Startup problems

I am having some major problems with my other computer. The other day I was playing Everquest 2 and suddenly it crashed. The situation has gotten progressively worse the more times I have attempted to startup windows. At first I thought I had a virus and was able to get into windows and scan half of the c:\ drive before the computer froze. Then after that I couldn't start windows at all and when I tried the green loading bar started freezing at the winxp flag loading screen. I have put the hard drive in another computer and scanned it with norton and I have found no viruses at all. I have attempted to start the computer up in safemode and I get my screen filled with text referring to driver files before it freezes. I have tried to repair windows with my winxp cd in dos but that doesnt work either. Now when I start up the computer it gets the the windows flag loading screen but it freezes at the beginning when everything is very dim and dark. I hope someone can help me out with this, I had no other symptoms of a problem before day before yesterday when it crashed and started giving me these strange problems. Thanks hope someone can help!
~Adam


can anyone help me? need more information?

 

What kind/speed of cpu, ram and vid card are you running?

I've seen safemode stop like that and thought it froze, but after several minutes it finally started up.

 

Agree with Hoot that giving XP time to boot can sometimes be all that’s needed, either with safe mode or even starting normally. I’ve seen similar freezes at the “windows flag loading screen” that will continue given enough time, even 30 mins.

First thing to do would be to run chkdsk to look for and repair possible file system errors or hard drive bad sectors. You can do the bad sector repair from the recovery console with the chkdsk c: /r command, but I’m not sure the file system repair switch /f works from the recovery console. The /p or /r switch will give you a report if there are file system errors.
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/r_c_cmds.htm#Chkdsk

Failing that then I’d suspect either a corrupt system file or Windows registry. If ‘Last Know Good Configuration’ does not help then see if you can get to the Safe Mode with Command Prompt, from where you can run System Restore. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/304449

Or you can try replacing system files or the registry hives from the Recovery Console
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545

But probably easier just doing a repair install
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
http://www.windowsxphome.windowsreinstall.com/installxpcdrepair/indexfullpage.htm

Wait another day or so to see if someone else here can offer a better solution.

 

If you have access to an up to date linux install disk, would use it; that's a good test of hdd and video card (both are suspect) as well as the whole machine, and it will clean the drive better than fdisk and format Otherwise, get mfgr's utility online to test the drive and if screen remains dim, try another video card.

It's possible a hardware problem caused the crash and is preventing the repair, although a software problem is much more likely in my experience. If linux installs, just reinstall XP over it, deleting the linux partitions first, of course..

 

thanks alot guys I got it started up but I had alot of problems with computer lagging on startup. Now I have reformatted and reinstalled windows, but on restart after windows finished installing I get a blank black screen (the orange light on the monitor as if its in safemode) and it wont turn on, then the cpu turns itself off then back on again and it stays orange and it trys to spin up the cd drive... weird..... (this is after a full reformat and reinstall of windows) I am guessing that my video card isnt supported? although it worked while I was installing windows... weird!

 

More problems.. (thanks for the help before)

thanks alot for the help before guys. I got it started up but I had alot of problems with computer lagging on startup. Now I have reformatted and reinstalled windows, but on restart after windows finished installing I get a blank black screen (the orange light on the monitor as if its in safemode) and it wont turn on, then the cpu turns itself off then back on again and it stays orange and it trys to spin up the cd drive... weird..... (this is after a full reformat and reinstall of windows) I am guessing that my video card isnt supported? although it worked while I was installing windows... weird!

I have a dell 4550, radeon 9550, 1gb ram, and other stuff I can find out if needed. the graphics card isnt the original and I dont have the original (so hopefully that isnt the problem...)

Thanks!

 

alright I opened the case blew out some dust with a can of compressed air plugged everything back in after about 10 minutes and got it to boot to a screen that said the following error:
" Memory address line failure at 3FF9000C, read 04060606 expecting 06060606 Keyboard Failure "

after seeing that error I plugged in the keyboard and mouse which I hadnt done yet and restarted. Now I cannot get the screen to stay on and the computer reboots itself about 1 second after I turn it on and the monitor stays in powersave mode (orange steady light) and the fan and cd drive turn on.

strange...

can anyone help me out with that error?

Thanks hope the new details help.

 

Boot into Safe Mode. Go to Device Manager and uninstall the Display Adapter. When you reboot the hardware wizard will ask for drivers. If it can't find the drivers on the graphics card's drivers CD click Cancel. When you get to the desktop run the drivers installation program for the graphics (actually, you should install the motherboard/chipset drivers first).

Matt

 

ok how do i boot into safemode when i have no monitor display at all, right after boot my pc restarts (everything including fan and power light turns off then back on) and the entire time my monitor stays in standby (orange light) and never once comes on.

*******UPDATE: alright I opened the case blew out some dust with a can of compressed air plugged everything back in after about 10 minutes and got it to boot to a screen that said the following error:
" Memory address line failure at 3FF9000C, read 04060606 expecting 06060606 Keyboard Failure "
after seeing that error I plugged in the keyboard and mouse which I hadnt done yet and restarted. Now I cannot get the screen to stay on and the computer reboots itself about 1 second after I turn it on and the monitor stays in powersave mode (orange steady light) and the fan and cd drive turn on.*********

 

Sorry, I got your post a little mixed up with another.

The power supply may be failing. Another thought is that the CPU is overheating.

Incompatible graphics...they don't tend to work at all. Maybe there is not enough power for the graphics.

Check all the fans are spinning freely.

Resource problem, remove any added hardware (this will reduce the load on the PSU as well).

Matt

 

Hello sirachman,

I've merged your other thread More problems.. (thanks for the help before) into the original thread you started. Posts 7 & 9 are from your other thread.

Please respond in this thread, makes it much easier to follow the problems and their solutions.

Regards - Charles