Startup hangs before video kicks in - help!

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

You can add the "/sos" switch in the boot.ini file and it will display the
device drivers as they are loading. Also, you can add the "/bootlog" switch
in the boot.ini file, it will write a log to %SystemDrive%\NTBTLOG.txt
(normally C:\NTbtlog.txt) as the system is booting, and the next boot, the
next oldest boot log becomes NTbtlog.bak. Between the two, perhaps, if/when
the next time the problem occurs, you can see on the screen or seen in the
log what driver may be hanging the boot process up.

--

Star Fleet Admiral Q @ your Service!

http://www.google.com
Google is your "Friend"

"Choirpower" <Choirpower@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:1A7BAC80-88E6-4987-9B3E-B7D3C40C4AFF@microsoft.com...
> This has been happening, more often than not, for the past couple months:
>
> Upon booting up the computer, I see the bluish screen where you can get to
> the BIOS, then I see the black-background screen with the 'Microsoft
> Windows'
> logo, then that blanks out and hangs. What I'm used to seeing next in a
> correct startup would be the cursor appearing just before the blue
> 'Windows
> XP' screen and then the user login display.
>
> Upon hanging, the hard drive light flickers on and off for a few minutes,
> then all HDD activity stops. Sometimes I sense that things are starting
> correctly other than the fact that nothing is being displayed. On rare
> occasions, the 'black hang of death' is punctuated by the Windows startup
> sound....but everything stays dark. Anywhere from 2 to 10 hard reboots
> later,
> everything will be fine - until the next time.
>
> I don't know if this makes sense, but the black-hang appears to Not be a
> lack of any signal going to the screen - more like a black signal being
> sent.
>
> I'm guessing that some sort of conflict developed after installing
> something, however I've not installed any new hardware since long before
> this
> problem began. I've installed software but didn't keep good enough
> records
> to selectively uninstall various programs as an attempt to debug. I Have
> uninstalled several programs I decided after loading that I didn't need.
>
> I've checked for viruses, adware, and Trojans (using triple-redundant
> software suggested by the kind people at CastleCops). I've defragged the
> HDD, turned off non-essential software startup processes, and am
> completely
> stumped!
>
> Any and all help/suggestions at this point would be much appreciated! Am
> running XPHome on a Dell Inspiron 2500 laptop with 800MHz Celeron, and
> 192MB
> RAM
>
> Tim

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain (More info?)

Thank you, Admiral! I will try that, although spending most of a day going
through triple-redundant checks for spyware, virii, trojans, and junk seems
to have made a difference. Either that, or forcing the machine to re-find
all its USB componants by deleting that from the System/Hardware list (to fix
a different problem) may have made the boot-time smoother.

"Star Fleet Admiral Q" wrote:

> You can add the "/sos" switch in the boot.ini file and it will display the
> device drivers as they are loading. Also, you can add the "/bootlog" switch
> in the boot.ini file, it will write a log to %SystemDrive%\NTBTLOG.txt
> (normally C:\NTbtlog.txt) as the system is booting, and the next boot, the
> next oldest boot log becomes NTbtlog.bak. Between the two, perhaps, if/when
> the next time the problem occurs, you can see on the screen or seen in the
> log what driver may be hanging the boot process up.
>
> --
>
> Star Fleet Admiral Q @ your Service!
>
> http://www.google.com
> Google is your "Friend"
>
> "Choirpower" <Choirpower@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:1A7BAC80-88E6-4987-9B3E-B7D3C40C4AFF@microsoft.com...
> > This has been happening, more often than not, for the past couple months:
> >
> > Upon booting up the computer, I see the bluish screen where you can get to
> > the BIOS, then I see the black-background screen with the 'Microsoft
> > Windows'
> > logo, then that blanks out and hangs. What I'm used to seeing next in a
> > correct startup would be the cursor appearing just before the blue
> > 'Windows
> > XP' screen and then the user login display.
> >
> > Upon hanging, the hard drive light flickers on and off for a few minutes,
> > then all HDD activity stops. Sometimes I sense that things are starting
> > correctly other than the fact that nothing is being displayed. On rare
> > occasions, the 'black hang of death' is punctuated by the Windows startup
> > sound....but everything stays dark. Anywhere from 2 to 10 hard reboots
> > later,
> > everything will be fine - until the next time.
> >
> > I don't know if this makes sense, but the black-hang appears to Not be a
> > lack of any signal going to the screen - more like a black signal being
> > sent.
> >
> > I'm guessing that some sort of conflict developed after installing
> > something, however I've not installed any new hardware since long before
> > this
> > problem began. I've installed software but didn't keep good enough
> > records
> > to selectively uninstall various programs as an attempt to debug. I Have
> > uninstalled several programs I decided after loading that I didn't need.
> >
> > I've checked for viruses, adware, and Trojans (using triple-redundant
> > software suggested by the kind people at CastleCops). I've defragged the
> > HDD, turned off non-essential software startup processes, and am
> > completely
> > stumped!
> >
> > Any and all help/suggestions at this point would be much appreciated! Am
> > running XPHome on a Dell Inspiron 2500 laptop with 800MHz Celeron, and
> > 192MB
> > RAM
> >
> > Tim
>
>
>