Windows XP Startup Error

I', posting this in the XP forum but it may well end up moved to Hardware as I think that may well be the issue:

Windows XP Pro SP1 installed around 3 months ago all has been fine.

Changed nothing on the system (hardware or software) and now I have a startup problem :

First time I turn on PC it will start to boot but the Windows Xp logo screen will appear very feintly and nothing will happen

Turn off, turn back on and select "Start Windows Normally" and off we go again, Windows XP spalsh screen appears normal, blue bar moves across screen for a bit and then stops

Turn off, turn back on again and select "Start Windows Normally" and it will start OK

This pattern is true 99% of the time, occassionally step 2 is repeated twice or three times.

Never does it start first time

Once in use the PC seems fine, occassional lockup (but hey thats Windows)

Anyone got any ideas ?

 

Well, yeah...a few ideas. Since I don't know what you've already tried, here they are:

Disable everything from loading on startup that you can manually start later if you need it. It's best if you can disable that from within each program but if that option isn't available in each program's Preferences or Settings or Options (whatever terminology used), do it in Start>Run>msconfig>OK>Startup tab.

Run disk cleanup (Start>All Programs>Accessories>System Tools>Disk Cleanup), dumping all temp files (compressing old files is up to you, I never use it).

Scan for and remove spyware with Spybot and/or Ad-Aware. I recommend you use them both since each tends to find things the other misses. Let them clean up any spyware found.

Defrag the disk.

 

Miz,

Thanks for the reply, really should have covered all of this in the orginal post:

Tried disabling stuff at startup as far as possible including with MSCONFIG

Disk Cleanup has been run and is ran every week or so anyway.

Ad Aware and SpyBot are runn every day anyway but I have made sure to run them even more lately

AntiVirus is Network Associates Enterprise and is right up to date for both Engine and siganture file, auto update is working fine when the PC is up. I've even tried to run a HouseCall from Trend and it finds nothing

I've not tried a defrag, will do it but seems highly unlikely given the symptoms, but hey I'll try anything at this stage.

Will post back.....

 

This could possibly turn out to be hardware but a couple more general 'fix up' things that are worth a try.

start~run~cmd and when the "DOS" window opens,
chkdsk /r and follow all the prompts to have it scan at next boot then boot.

Next:

Code:

start~run~sfc /scannow