Windows boot problem

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Guest

Yesterday I shut down my computer and when I went to start this morning the
system wouldn't progress past the first Windows logo screen. It just hangs
there and any disk activity stops (The CPU, PSU, Graphic Card and case fans
are all whirring away but nobody is home). No blue screen, no error messages,
nothing. I have found that most times it will start in Safe mode, but not all
the time. I have searched all the logs and can't find any leads. I have
started disconnecting hardware down to the basics (graphic card ram and hard
drive) with no change in result. I have also run this system now for several
months with no changes to software or hardware during that time and no
problems like this ever surfacing before now. I run Windows XP PRO SP2 on 2
gig Dual RAM with one SATA 250 gig and one SATA 320 gig hard drive with a
Pioneer and Samsung DVD RW drive. My graphic card is an ATI Radeon X800 Pro
and I run two 12 cm ball bearing fans in my case.
I thought for one moment I had solved it when I disconnected the floppy
cable and Windows then booted as normal. As soon as I shut down the problem
returned.
I have tried System Restore but haven't yet tried to reinstall from a Ghost
back up image I have on the other SATA hard drive.
I have read many discussions but they all seem to revolve around windows
constantly restarting which isn't the problem in my case.
 
Geesey said:
Yesterday I shut down my computer and when I went to start this morning the
system wouldn't progress past the first Windows logo screen. It just hangs
there and any disk activity stops (The CPU, PSU, Graphic Card and case fans
are all whirring away but nobody is home). No blue screen, no error messages,
nothing. I have found that most times it will start in Safe mode, but not all
the time. I have searched all the logs and can't find any leads. I have
started disconnecting hardware down to the basics (graphic card ram and hard
drive) with no change in result. I have also run this system now for several
months with no changes to software or hardware during that time and no
problems like this ever surfacing before now. I run Windows XP PRO SP2 on 2
gig Dual RAM with one SATA 250 gig and one SATA 320 gig hard drive with a
Pioneer and Samsung DVD RW drive. My graphic card is an ATI Radeon X800 Pro
and I run two 12 cm ball bearing fans in my case.
I thought for one moment I had solved it when I disconnected the floppy
cable and Windows then booted as normal. As soon as I shut down the problem
returned.
I have tried System Restore but haven't yet tried to reinstall from a Ghost
back up image I have on the other SATA hard drive.
I have read many discussions but they all seem to revolve around windows
constantly restarting which isn't the problem in my case.
Click to expand...

could be errors in the ram, download a programme called memtest86 (see
if you can get one that can create a bootable cd) and run that,
otherwise, it could be a faulty power supply.

Flamer.
 
Thanks,
I will do that later. The RAM and the PSU are both only 3-4 months old.
I am going to create a boot floppy and see what happens there first.
The funny thing is that when I eventually boot into windows it behaves
perfectly and has been up for several hours at a time without freezing or
locking up. I am inclined to think it is the MBR or something like that.
 
Geesey said:
Yesterday I shut down my computer and when I went to start this morning the
system wouldn't progress past the first Windows logo screen. It just hangs
there and any disk activity stops (The CPU, PSU, Graphic Card and case fans
are all whirring away but nobody is home). No blue screen, no error messages,
nothing. I have found that most times it will start in Safe mode, but not all
the time. I have searched all the logs and can't find any leads. I have
started disconnecting hardware down to the basics (graphic card ram and hard
drive) with no change in result. I have also run this system now for several
months with no changes to software or hardware during that time and no
problems like this ever surfacing before now. I run Windows XP PRO SP2 on 2
gig Dual RAM with one SATA 250 gig and one SATA 320 gig hard drive with a
Pioneer and Samsung DVD RW drive. My graphic card is an ATI Radeon X800 Pro
and I run two 12 cm ball bearing fans in my case.
I thought for one moment I had solved it when I disconnected the floppy
cable and Windows then booted as normal. As soon as I shut down the problem
returned.
I have tried System Restore but haven't yet tried to reinstall from a Ghost
back up image I have on the other SATA hard drive.
I have read many discussions but they all seem to revolve around windows
constantly restarting which isn't the problem in my case.
Click to expand...

Since you have a backup, boot into the recovery console and run chkdsk
/p on it.
 
Did you try booting from the start up menu (press F8 immediately after power
on, keep pressing until the boot options menu comes up, then choose "Last
Known Good Configuration"

Does that work or not?
 
Thanks Andrew,
Yes I have tried everything including 'last known good configuration".
Each time in any mode (except safe of course) the boot sequence starts with
the first windows logo screen and then blanks to black when the computer no
longer talks to the monitor with the processor and all other fans, etc
working, just no disk activity. I have run several different disk tests which
all say the disk is fine. I will run a memory test but I don't think that is
the problem.
Several times I have been able to get windows up by connecting and
disconnecting the floppy disk drive cable and then rebooting the computer.
Sometimes it starts with the cable attached and some times without the cable.
Also when windows is up and running it seems to work fine with no lock ups
or problems.
 
Hello,
After trying many different remedies, I accidently discovered that Limewire
Pro(a file sharing program) was actually one of the things to blame through a
version of the Java platform.
Everytime I opened Limewire my computer would immediately blank the monitor
and shut down windows. After installing a standalone version of Java as well
as Limewire the problem went away (or so I thought).
I then discovered that there were 2 viruses (hacktool.ariskkey) in the
Master Boot (even though I had run full scans ever since the problem started)
that only showed up yestereday.
I deleted them and the system now boots up and seems stable.

Thanks to everyone.
 
Geesey said:
Hello,
After trying many different remedies, I accidently discovered that Limewire
Pro(a file sharing program) was actually one of the things to blame through a
version of the Java platform.
Everytime I opened Limewire my computer would immediately blank the monitor
and shut down windows. After installing a standalone version of Java as well
as Limewire the problem went away (or so I thought).
I then discovered that there were 2 viruses (hacktool.ariskkey) in the
Master Boot (even though I had run full scans ever since the problem started)
that only showed up yestereday.
I deleted them and the system now boots up and seems stable.

Thanks to everyone.

"Geesey" wrote:
Click to expand...

Glad it's working now and thanks for posting back the fix. As you found
P2P programs can be pipelines for infection.
 
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