'select proper boot device' .... Strange recent behavior with hybernationand now startup!

[ndy]

maybe 3-4 weeks back, one time starting up from hibernation mode I got a
Dos screen, with the message:

"Reboot and Select proper boot device
Insert boot Media in selected Boot Device and press a key"

the screen just sits there, with an active cursor waiting, press any
keys and it just repeats the message, F8, doesn't do a thing. so, I turn
it off and most times, in the beginning, it would then start the
hibernation load and up and running.

after a while I figured it may have had something to do with the fact
that I sometimes turn off my DSL modem, Verizon setup, after shutdown
when I figure I'm not going online for a day or so and that changed the
configuration from when it hibernated and it seemed at first that
anecdotally, by turning the modem back on this may have made a
difference. eventually it really didn't seem to be the trick and so I
just kept the modem on and still this screen increasingly pops up after
the computer has been hibernating overnight or some length of time, not
if I turn it off and then back on a short time later.

the next thing I decided to test was if maybe somehow it was hibernation
so I stopped using that but it seems now to be doing it when I perform a
system shutoff as well, whether I leave the modem on or not, or turn it
off before I shut down.

I haven't installed anything new for some time except for the latest MS
updates, Jan, and Feb, although I did install Sun Java 1.5 a few weeks
back around the time this thing really became a problem, but the problem
may have been prior to this. I'm just guessing but for the hell of it I
uninstalled it tonight but I dare not really test this as the solution
until I hopefully get some feedback and suggestions.

I have run extensive Spyware and full system virus scans and all is
reported clean.

the worst thing is it seems to be slowly getting worse as it is becoming
harder and harder to get past this screen once I shut down my machine.
at first I only had to shut it off and reboot and most times it would
kick into either hibernation loading or just starting if a shutdown and
sometimes maybe a 2nd reboot. but lately it is taking more and more on
and offs, like tonight, I had to turn it off and on like 6 times and as
you can imagine, this is getting a little scary that it might never get
come back and I think I better keep it on for the time being until I get
to the bottom of this.

anybody have any ideas????

 

[Smoker~]

maybe 3-4 weeks back, one time starting up from hibernation mode I got a
Dos screen, with the message:

"Reboot and Select proper boot device
Insert boot Media in selected Boot Device and press a key"

the screen just sits there, with an active cursor waiting, press any
keys and it just repeats the message, F8, doesn't do a thing. so, I turn
it off and most times, in the beginning, it would then start the
hibernation load and up and running.

after a while I figured it may have had something to do with the fact
that I sometimes turn off my DSL modem, Verizon setup, after shutdown
when I figure I'm not going online for a day or so and that changed the
configuration from when it hibernated and it seemed at first that
anecdotally, by turning the modem back on this may have made a
difference. eventually it really didn't seem to be the trick and so I
just kept the modem on and still this screen increasingly pops up after
the computer has been hibernating overnight or some length of time, not
if I turn it off and then back on a short time later.

the next thing I decided to test was if maybe somehow it was hibernation
so I stopped using that but it seems now to be doing it when I perform a
system shutoff as well, whether I leave the modem on or not, or turn it
off before I shut down.

I haven't installed anything new for some time except for the latest MS
updates, Jan, and Feb, although I did install Sun Java 1.5 a few weeks
back around the time this thing really became a problem, but the problem
may have been prior to this. I'm just guessing but for the hell of it I
uninstalled it tonight but I dare not really test this as the solution
until I hopefully get some feedback and suggestions.

I have run extensive Spyware and full system virus scans and all is
reported clean.

the worst thing is it seems to be slowly getting worse as it is becoming
harder and harder to get past this screen once I shut down my machine.
at first I only had to shut it off and reboot and most times it would
kick into either hibernation loading or just starting if a shutdown and
sometimes maybe a 2nd reboot. but lately it is taking more and more on
and offs, like tonight, I had to turn it off and on like 6 times and as
you can imagine, this is getting a little scary that it might never get
come back and I think I better keep it on for the time being until I get
to the bottom of this.

anybody have any ideas????

---
Don't use the hibernation at all if you have problems with it and until this
is fixed it will only complicate the matter.

Go into your BIOS and check all the settings especially your boot sequence
where the order should be Floppy first, then CD ROM/Optical, then Hard
Drive.

Unplug your DSL modem from the power, pull all the cords out of it and wait
awhile. Do this with your machine turned off. Verizon calls this recycling
the modem. Actually it might be a goof idea to reboot with your modem
disconnected from the computer, then shut it down and plug everything in and
start up. I really forget but call VZ and they will tell you.

If you have a problem starting up what happens when you start in Safe Mode?

What OS are you using?

Try it as the solution. You're talking about your uninstall of Sun Java? Got
to get you stable before you install that again, don't you think?

 

[ndy]

Don't use the hibernation at all if you have problems with it and until this
is fixed it will only complicate the matter.

as I said, it is happening now from shutdown, that's the scary part.

Go into your BIOS and check all the settings especially your boot sequence
where the order should be Floppy first, then CD ROM/Optical, then Hard
Drive.

Unplug your DSL modem from the power, pull all the cords out of it and wait
awhile. Do this with your machine turned off. Verizon calls this recycling
the modem. Actually it might be a goof idea to reboot with your modem
disconnected from the computer, then shut it down and plug everything in and
start up. I really forget but call VZ and they will tell you.

