Hello,

Recently, I've been having a lot of trouble booting my computer. Ever since I moved to my grandparent's house , I've been getting this problem.

When I boot my computer, it is locking up at different stages in the loading process. Sometimes it is at the mobo boot screen where there's an ASUS logo (as soon as you turn it on).

More often, it locks up either at the Windows XP logo stage (where the blue squares are going across the screen) or just after that completes and stalls at a black screen.

Every time this happens, the power (green) light and the hard-drive acessing (orange) light are steady and not blinking and I'm forced to hit the reset button on the tower.

So far, this has happened to me 5 times, and all five times, after several resets and frustration, I've finally achieved the Windows Logon screen where I've come to find is when I've safely gotten past the problem and into windows.

Right now I'm on a different computer as about a half hour ago it froze up and as you might've guessed, am not able to boot. I'm at the point where I'm afraid to shut down and or reboot that computer when I do get passed the problem.

------------

Technical Specs:

*The problematic PC is custom built by myself (albeit my first one), I've had it since July 2004*

Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
3.2GHz Pentium 4 w/ HT
1024MB DDR RAM PC3200 in dual channel
2x74.4GB 10k RPM WD Raptors in RAID 0 [main harddrive with windows install]
80GB WD Raptor Storage drive
ATI x800 XT Platinum Edition
Creative Audigy 2 ZS Gamer Edition

Other Info: There is a history of heat issues (though not too serious as of late). I dumped the stock intel cpu fan for a better one to lower CPU temps, idle is usually 52C while taxed it gets quite higher, I have the tower on top of my desk and I have a fan going in the room to circulate air.

I'd consider myself a very proficient user with windows, but my expertise with hardware is limited beyond installing the parts so keep that in mind.

Thank you for your help.

This post has been edited by Novaprospekt: Mar 21 2006, 06:27 AM

Possibly something became dislodged when you moved the PC, run through this first, if no change, and you are comfortable with opening the PC Case, switch it off and unplug it, open the case to check all the cards etc are pushed home, don't force anything

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, right click any file then click delete, confirm delete

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter, you need the XP CD and Windows File Protection will show a blue onscreen progress bar, when the bar goes, reboot

Click start then run, type chkdsk /f /r then press enter, type Y to confirm for next boot, press enter then reboot.

Windows will appear to load normally then either the monitor will show progress or the screen will go blank, do not disturb this. This will take an hour or so before it gets to the desktop.

Download and install Tune Up 2006 Trial

Run Tune Up Disc Clean Up

Run Tune Up Registry Clean Up

Click Optimize and Improve to run Reg Defrag, which will take a few minutes and need a reboot. You should disable the antivirus programme to run this and check it is running after the reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to optimize the computer, select computer with an internet connection from the drop down menu, this also requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to accelerate downloads, select the speed just above your actual connection speed, this requires a reboot

After the reboot, click optimize then system optimizer to run system advisor

Alright, thanks Keith -

Just started Disk Cleanup, 11 gigs liberating so its taking a bit

Will keep you updated with my progress

Thx again

Just gave the order for the chkdsk... rebooting now. Probably going to sleep while this goes. If i have time before class tomorrow morning I'll give a quick update, if not I will post as soon as I get home on the results.

Thanks again.

Does it boot more consistently yet?

So far, no.

After removing the Windows CD and rebooting it froze up while loading Windows, and got discouraged. I shut off the tower and checked every single molex connector, PCI card, and CPU fan to make sure they were secured... everything from what I felt was in place and nothing out of the ordinary.

I turned it on again, it was starting to lockup at the mobo loading screen (both lights were steady and it was taking longer than normal) so I hit delete and went into the BIOS. Exited BIOS, and successfully got to Windows.

I haven't done the PC Tuneup download thingy yet, Will be trying that next. But so far I'm pretty sure the problem still exists

Thx

Look for BIOS defaults / fail safe defaults, load those, press F10 to save the change, type Y to confirm and press enter

See what Tune Up does

Hey

Could you be a little more specific with the BIOS stuff cuz my mobo is an overclocking mobo and has alot of advanced user settings mixed into the vital stuff. (It's the P4C800-E from ASUS).

Good news, however. I had to reboot 3 times from the Tune Up cleanings and all 3 were smooth, no problems.

I'm going to reboot without need from other programs in a little while (will do a few times) to see if the problem still exists but I'm in good spirits

Boot the PC and keep pressing delete until it enters set up to look for the BIOS defaults, though if it continues to boot properly, no need to do that now