Gets stuck while booting on Windows screen

Finally fixed my hardware problem with a computer that was covered in a thread on the hardware forum. Now the hardware works, but after using the computer last night for a couple of hours, and it working fine, I cannot get it to boot up today.

While booting, the computer gets to the Windows XP screen with the moving boxes underneath. The boxes keep moving, but the computer stays on that screen indefinitely. I can restart and get it going in Safe Mode. I tried going back to a couple of restore points. But I still have the same problem.

I'm running Windows XP Home.

Any suggestions appreciated. I looked for similar problems in this forum, but could not find any. I suspect, though, that this has been covered before. If you can steer me to a thread about it, that would be great.


[Tried one other thing someone recommended in another thread. In Safe Mode I did Start -> Run, then typed in msconfig. I selected Startup, and then Disable All. I then restarted in Normal Mode. Same problem. Endless Windows XP screen.]


[One more item my son reminded me of. Last night when the computer was working, AVG virus checker displayed a warning about a trojan horse. I selected the heal option, and it said the file was successfully healed. Also, I noticed that a Java update installed, and when I turned the computer off, 10 Windows updates installed.]

 

In Safe Mode, check in Device Manager that there are no problems listed.

Disconnect any added hardware.

If you are stuck, I suggest to do a Clean Boot to isolate the problem (driver?).
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/316434/en-us
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310353/en-us

Matt

 

Thanks, Matt, for the suggestions. I looked at the Device Manager and everything was fine. I then did a clean boot, as you suggested, and it did not work. Then I tried it again and it did not work.

Then the phone rang just as I was rebooting. The computer got to the Windows XP screen, and the boxes were moving as usual. My phone call went about half an hour. When I hung up the phone and looked again at the computer screen, it had booted properly and was ready to go. I went back and reset the starting sequence, and it has worked normally since.

This problem may come back, since I'm not sure why it went away in the first place. But unless it turns out to be a chronic problem, the credit for the fix goes to you, Matt. Thanks.

 

cool. Hope it keeps working for you.

Matt

 

Unfortunately, it looks like the problem of the computer getting stuck on the Windows screen is a chronic one. Every few days when we boot the computer up, it takes 10 minutes to get through the Windows screen. It's hard to tell what it is doing during those 10 minutes. But when it finally makes it, everything is fine.

To give a little background, I swapped out the power supply and motherboard. Due to the motherboard swapout, I had to re-verify Windows XP with Microsoft via the Internet. Nothing else unusual happened that I can recall.

Thanks.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, Arie. We have four user accounts on this computer. I added a new one, but that did not help the problem. Still slow booting the first time I start it up each day. After that, it seems to boot normally the rest of the day.

Some other things I have tried: I installed SP3. I tried to do a repair installation of Windows XP, but was told that my partition is corrupt and would need to be reformatted before it could proceed, which I did not do. I went into boot.ini and added /bootlog and /sos so that I could see where the computer is hanging, but got no information doing that.

Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

 

You could try booting to the Windows CD, on the first screen, go to the Recovery Console and run FIXMBR. That might allow you to run the Repair Reinstall of Windows.

In Device Manager, you can highlight and Uninstall any drivers related the Hard Disk Drives. They are IDE Controllers, SATA controllers and the HDD itself. Be ready with the motherboard drivers CD in case you are asked to supply the drivers when you restart.

I would not be certain why the Windows reinstall says that the partition information is corrupt and if it might be related to replacing the motherboard. You could try using the HDD's testing utilities
http://tacktech.com/display.cfm?ttid=287
and see if they agree.

You can use certain HDD utilities to repair the MBR (Master Boot Records), but run those tests and checks first.

Matt

 

Matt, I will try your suggestions when the problem crops up again. The computer has booted up fine the last two or three days. If it does its slow boot trick again, I'll try to do a repair installation after doing the fix to the master boot record you suggest.

 

We have not had the slow boot problem for several days. I hope that it has solved itself and gone away for good. Also, I hope that the problem in doing a repair installation does not turn out to bite us somehow.

 

Thanks for letting us know. Hope you don't need to tell us anything to the contrary

Matt

 

That's odd. Just now I turn on the computer, and it takes a long time to load again. Since I was in a hurry, I used another computer and turned the slow-loader off. No I try it again, and it loads fine. Strange problem.

 

Oh oh, now the computer will not load at all. Not even in safe mode. I looked at the partition in Partition Magic, and it looks okay. But it is awfully full -- only 10% left open. Still trying some things.

 

Did you happen to make the partition with Partition Magic? A long time distrust, I don't MAKE partitions with PM...problems in the past. If you want the best "partition maker ", use the HDD manufacturer's formatting utilities, but your current data will be lost.

10%, that's too low, as I expect you can guess. Larger HDD time?

Matt

 

hey , we allways look first too the device manager do you know that xp and vista have a unknow hidden service ?? start - run : typ verifier - ok and see what all possibility's you have

 

Would having only 10% of the hard disk drive open keep Windows from starting? It's a 200 gigabyte hard drive.

I cannot get Windows to run at all, even in safe mode, at the moment.

 

I can't say yes or no. I would not feel comfortable running at less than say, 20% and I wouldn't want it that low for long.

Just an example, Disk Defragmenter won't run at less than 15%. The space may be fragmented.

Anyway, you will need to decide whether you are going to make space by transferring data to say, optical disks or get another HDD.

Matt

 

I'll hook that drive up to another computer and delete a bunch of stuff. I don't know why the hard drive is so full -- must be a lot of junk on there from my two teenage boys who play a lot of games and download videos. See if cleaning up the drive helps.

 

Keeps getting worse and worse. I ran chkdsk /r and it found and corrected some disk errors. Now it says the hal.dll is corrupt. Working on that with some ideas found on another thread. We'll see what happens.