turned off [and the Internet connection off, too].

I'll report back after systematically going thru the procedures you both
suggested.

Ok Albert, good luck.

Rock, Pegasus--

You both nailed it. Initial problem solved. Learned a few things, too.
Most important fact to me presently is that the ability to boot in Safe Mode
means my problem was drivers -- which was an initial relief to me.

As these things go, I now have new questions, of course. After I get to a
point where I understand what I understand and what I don't, I will post
those in another post here. Perhaps you will have more answers for me.

With everything in MSConfig Startup disabled, the machine boots nice and
smooth. Almost all those "did not load driver" lines in NTBTLOG are gone,
and whatever remains is clearly not vital to what I want my machine to do
for me.

I have an NVidia card, and see that the NvCpl insists on making itself an
active startup item. No problem with that. After some experimentation, I
reactivated the startup items that deal with my Norton Security [AV,
Firewall] -- that's prudent, and they, also, don't hurt the bootup process.
"ctfmon" is another startup item that is not a problem [an MS Office item,
as I understand it from researching it], and it, also, insists on making
itself active in startup.

For now, I am leaving everything else under the MSConfig Startup tab
disabled. If and when I find something I must use that won't fly without
being active in startup, then I will enable it -- and find out at that time
whether or not it was a culprit in my *former* startup problems.

I am beginning to think I may simply trash my MCE and install and rebuild my
system with Win XP Pro. My present machine replaced a machine I'd built
with XP Pro. I hadn't planned to get MCE, but I was planning to build a
newer machine. I was in the right place at the right time [unusual for
me] -- the price was good [a dual-core machine, and it didn't need me to
build it]. I was curious about MCE, so what the heck. But now that I have
had it for several months, beyond the convenience of having a live TV option
[something I'd had back in the days of Win95 and an ATI AIW card], there is
not much use of MCE for me on this machine.

Thanks again for your help.
Albert

 

[Rock]

"albert" wrote

I also posted this over in microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter. It's
occurred to me that the kind of problem I describe in this post might
be more in line with the subject of this newsgroup. TIA for any help
you can offer.


I am having problems with Windows MCE and would like some detective
help.
It is an OEM edition on a 3 month old Gateway PC it came on [Pentium D,
3Ghz, 2 Gb Ram. Not hooked up to a TV or Home Theatre setup, I use it
primarily as a business PC].


Pegasus, Rock ---

Thank you for the advice. I've begun reading the webpages recommended,
and will be working thru what loads, using msconfig, starting with
everything turned off [and the Internet connection off, too].

I'll report back after systematically going thru the procedures you both
suggested.

Ok Albert, good luck.

Rock, Pegasus--

You both nailed it. Initial problem solved. Learned a few things, too.
Most important fact to me presently is that the ability to boot in Safe
Mode
means my problem was drivers -- which was an initial relief to me.

As these things go, I now have new questions, of course. After I get to a
point where I understand what I understand and what I don't, I will post
those in another post here. Perhaps you will have more answers for me.

With everything in MSConfig Startup disabled, the machine boots nice and
smooth. Almost all those "did not load driver" lines in NTBTLOG are gone,
and whatever remains is clearly not vital to what I want my machine to do
for me.

I have an NVidia card, and see that the NvCpl insists on making itself an
active startup item. No problem with that. After some experimentation, I
reactivated the startup items that deal with my Norton Security [AV,
Firewall] -- that's prudent, and they, also, don't hurt the bootup
process.
"ctfmon" is another startup item that is not a problem [an MS Office item,
as I understand it from researching it], and it, also, insists on making
itself active in startup.

For now, I am leaving everything else under the MSConfig Startup tab
disabled. If and when I find something I must use that won't fly without
being active in startup, then I will enable it -- and find out at that
time
whether or not it was a culprit in my *former* startup problems.

I am beginning to think I may simply trash my MCE and install and rebuild
my system with Win XP Pro. My present machine replaced a machine I'd
built with XP Pro. I hadn't planned to get MCE, but I was planning to
build a newer machine. I was in the right place at the right time
[unusual for me] -- the price was good [a dual-core machine, and it didn't
need me to build it]. I was curious about MCE, so what the heck. But now
that I have had it for several months, beyond the convenience of having a
live TV option [something I'd had back in the days of Win95 and an ATI AIW
card], there is not much use of MCE for me on this machine.

You're welcome. Thanks for posting an update and glad it's working for you
now.