P
Paul Dolen
I got a weird problem where my machine will boot okay if I select VGA
mode, or safe mode, but it spontaneously reboots very early in the
boot sequence if I simply select normal boot.
This doesn't make much sense, as VGA mode in XP is simply supposed to
set the resolution to 640 x 480, but use the currently installed video
driver. NT and I believe 2000 install generic VGA video drivers when
you select VGA boot mode. But not XP--it is supposed to use the
currently installed driver. But if that is so, then why the heck will
it boot okay in VGA mode? It doesn't make any sense if all it does is
set the video resolution. It must do something else too??? Note that
once booted, although it comes up in very crude 640x480, but I can
simply change it to 1280x1024 with 32 bit colors and it works fine.
Anybody have the slightest clue what might be up with that?
A few days ago, I left a posting about my problem, but I didn't learn
about the VGA mode working until today, hence my deciding to start a
new thread. But for review, here is my hardware:
Athlon 64 3000+
Gigabyte GA-K8VT800
gig of 400 Mhz DDR.
Adaptec 2100S RAID controller
Qty 3 of 18 gigabyte Ultra160 drives configured stripped for
performance.
Enermax 550 watt power supply
APC UPS.
ATI 9600 AGP 8X video card.
The ATI 9600 is a basic model video card, under performance really
compared to rest of system. I had considered upgrading, though I
don't really do enough gaming to justify upgrading it. Nor do I even
really know if upgrading it will solve my problem.
By the way, the Gigabyte motherboard is an VIA chipset motherboard,
which includes AGP support in the VIA "4in1" driver. So, I figured
maybe that was a problem. So I went to VIA's site today and
downloaded the latest, version 4.53 I believe. And that did not help.
I downloaded the latest Catalyst ATI drivers, currently at 4.80 and
supposedly supports SP2. But that didn't help. I upgraded the
firmware in my motherboard and in my RAID controller. My first
suspicion was the RAID controller, but now that I see it boot fine in
VGA mode, I'm no longer suspect of the RAID controller.
I have tried boot logging, but the reboot happens extremely early in
the boot cycle, and I get nothing at all in the boot log file. The
symptom that I get if I just try to boot normally, I get the XP splash
screen with the progress bar on the bottom of the screen--but before
the progress bar moves even one notch, the computer reboots. In fact,
upon reboot, XP doesn't even detect that there was a boot failure the
prior boot time, so it will just try to boot normally again and again
in an infinite cycle unless I intervene.
Somebody had suggested disabling the execution protection feature, I
have an Athlon 64. However, somebody else said that the default of
opt-in only shouldn't cause problems, so I haven't yet tried disabling
it. But I might.
Oh, for the record, I did a spyware scan using AdAware, a virus scan
with Norton Antivirus, and a disk defrag and cleanup prior to
installing XP SP2. I'm running XP Pro and downloaded the network
install from Microsoft's site. Also, for the record, my computer was
rock solid stable with SP1, never a single blue screen. I was also
able to go back to SP1 after my first attempt to upgrade to SP2. And
in the week or so that I reverted back to SP1, my computer has run
rock solid again. Makes me almost want to give up on SP2. But I
decided to give it one more try today, and got the exact same
symptoms back.
But, for the short term, since I know that I can simply select VGA
mode, and reset the video back to the right resolution after booting,
I think I will just live with it like that until I can find a better
fix. I don't feel like reverting to SP1 again.
mode, or safe mode, but it spontaneously reboots very early in the
boot sequence if I simply select normal boot.
This doesn't make much sense, as VGA mode in XP is simply supposed to
set the resolution to 640 x 480, but use the currently installed video
driver. NT and I believe 2000 install generic VGA video drivers when
you select VGA boot mode. But not XP--it is supposed to use the
currently installed driver. But if that is so, then why the heck will
it boot okay in VGA mode? It doesn't make any sense if all it does is
set the video resolution. It must do something else too??? Note that
once booted, although it comes up in very crude 640x480, but I can
simply change it to 1280x1024 with 32 bit colors and it works fine.
Anybody have the slightest clue what might be up with that?
A few days ago, I left a posting about my problem, but I didn't learn
about the VGA mode working until today, hence my deciding to start a
new thread. But for review, here is my hardware:
Athlon 64 3000+
Gigabyte GA-K8VT800
gig of 400 Mhz DDR.
Adaptec 2100S RAID controller
Qty 3 of 18 gigabyte Ultra160 drives configured stripped for
performance.
Enermax 550 watt power supply
APC UPS.
ATI 9600 AGP 8X video card.
The ATI 9600 is a basic model video card, under performance really
compared to rest of system. I had considered upgrading, though I
don't really do enough gaming to justify upgrading it. Nor do I even
really know if upgrading it will solve my problem.
By the way, the Gigabyte motherboard is an VIA chipset motherboard,
which includes AGP support in the VIA "4in1" driver. So, I figured
maybe that was a problem. So I went to VIA's site today and
downloaded the latest, version 4.53 I believe. And that did not help.
I downloaded the latest Catalyst ATI drivers, currently at 4.80 and
supposedly supports SP2. But that didn't help. I upgraded the
firmware in my motherboard and in my RAID controller. My first
suspicion was the RAID controller, but now that I see it boot fine in
VGA mode, I'm no longer suspect of the RAID controller.
I have tried boot logging, but the reboot happens extremely early in
the boot cycle, and I get nothing at all in the boot log file. The
symptom that I get if I just try to boot normally, I get the XP splash
screen with the progress bar on the bottom of the screen--but before
the progress bar moves even one notch, the computer reboots. In fact,
upon reboot, XP doesn't even detect that there was a boot failure the
prior boot time, so it will just try to boot normally again and again
in an infinite cycle unless I intervene.
Somebody had suggested disabling the execution protection feature, I
have an Athlon 64. However, somebody else said that the default of
opt-in only shouldn't cause problems, so I haven't yet tried disabling
it. But I might.
Oh, for the record, I did a spyware scan using AdAware, a virus scan
with Norton Antivirus, and a disk defrag and cleanup prior to
installing XP SP2. I'm running XP Pro and downloaded the network
install from Microsoft's site. Also, for the record, my computer was
rock solid stable with SP1, never a single blue screen. I was also
able to go back to SP1 after my first attempt to upgrade to SP2. And
in the week or so that I reverted back to SP1, my computer has run
rock solid again. Makes me almost want to give up on SP2. But I
decided to give it one more try today, and got the exact same
symptoms back.
But, for the short term, since I know that I can simply select VGA
mode, and reset the video back to the right resolution after booting,
I think I will just live with it like that until I can find a better
fix. I don't feel like reverting to SP1 again.