Windows Starting Up????

My PC was working fine until I disconnected it to paint the room one day. When I restarted the PC everything seemed to work okay until the Windows 2000 Professional Screen came up and it said "Windows Starting Up" with the blue graph bar going half way and freezing. It just sits there, with no error msg or anything. When I restarted in Debugging method it said I had a missing or corrupt config file and to restart with the Windows 2000 Setup disk and hit "r" when it prompts me. Very good but my Windows Startup disk and file only gets to the same position and then the monitor shows a disconnect or computer off, even though the CPU is still running. Need help.

 

Have you set the BIOS to boot from the CD as option #1? You should be able tell since during the startup process (and before the point where yours hangs) it will give a message for you to press a key to boot from CD.

 

Newt; Yes, I have. Since my Win2K Disk is an OEM version, I have inserted it when prompted. It goes through its process loading files and then starts Windows Starting Up. It does that twice then the monitor shows a disconnect symbol and that's that.

 

Ouch - I was hoping for a simple explanation and fix. Ah well.

This sounds pretty hardwareish at this point so let me move the thread to that section and see if anyone has any good ideas. Some of the hardware experts never look at the 2000/2003 section.

 

Open your case and RESEAT your video card (if you have one installed). Since you moved it, it is possible that a pin is not making proper contact.

 

All these suggestions are fine except I have already done them. The chief symptom is when the Windows 2000 Professonal screen comes on and the blue graph bar says Windows Starting Up goes half way and stops. So does the blue dot background bar just above it. If I didn't know better, I say it looks like my HD just froze up. But no error msg.

 

Joe,
How many HDDs have you? How important is the info on the sick drive? Is your windows disk a "restore" disk or a real installation disk?

If there's nothing not backed up (that needs to be) I’d just delete the partition with fdisk and remake it and reinstall the OS.

If there are files that you need, you have several options. The best is Norton's Ghost if you have it. If you don’t, and if you have a second HDD (a good investment) you can temporarily disconnect the sick drive and install windows on the good drive; then reconnect the sick drive and you may be able to get what you need off it.

If you have a real windows installation disk, there may be a method to repair the present OS, but I'm not familiar enough with 2000 to help you there.

 

Sparrow: I Have 2 HD on this particular computer C&D. OS is on the one that seems not to be working, although when I hit F8 and get into a Safe Mode With Command Prompt, I can go to all my directorys and find any file I want. One courious thing. When I go into my bios, the computer will freeze at the same time it takes to do it booting normally. I do have a 3 HD (external) and Norton Ghost. I tried once to copy my OS HD to the external and ran into some wierd problems. NG or me created a 3rd partition and boy did I have problems after that. Had to use my second computer to get gdisk.exe and fix the problem. I'm not that up on Norton Ghost and how to do it correctly. My External is a Western Digital and I heard NG doesn't like WD because of overlays. Is there a way to get my files copied while in Safe MOde (with command prompt)? By the way, my OS Disk is an OEM version whatever that means. I also have a Win98 Startup disk for such emergencies.

 

Hi Joe,

Ghost does it's work in DOS, and unless you have a DOS driver to put on the Ghost floppy, you won't be able to use the external drive to save an image of an internal disk. I save the ghost images to another internal drive, e.g., D to C and C to D, or now C and D to H. I then write the file to my DVD for storage. My files total about 3GB in size and are split into one 2GB, and the other smaller.

You need to make a floppy and run the Gost program from the floppy. Use the DOS that comes with Ghost or you'll need 2 floppies.

If you can get into safe mode, you may be able to fix windows, but someone familiar with W2k will need to help you. One of the moderators will see this thread and get the help you need. It's not a big deal to reinstall windows, but it's nore work to reinstall all the other programs.

Meanwhile there's a really good .pdf file that's on the CD with ghost.

 

Hi,

VERY much sounds to me like the wrong or corrupt drivers are loaded for your video adapter.

I am not experienced in Win 2k either, suggest you go to Device Manager in Safe Mode and check if there are any problems with the video section (check if anything is sharing resources with the video).

You may need to remove any (and all) video drivers that are there. Check in Add/Remove programs first and remove anything related to video. If you still can't boot to standard Windows, go to Device Manager in Safe Mode and remove the drivers for your video adapter.

If all else fails, install the latest drivers for your video card/adapter in Safe Mode, then select your model from the "list" when you have rebooted and Windows prompts you.

Matt
Edit:

Heat problem with the video card? Can you try another card?