XP won't restart just hangs with black screen & fans/HDs still run

[Chopperscroggs]

Hi World

Would anyone out there be able to help with my problem? I've recently
purchased a new ASUS P5K premium Wifi mobo, Intel E8500 CPU, ASUS EN8400GS
graphics card & 4GB of PC2-8500 1066mhz Kingston HyperX RAM.

I am into Audio production and so have a dual boot setup going on using a
partitioned 40GB IDE drive as my Boot HD. 1 partition has XP pro with
(currently) SP2 installed which I use for internet use and the other
partition has windows XP pro SP1 installed for audio use. The SP1 partition
doesn't go near the internet so has no anti virus or anything like that to
slow it down.

I've had great sucess with this exact same setup on my current and old PC,
and at first thought all was well with the new build. However, it now seems
that I've got a serious problem as I can boot into either partition OK from a
cold startup, but as soon as I need to restart due to installing software or
whatever, the PC shuts down correctly but instead of restarting all I get is
a black screen & the fans/HDs/DVD drives are still spinning.

I then hold the power button in to force quit but then the PC doesn't seem
to want to boot up again, I just get ablack screen again. This is complicated
further by the fact that it seems sometimes windows is doing something,
because if there's a disc in the DVD drive it spins up and stays spinning
until I'm forced to force quit the damned thing again.

I've tried running a few diagnostic checks from the ultimate boot CD and the
HDs, RAM and CPU all seem fine. I thought it might be a duff graphics card
but surely it wouldn't work at all from the cold start if that was the case
and I don't have another PCIe G card to test this theory. I've tried putting
the XP disc back in and doing an "R" repair on "fixboot" too and this did
squat too. In fact after doing so and the PC restarted I still had the same
problem!

Any ideas, tests, theories please let me know!

Cheers

P.S I've disabled the ASUS' onboard Wifi in the BIOS.

 

[Terry R.]

The date and time was 11/13/2008 9:19 AM, and on a whim, Chopperscroggs
pounded out on the keyboard:

Hi World

Would anyone out there be able to help with my problem? I've recently
purchased a new ASUS P5K premium Wifi mobo, Intel E8500 CPU, ASUS EN8400GS
graphics card & 4GB of PC2-8500 1066mhz Kingston HyperX RAM.

I am into Audio production and so have a dual boot setup going on using a
partitioned 40GB IDE drive as my Boot HD. 1 partition has XP pro with
(currently) SP2 installed which I use for internet use and the other
partition has windows XP pro SP1 installed for audio use. The SP1 partition
doesn't go near the internet so has no anti virus or anything like that to
slow it down.

I've had great sucess with this exact same setup on my current and old PC,
and at first thought all was well with the new build. However, it now seems
that I've got a serious problem as I can boot into either partition OK from a
cold startup, but as soon as I need to restart due to installing software or
whatever, the PC shuts down correctly but instead of restarting all I get is
a black screen & the fans/HDs/DVD drives are still spinning.

I then hold the power button in to force quit but then the PC doesn't seem
to want to boot up again, I just get ablack screen again. This is complicated
further by the fact that it seems sometimes windows is doing something,
because if there's a disc in the DVD drive it spins up and stays spinning
until I'm forced to force quit the damned thing again.

I've tried running a few diagnostic checks from the ultimate boot CD and the
HDs, RAM and CPU all seem fine. I thought it might be a duff graphics card
but surely it wouldn't work at all from the cold start if that was the case
and I don't have another PCIe G card to test this theory. I've tried putting
the XP disc back in and doing an "R" repair on "fixboot" too and this did
squat too. In fact after doing so and the PC restarted I still had the same
problem!

Any ideas, tests, theories please let me know!

Cheers

P.S I've disabled the ASUS' onboard Wifi in the BIOS.

Does it happen if you Shut Down rather than Restart? Or if you restart,
can you select the menu using F8 and choose Safe Mode on the other OS?

I have 5 OS's on this workstation, and occasionally on a restart it
won't, but sits there with a black screen and the hard drive LED lit.
If I turn it off (a warm boot doesn't do it either) and wait a bit, it
will then start fine.

I replaced the graphics card thinking the same thing. Didn't affect it
here.

You could check to see if there is a BIOS update.

