XP Bootup Hang

  • Thread starter Thread starter Guest
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Guest

Following a recent "crash", XP (SP1) starts and defaults to the usual screen
to check the hard drive. During the "countdown" the system always hangs at 8
secs to go. Hitting a key before this gives the usual F8 options with none
of these operable ie they start and hang. Booting from the XP CD hangs at
"Starting Windows". Starting from a floppy boot disk indicates hard drive is
accessible and has 10Gig of space...Memtest indicates memory is OK. Symantec
Recovery CD also hangs at "Please Wait" when booting. Any suggestions short
of reformatting etc etc?
 
Peter said:
Following a recent "crash", XP (SP1) starts and defaults to the usual
screen
to check the hard drive. During the "countdown" the system always
hangs at 8
secs to go. Hitting a key before this gives the usual F8 options with
none
of these operable ie they start and hang. Booting from the XP CD
hangs at
"Starting Windows". Starting from a floppy boot disk indicates hard
drive is
accessible and has 10Gig of space...Memtest indicates memory is OK.
Symantec
Recovery CD also hangs at "Please Wait" when booting. Any suggestions
short of reformatting etc etc?
Click to expand...

It very much sounds like you have a hardware problem. If this is the
case, formatting/reinstalling Windows isn't going to help. Since you've
already tested the RAM, test the power supply and the hard drive. I
would swap out the psu first with a known-working one since you
apparently are having trouble booting from a cd, which doesn't involve
the hard drive.

If swapping out the psu doesn't solve the issue, it may be the
motherboard.

Malke
 
Sounds to me like there's a problem with the boot sector on your hard drive.
Check your hard drive for a file called bootlog.txt (it may not be there, but
if it is there might be a clue as to what's causing this)

Can you access the Recovery console? If so, try the command fixmbr
(http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_installation_tips483.html )

Here's the command for DOS:
(http://www.tech-recipes.com/windows_tips44.html ) I have absolutely no
experience with this - so be careful!

Also, once you're back up and running - I'd suggest multiple anti-virus and
anti-spyware scans (lot's available for free on the web) to make sure that
something malicious hasn't caued this.

spyware
 
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