Really weird bootup problem

[bill]

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

For the past two weeks I have been unable to boot on the first try. The
screen goes black and no disk activity. I then power off and when windows
comes back, it recognizes that it didn't boot normally and says that it may
have been the result of adding hardware. I have made no hardware changes so
I select "boot normally" and windows boots correctly the second time. This
is a consistent thing and happens every time I boot. Has anyone ever seen
anything like this? Any troubleshooting tips?

Thanks,
Bill

 

[Guest]

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

Bill,

I have seen this all the time ever since M$ was brought into my castle some 20 years ago. Most of uncle Bill's products are designed to keep people busy to keep them away from streets rioting or selling their bodies! In fact he is on record to say that he has created more jobs then any industry on this planet!!

On a serious note you might want to defrag your hard disk and in particular bootable files by using the following command:

defrag c: -b

Then your can use:

defrag c: -f -v

Failure this, the only alternative is to reinstall the OS and all application programs.

Hope this helps.
PS: I wanted to go to India but my job went instead so I am trolling here!!


Bill wrote:

> For the past two weeks I have been unable to boot on the first try. The
> screen goes black and no disk activity. I then power off and when windows
> comes back, it recognizes that it didn't boot normally and says that it may
> have been the result of adding hardware. I have made no hardware changes so
> I select "boot normally" and windows boots correctly the second time. This
> is a consistent thing and happens every time I boot. Has anyone ever seen
> anything like this? Any troubleshooting tips?
>
> Thanks,
> Bill

 

[Guest]

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

Your Name <Your.Name@newsgroup.com> wrote:

>Bill,
>
>I have seen this all the time ever since M$ was brought into my castle some 20 years ago. Most of uncle Bill's products are designed to keep people busy to keep them away from streets rioting or selling their bodies! In fact he is on record to say that he has created more jobs then any industry on this planet!!
>
>On a serious note you might want to defrag your hard disk and in particular bootable files by using the following command:
>
>defrag c: -b
>
>Then your can use:
>
>defrag c: -f -v
>
>Failure this, the only alternative is to reinstall the OS and all application programs.
>
>Hope this helps.

It is of absolutely no help at all.

The problems with this computer occur during the Power On Self Test
(POST), long before any Windows components have even started to load.
It is therefore impossible for anything in Windows to have caused the
problem or for a reinstall of Windows to fix it.

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[bill]

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

Actually the problem occurs after POST. The hard drive has to be seen as I
have two partitions, one for Win98SE and one for WinXP Pro. I get the screen
that allows highlighting my choice of OS to boot and the problem happens
after that.

Bill

"Ron Martell" <ron.martell@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:7ippg19eptc8fuqaqji987h0f5bgvag4qt@4ax.com...
> Your Name <Your.Name@newsgroup.com> wrote:
>
>>Bill,
>>
>>I have seen this all the time ever since M$ was brought into my castle
>>some 20 years ago. Most of uncle Bill's products are designed to keep
>>people busy to keep them away from streets rioting or selling their
>>bodies! In fact he is on record to say that he has created more jobs then
>>any industry on this planet!!
>>
>>On a serious note you might want to defrag your hard disk and in
>>particular bootable files by using the following command:
>>
>>defrag c: -b
>>
>>Then your can use:
>>
>>defrag c: -f -v
>>
>>Failure this, the only alternative is to reinstall the OS and all
>>application programs.
>>
>>Hope this helps.
>
> It is of absolutely no help at all.
>
> The problems with this computer occur during the Power On Self Test
> (POST), long before any Windows components have even started to load.
> It is therefore impossible for anything in Windows to have caused the
> problem or for a reinstall of Windows to fix it.
>
> Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
> --
> Microsoft MVP
> On-Line Help Computer Service
> http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
>
> In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
> http://aumha.org/alex.htm

 

[Guest]

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

"Bill" <btaylor (at) nospam.compuhelp.net> wrote:

>Actually the problem occurs after POST. The hard drive has to be seen as I
>have two partitions, one for Win98SE and one for WinXP Pro. I get the screen
>that allows highlighting my choice of OS to boot and the problem happens
>after that.
>

Okay. You didn't make that clear in your initial posting. I took the
"screen goes black" comment as meaning that nothing appeared after you
powered on the computer.

If you get to the boot menu, and the boot failure occurs with either
operating system choice, then the culprit is either the hard drive
itself or the hard drive controller on the motherboard.

And if the problem occurs only if you choose to boot Windows XP and
not when you choose to boot Windows 98 then the problem is in fact
with the Windows install, assuming that you have one hard drive split
into two partitions.

But if you have two physical hard drives, one with Windows 98 and one
with Windows XP then the problem could be the hard drive that Windows
XP is installed on.

My suggestion at this point would be to go to the hard drive
manufacturer's web site and download their disk diagnostic software.
Boot the computer with the diskette (or CD) created by this software
and run the diagnostic test. The S.M.A.R.T. monitoring capability in
the hard drive should identify the cause of the fault.

p.s. Check in the BIOS setup of your computer and *ensure* that the
S.M.A.R.T. monitoring capability is enabled. Many new systems are
shipped with this disabled, for some unknown reason.

Good luck





Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

In memory of a dear friend Alex Nichol MVP
http://aumha.org/alex.htm