Boot Problems

[Sakuya]

My PC is custom built and is running Windows 2000. A week ago, I noticed when I started up the computer, it would go to this screen that checks your desk for consistencies. I suddenly got that even though I had shut down properly the night before. After booting into Windows, a few minutes later, the screen blacked out as if there was no signal. But the power light on the computer and fans are still on. I tried restart the computer and only the power light and case fan would come on. There were no sounds. The CPU light doesn't come on. Eventually even the light would not come on.

I waited a day and it came on again. That problem of the monitor blacking out disappeared but I can no longer boot into Windows. It just freezes at the loading screen. I am able to boot into Safe Mode with no problems though. I also did a boot logging but because it was not able to get past the loading screen, I think what's in the boot log is from when it booted into safe mode. The computer also boots fine into Knoppix.

I am thinking of unhooking optional hardware devices and connecting them back one by one to see if it's a hardware issue. Does anyone know if this is absolutely not a hardware issue? If so, I actually want to take this chance to do a fresh install of Windows XP or 7. I appreciate any advice! Thanks.

[budz]

IMHO do a fresh install of XP or W2000.

[lowellriggsiam]

In windows 2000 in safe mode run -> sfc /scanboot, if that doesn't work, sfc /quiet, if that doesn't work sfc /scannow

[Nelson37]

Most PC give a beep when booting up, this indicates the POST test, or Power On Self Test, has completed. When the PC failed to boot, I assume this beep never happened? This would indicate that some component failed the POST test. This happens before Windows or any OS even begins to load.

Many things can cause the POST to fail. A stuck key on the keyboard can do it. Bad RAM, bad power or power supply, or a hard drive failing to spin up to full speed. If you are familiar with your PC's normal boot up sounds, just taking the case off and listening carefully can reveal a lot.

You don't mention the age of the PC, but Windows 2000 indicates it is fairly old, the basic symptoms would point a first finger at a hard drive starting to fail. It could be lots of other things, but I would start there and also the power supply.

[Ozzyjim]

Did you change any of the internal components of the pc? sometimes Win 2K can be as Pi**y about changes as Win XP.

James.

[Sakuya]

Most PC give a beep when booting up, this indicates the POST test, or Power On Self Test, has completed. When the PC failed to boot, I assume this beep never happened? This would indicate that some component failed the POST test. This happens before Windows or any OS even begins to load.

You don't mention the age of the PC, but Windows 2000 indicates it is fairly old, the basic symptoms would point a first finger at a hard drive starting to fail. It could be lots of other things, but I would start there and also the power supply.

When only the power lights came on, there were no sounds. But when I was able to boot up, there were the normal beeps when you enter BIOS. But it still freezes at the loading screen unless I was booting into safe mode. My PC was from 2004.

Did you change any of the internal components of the pc? sometimes Win 2K can be as Pi**y about changes as Win XP.

No, I didn't mess with anything inside the PC in a while. The last time was when I had to replace the DVD drive and that was about a year or two ago.

As for the SFC commands, it doesn't seem to work. It says it's only effective on the next restart but after I restart normally, it still freezes at the loading screen. And it doesn't seem to work in safe mode either. I will try installing Windows XP then. :P

[rcubed]

Sakuya,

Could be a loose connection somewhere inside the PC, when it doesn't do anything on power up it sounds like a power supply or mobo problem. These can be a real PIA to trouble shoot. Undo and redo the connections, also check for loose connections while doing it. Hanging during post could be something not fully responding during post. There are power supply testers available.

Good luck, I feel your pain. I had added a network card recently to one machine. Worked fine for a couple of days, but then on the 1st power up boot up started hanging. Unfortunately my case doesn't have a speaker so I couldn't determine where in post it was hanging . Apparently it was the old dreaded IRQ allocation problem. I've put solving the problem on the back burner and just removed the card. I had put the network card in for just testing of transfer rates over my 1G Ethernet and no longer needed it in the computer.

rcubed

[bevills1]

rcubed, IRQ conflicts can be fixed in many cases by trying different PCI slot if one's available or switching PCI slots with another device. I did this to get a dialup modem working quite a few years ago while I was still using dialup connection.

[Nelson37]

Reading the initial symptoms again, do you have an alternate video card to test? And/or, uninstall the card in Safe Mode and reboot in Normal mode, let the card install w/Standard Windows drivers, then reboot again.

There is definitely at least one, and possibly more, hardware problems. A corrupted driver file could have caused the monitor blackout, but not the subsequent failure to power up. That's hardware. Card failure, or partial failure, could account for all symptoms including Safe Mode boot.

Is it possible that on some previous occassion, recently, the PC was in the monitor-blackout state with the actual PC powered up, and it was then turned off and back on? This would account for the hard drive consistency check popping up. Or could the PC have completely powered down by itself right around this time, a bad card could cause a shutdown. Possibly overheating, check the cooling on the video card.

Installing XP may well help reveal some of the issues, here would be a time to do the full format, not the quick one. New drivers, etc., since you were going to do it anyway, why not?

[Sakuya]

So I have wiped out the hard drive, repartitioned, full format instead of quick and did a full install of XP on Sunday. It's been several days and no problems at all so far.

[budz]

So I have wiped out the hard drive, repartitioned, full format instead of quick and did a full install of XP on Sunday. It's been several days and no problems at all so far.

Good to hear that all's well so far. It must have been a software or W2000 problem.