If you have a problem starting up what happens when you start in Safe Mode?

like I said, I can't do anything, either from hibernation startup or
starting from a shutdown, no F8 , no nothing!

What OS are you using?

WinXP Pro, clean install first of the this year.

Try it as the solution. You're talking about your uninstall of Sun Java? Got
to get you stable before you install that again, don't you think?

I have been doing some investigating after I sent this and it looks like
this problem is not uncommon but as usual, varied answers, worst thing,
it can be a precursor to HD failure. for some background, should have
done this first, in my case that shouldn't be the problem as it is a new
drive with a new XP Pro install 2 months back. modem was installed from
the very first and no problems for a month then this. I have done a
Google search and it doesn't sound very good and pretty much seems to
have little to do with modems, or even programs for that matter. maybe
things like BIOS, which I haven't really changed much from its default,
the boot sequence as you are talking about is HD only for simplicities
sake and quicker startup. however, reading some of the answers to this
problem from that search does sound suspiciously HD in nature and the
fact that it will start after a reboot, but now is taking more reboots
to get it to start should be a clue. guess I better call Maxtor,
unfortunately I'll have to wait until next week.

I found this suggestion in a discussion of this problem. what do you think?

How to Repair the Boot Sector:
If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or
corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files.

To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from
the XP CD using the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the
Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following
(where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite
the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and
press Enter. Then answer "Y"


then from a Google groups search, there's things like this over the years:

Your hard drive is in some way corrupted, and the Recovery disk being
sent to you are the ONLY way to work through finding out if it can be
fixed by you, or if you need replacement hardware

If your computer work besides the annoyance you have described, try
going into the BIOS and unselect everything on the boot sequence besides
the hard drive.

Is there a setting in the bios for the amount of time it waits for the
drives to spinup? It sounds like your boot drive isn't being recognized
the first boot. ON the reboot since the drives have spunup their recognized.

Is the "IDE Detect Timeout" set to 35 seconds ? That is the
maximum time the BIOS will wait for a drive to finish spinning
up, when connected to the Southbridge. I don't think the Promise
20378 chip has a configuration option for timeouts (RAID BIOS
modules for add-on chips don't seem to support that option
in general).

 

[Smoker~]

as I said, it is happening now from shutdown, that's the scary part.


like I said, I can't do anything, either from hibernation startup or
starting from a shutdown, no F8 , no nothing!

WinXP Pro, clean install first of the this year.

I have been doing some investigating after I sent this and it looks like
this problem is not uncommon but as usual, varied answers, worst thing,
it can be a precursor to HD failure. for some background, should have
done this first, in my case that shouldn't be the problem as it is a new
drive with a new XP Pro install 2 months back. modem was installed from
the very first and no problems for a month then this. I have done a
Google search and it doesn't sound very good and pretty much seems to
have little to do with modems, or even programs for that matter. maybe
things like BIOS, which I haven't really changed much from its default,
the boot sequence as you are talking about is HD only for simplicities
sake and quicker startup. however, reading some of the answers to this
problem from that search does sound suspiciously HD in nature and the
fact that it will start after a reboot, but now is taking more reboots
to get it to start should be a clue. guess I better call Maxtor,
unfortunately I'll have to wait until next week.

I found this suggestion in a discussion of this problem. what do you
think?

How to Repair the Boot Sector:
If XP won't start it may be due to a damaged boot sector or a missing or
corrupt ntldr or ntdetect.com files.

To replace damaged ntldr and ntdetect.com you can copy fresh files from
the XP CD using the COPY command. Boot with the XP CD and enter the
Recovery Console (as above). At the Command Prompt type the following
(where "X" is your CD-Rom drive letter) allowing the files to overwrite
the old files
COPY X:\i386\NTLDR C:
COPY X:\i386\NTDETECT.COM C:

To repair a damaged Boot Sector at the command prompt type FIXBOOT and
press Enter. Then answer "Y"


then from a Google groups search, there's things like this over the years:

Your hard drive is in some way corrupted, and the Recovery disk being
sent to you are the ONLY way to work through finding out if it can be
fixed by you, or if you need replacement hardware

If your computer work besides the annoyance you have described, try
going into the BIOS and unselect everything on the boot sequence besides
the hard drive.

Is there a setting in the bios for the amount of time it waits for the
drives to spinup? It sounds like your boot drive isn't being recognized
the first boot. ON the reboot since the drives have spunup their
recognized.

Is the "IDE Detect Timeout" set to 35 seconds ? That is the
maximum time the BIOS will wait for a drive to finish spinning
up, when connected to the Southbridge. I don't think the Promise
20378 chip has a configuration option for timeouts (RAID BIOS
modules for add-on chips don't seem to support that option
in general).

I believe Windows would tell you if there's a corrupted or missing ntldr or
other serious file.

Your new hard drive has been working fine for how long? and they usually are
bad or break when they are new, not two months later.

Are you getting your normal POST screens when starting or rebooting?

There's a signal called Power Good that has to be recognized from your PSU
to the mobo to start properly and you can't start until that is stabilized.

It could also be a failing or too weak of a power supply, judging from what
you said you read. When you startup your system cold it requires all the
power it can draw because evwerything is just starting up to be ready for
use. On a reboot that stuff doesn't need started again as it is already
running thus less power is required/less strain on the PSU.

What brand and how many watts is your PSU?

List your system hardware including mobo and your CPU.