A question for the super experts.

[Father Goose]

All right. Here is my problem. It is making me CRAZY and I have already REFORMATTED THE COMPUTER once because of it.

When I start the computer, it boots up okay- the motherboard does all of its checks, it beeps once, the voice says, "Computer now booting from operating system!". All of this is good, and it is supposed to happen.

As SOON as it starts loading Windows, it freezes. It freezes on the Windows loading screen, with the little progress bar thingy. It does it consistently. Safe mode, and Safe mode with Networking will ALWAYS load, but normal Windows usually does not. Sometimes when I load with Safe Mode and then restart it will do it.

Here is what I have tried:

Uninstalling drivers/reinstalling drivers
Reformatting both hard drives and reinstalling Windows
Screaming swear words while threatening to kill somebody
Scanning both hard drives for errors
Scanning both hard drives for viruses

It seems like it starts loading Windows and then it hits some process it doesn't like and it crashes. Can anybody give me any suggestions? I am going absolutely crazy here.

[Kev Kanos]

Well I would have suggested screaming swear words with threats but it looks like you had that handled.

Oh yeah, did you try hitting it really hard yet. I find that works sometimes to.

[p00p]

I'd say if you have spare parts, replace each one at a time until it boots fine. It sounds like, to me at least, that you've got a bad piece of hardware.

And if I were doing it, I'd start off with the ram (just a hunch).

[FozzyBear]

Gremlins. I tell you all its GREMLINS!!! :yaya:






I'm assuming you did a fresh install of a LEGIT version of windows after the reformat. If not, try that. Install EVERYTHING DEFAULT.

If you have 2 or more sticks of RAM try pulling all but one, restart. Add one, or switch them out if it does the same thing, see if it is the RAM.

Try installing windows to a different partition and/or physical hard drive.

:dunno: sorry to hear your having problems. :dunno:

[Father Goose]

You know, Fozzy, you may be on to something. This morning, for the first time, instead of "Computer booting from operating system" it said, "System failed memory test" but tried to boot anyway. I wonder if something in the Windows loading process has been causing an error in my RAM to come to the forefront...hmmm.

And yes, my version of Windows is legit :)

[jwolly2]

I'm w/ Fozzy on this one as well, based on past experience.

A bad stick of memory would cause just such an issue. It might not always lock up at the same exact point, but it will lock up. I've gone as far as trying to reload Windows, and it will lock up during the install.

I used a memory checker from a boot disk to test the issue. Can't remember off the top of my head what it was called, or where I got it. If I find it in my notes, I'll post something back here.

Good luck getting it fixed, and let us know when you figure it out. :)

EDIT: Ok, a quick search turned up this: http://www.memtest86.com/ Looks familiar, but it's been a while since I used it. :yuck:

[Father Goose]

I just tried booting after removing my RAM, one stick at a time (I've got one stick of 512, two sticks of 256). I tried it in different orders- just the 512, just one 256, just the other 256, both 256) and it still locked up each and every time.

It is possible that every single stick is bad. What is confusing me is that most of the time the motherboard says that the RAM tests out fine but about 1 out of 10 times now it says, "System failed Memory Test".

PS- is there somewhere that Windows keeps a log of each boot, so that I might be able to look it up and see where it's failing? Or would it not do that unless it actually loaded Windows?

[GorroXXII]

I had the same problem more than once!!! The first time: my motherboard fried... which my computer would start loading windows, then reboot again...and again and again...

the second time it was my hard drive which it did the same damn thing, it would just keep rebooting... Hard drive = bad :dunno:

[GroovyDude]

This is probably a driver issue. I would remove any extra cards not necessary for boot from your system (USB Cards, Sound Cards, etc..) . If you have onboard video, I would remove you're pci/agp video card and enable the onboard video. Then try to boot and see if it comes up. If it does, add one item back at a time until you find which one is causing the problem.

[GorroXXII]

I need to reanswer tyhe first one... it wasnt my motherboard... I remember more clearly now thank you to dear COFFEE... I had my 2 HD's in a Raid Set up, and the raid card went bad!!! as for the second I keep that the same it was the harddrive, so I do believe it is a hard drive issue, my simple solution, I run two hard drives now, and had to replace it.

[Father Goose]

Here is a little more info (thanks to everybody who has been helping!).

This is the second time this problem has appeared. Back in December I got a new motherboard. I reinstalled Windows (I run two hard drives- a 40GB c: and a 120 GB d:). Windows is installed on the c: drive and just about everything else goes to d:.

At first it was sporadic but then it was every single time. So, I reformatted both drives about 3-4 weeks ago and everything was fine. And then it started again. This time it skipped sporadic.

The reason I keep coming back to the hard drive is this- if I boot into safe mode and then have the computer look at the c: drive- ie I defrag it, scan it, or virus scan it, it almost always boots when I restart. Yesterday, the ever helpful chkdsk said that there WERE errors on c: but it didn't tell me WHAT errors, HOW MANY, or if they were fixed. Those dirty SOBs.

I'm going to try to run that memtest86 program as well. However, I may not have a spare floppy lying around. Heh. At the moment I'm getting ready to install a fresh version of Windows onto the d: drive. If that installation works correctly I'll probably end up ditching my 40GB drive.

Before I do that I'll remove the two other cards I have, a Soundblaster and a firewire card. I'll see if getting rid of those helps.

EDIT: I forgot that I have been overclocking the CPU. I turned it back to normal and the system booted just fine. I wonder if I was overclocking faster than my RAM can handle or something equally stupid. I'll keep tryin'. :)

[ResJudicata]

what version windows? and what are the stats on all your equipment?

[Father Goose]

Windows XP service pack 2.

It's an Athlon XP 2400
1 GB PC2700 Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro

So far, turning off the overclocking seems to be working. I'll keep you posted. I'm still suspicious because the last time it demonstrated this problem, the computer was NOT overclocked.

[Bonez]

mine did that at a friends house, came down to it being a bad .dll in one of my video drivers, so i set it to boot safe, downloaded new drivers, installed them and restarted.

[Al_Capowned]

I had a problem similar to this after installing another 512 mb RAM stick into my computer. I thought it may have been the RAM itself, but turns out that the memory just wasn't getting enough voltage.

My suggestions are to:
1) dust off everything inside the computer (especially the heatsink and fan) if you haven't done so already
2)Increase the amount of voltage to your RAM or (assuming that your CPU voltage is still at default) increase the voltage to your CPU. I'm assuming that you left them at their default levels before you started overclocking. You can usually do this in the BIOS.

Of course, this is all assuming that you don't have bad drives and the windows installs were both successfull. Good Luck

[Father Goose]

So far we're still stable after dumping the overclocking. I'm kind of red-faced that I didn't think of it first- when you overclock and things get screwed up, you go THERE first.

Still, I'm going to check the memory. I've already installed new video drivers. I will also look into the BIOS and see if I can even send more voltage to the RAM, if the problem continues.

Again, thanks for everybody who has been helping. I consider myself okay with computers but when it comes to weird technical issues, it's better to get multiple minds together :)