Wondered if anyone understands this:
Twice now I've had a problem with XP Pro where at startup it freezes at the
splash screen. None of the usual tools solve it (system restore, last known
good, etc), but both times shutting down completely and unpluging for
several minutes does the trick. What is this? Is there a device (like the
NIC) which has to be reset by a cold boot? Would just like to know the cause
in case I see it again on a client's machine.

--
Chris Lambert

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Hi Chris. Hard to tell if it does not do it all/most of the time. A couple
things you could try. Run checkdisk to do a surface scan to make sure that
there are no bad sectors. Does it ever have a problem booting into safe
mode? If not it could be a driver problem. I assume you checked device
manager for any problems. If you are overclocking this could be possibly a
cause. You could try F8 upon boot and enable boot logging to examine the
ntbtlog file, of course that won't help much if it is not an usual problem.
The fact that you have to shut it down for a while makes me wonder if the
cpu cooling is marginal. A marginal power supply could also be suspect, or
possibly a flaky ram module (if problem persists try running on just one
module if possible, swapping them while troubleshooting to see if there is a
bad one). If it was my computer I would open the case, blow out the cpu fan,
make sure hard drive cables are securley attached at the drives and the
motherboard controller, unseat and reseat and pci/agp cards, and do the
same with mouse/keyboard cables. I had a similar problem once and it was
because my sound card was not firmly seated. Good luck. --- Steve

"Chris Lambert" <clambert@cal.net> wrote in message
news:7WmZ9.7972$wL1.1737@fe01...
> Wondered if anyone understands this:
> Twice now I've had a problem with XP Pro where at startup it freezes at
the
> splash screen. None of the usual tools solve it (system restore, last
known
> good, etc), but both times shutting down completely and unpluging for
> several minutes does the trick. What is this? Is there a device (like the
> NIC) which has to be reset by a cold boot? Would just like to know the
cause
> in case I see it again on a client's machine.
>
> --
> Chris Lambert
>
>
>
>
>

Report this post to a moderator

Thanks Steve, I'll try those.
I was getting error messages (in Event Viewer) such as "DHCP service cannot
start due to missing device", and a lot of others which couldn't start
because of failed dependencies. I'm networked with a Linksys WMP11 wireless
PCI card, maybe it gets too hot.

--
Chris Lambert



"Steven L Umbach" <n9rou@attbi.com> wrote in message
news:5wFZ9.73681$Ve4.6804@sccrnsc03...
> Hi Chris. Hard to tell if it does not do it all/most of the time. A couple
> things you could try. Run checkdisk to do a surface scan to make sure that
> there are no bad sectors. Does it ever have a problem booting into safe
> mode? If not it could be a driver problem. I assume you checked device
> manager for any problems. If you are overclocking this could be possibly a
> cause. You could try F8 upon boot and enable boot logging to examine the
> ntbtlog file, of course that won't help much if it is not an usual
problem.
> The fact that you have to shut it down for a while makes me wonder if the
> cpu cooling is marginal. A marginal power supply could also be suspect, or
> possibly a flaky ram module (if problem persists try running on just one
> module if possible, swapping them while troubleshooting to see if there is
a
> bad one). If it was my computer I would open the case, blow out the cpu
fan,
> make sure hard drive cables are securley attached at the drives and the
> motherboard controller, unseat and reseat and pci/agp cards, and do the
> same with mouse/keyboard cables. I had a similar problem once and it was
> because my sound card was not firmly seated. Good luck. --- Steve
>
> "Chris Lambert" <clambert@cal.net> wrote in message
> news:7WmZ9.7972$wL1.1737@fe01...
> > Wondered if anyone understands this:
> > Twice now I've had a problem with XP Pro where at startup it freezes at
> the
> > splash screen. None of the usual tools solve it (system restore, last
> known
> > good, etc), but both times shutting down completely and unpluging for
> > several minutes does the trick. What is this? Is there a device (like
the
> > NIC) which has to be reset by a cold boot? Would just like to know the
> cause
> > in case I see it again on a client's machine.
> >
> > --
> > Chris Lambert
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
>
>

Report this post to a moderator

Hi Chris. Looks like you narrowed down the problem quite a bit. Could need a
driver update or driver reinstall, but sounds more like a hardware problem.
You might consider trying the nic in a different pci slot (avoid using the
pci slot next to the agp video slot). Also check your cmos settings for "is
os pnp" (plug n play). I set mine to NO for NT/W2K/XP. Good luck. --- Steve


"Chris Lambert" <clambert@cal.net> wrote in message
newsjIZ9.97$W65.66@fe01...
> Thanks Steve, I'll try those.
> I was getting error messages (in Event Viewer) such as "DHCP service
cannot
> start due to missing device", and a lot of others which couldn't start
> because of failed dependencies. I'm networked with a Linksys WMP11
wireless
> PCI card, maybe it gets too hot.
>
> --
> Chris Lambert
>
>
>
> "Steven L Umbach" <n9rou@attbi.com> wrote in message
> news:5wFZ9.73681$Ve4.6804@sccrnsc03...
> > Hi Chris. Hard to tell if it does not do it all/most of the time. A
couple
> > things you could try. Run checkdisk to do a surface scan to make sure
that
> > there are no bad sectors. Does it ever have a problem booting into safe
> > mode? If not it could be a driver problem. I assume you checked device
> > manager for any problems. If you are overclocking this could be possibly
a
> > cause. You could try F8 upon boot and enable boot logging to examine the
> > ntbtlog file, of course that won't help much if it is not an usual
> problem.
> > The fact that you have to shut it down for a while makes me wonder if
the
> > cpu cooling is marginal. A marginal power supply could also be suspect,
or
> > possibly a flaky ram module (if problem persists try running on just one
> > module if possible, swapping them while troubleshooting to see if there
is
> a
> > bad one). If it was my computer I would open the case, blow out the cpu
> fan,
> > make sure hard drive cables are securley attached at the drives and the
> > motherboard controller, unseat and reseat and pci/agp cards, and do the
> > same with mouse/keyboard cables. I had a similar problem once and it was
> > because my sound card was not firmly seated. Good luck. --- Steve
> >
> > "Chris Lambert" <clambert@cal.net> wrote in message
> > news:7WmZ9.7972$wL1.1737@fe01...
> > > Wondered if anyone understands this:
> > > Twice now I've had a problem with XP Pro where at startup it freezes
at
> > the
> > > splash screen. None of the usual tools solve it (system restore, last
> > known
> > > good, etc), but both times shutting down completely and unpluging for
> > > several minutes does the trick. What is this? Is there a device (like
> the
> > > NIC) which has to be reset by a cold boot? Would just like to know the
> > cause
> > > in case I see it again on a client's machine.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Chris Lambert
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
>

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