I recently found that using a PS/2 adapter for my keyboard was causing a
random lock and may have in fact had something to do with the restart
issue, but I haven't experienced the hang since eliminating the PS/2
adapter. I think there may be an issue with the motherboard (DFI), as I
have another workstation with the same MB (I built both of them) and it
has happened there occasionally also. But it happens so infrequently
that I'm not running out to replace it just yet, as it works fine otherwise.

--
Terry R.

***Reply Note***
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[Xandros]

Hi World

Would anyone out there be able to help with my problem? I've recently
purchased a new ASUS P5K premium Wifi mobo, Intel E8500 CPU, ASUS EN8400GS
graphics card & 4GB of PC2-8500 1066mhz Kingston HyperX RAM.

I am into Audio production and so have a dual boot setup going on using a
partitioned 40GB IDE drive as my Boot HD. 1 partition has XP pro with
(currently) SP2 installed which I use for internet use and the other
partition has windows XP pro SP1 installed for audio use. The SP1
partition
doesn't go near the internet so has no anti virus or anything like that to
slow it down.

I've had great sucess with this exact same setup on my current and old PC,
and at first thought all was well with the new build. However, it now
seems
that I've got a serious problem as I can boot into either partition OK
from a
cold startup, but as soon as I need to restart due to installing software
or
whatever, the PC shuts down correctly but instead of restarting all I get
is
a black screen & the fans/HDs/DVD drives are still spinning.

I then hold the power button in to force quit but then the PC doesn't seem
to want to boot up again, I just get ablack screen again. This is
complicated
further by the fact that it seems sometimes windows is doing something,
because if there's a disc in the DVD drive it spins up and stays spinning
until I'm forced to force quit the damned thing again.

I've tried running a few diagnostic checks from the ultimate boot CD and
the
HDs, RAM and CPU all seem fine. I thought it might be a duff graphics card
but surely it wouldn't work at all from the cold start if that was the
case
and I don't have another PCIe G card to test this theory. I've tried
putting
the XP disc back in and doing an "R" repair on "fixboot" too and this did
squat too. In fact after doing so and the PC restarted I still had the
same
problem!

Any ideas, tests, theories please let me know!

Cheers

P.S I've disabled the ASUS' onboard Wifi in the BIOS.

This really sounds like a power supply problem. Try swapping in a new one
and see if that fixes the problem. Many stock systems come with barely
adequate power supplies or people cheap out when building their own systems.

 

[Chopperscroggs]

Hi Terry

Yes, the first time I booted the PC up after building it I had PS/2 adaptor
on a keyboard and that wouldn't boot so I took it off and things were OK for
a few boots.

I just tried shutting down (PC did this OK with all fans etc shutting down
as they should), waiting 10 seconds and then powering up again... Gutted, the
bloody thing didn't boot after a shut down either, just the fans, keyboard
lights, mouse lights on etc but nothing on screen. I can't see anything when
the PC does this so I can't hit F5 or F8 to enter BIOS or any other functions.

To Xandros, I also forgot to say that there's a new PSU in the PC too, a
Enermax Pro82+ 625W!

 

[R. McCarty]

Strange issues like this can sometimes be due to the mounting of the
motherboard inside the case. Usually before installing it's best to do
a "Bench Test" with just MB/CPU & RAM ( & Video if PCIe/AGP ).
On more than one occasion I've seen the offsets on the case cause
intermittent short circuits of the MB or other non-boot conditions. If
the CPU cooling assembly requires a bracket on the back side of the
MB be sure it's oriented properly and not misaligned.

There is not much more of an aggravation than building a complete
desktop ( and not testing ) only to discover it won't boot up.

 

[Xandros]

Ok thanks for the update.

--

Xandros

Hi Terry

Yes, the first time I booted the PC up after building it I had PS/2
adaptor
on a keyboard and that wouldn't boot so I took it off and things were OK
for
a few boots.

I just tried shutting down (PC did this OK with all fans etc shutting down
as they should), waiting 10 seconds and then powering up again... Gutted,
the
bloody thing didn't boot after a shut down either, just the fans, keyboard
lights, mouse lights on etc but nothing on screen. I can't see anything
when
the PC does this so I can't hit F5 or F8 to enter BIOS or any other
functions.

To Xandros, I also forgot to say that there's a new PSU in the PC too, a
Enermax Pro82+ 625W!