[rshaffer61]

I'm sorry about the confusion with links. I am helping another person with a similar problem as yours. His involves a internet problem also.
I went back and reread everything. This is just a reboot problem not a startup problem. OK, we have checked the hd and found nothing wrong.
I want to check something just for my own thinking

Lets see what you have in your startup services area
Please click on
Start>>Run>>Type in msconfig>>>press enter
Now click on Boot.ini
Below where it says "Check All Boot Paths"
You will see
/noguiboot does this have a check in the box?

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Hi rshaffer61,

No problems at all. I figured that might be the case, I noticed you are at the top of "todays top 20 posters", you are obviously very generous with your time.

I have checked the msconfig BOOT.INI tab, there is no tick in the /NOGUIBOOT box.

I would appreciate your comments with regards to the startup slowness as well. Whilst I am worried that the cause of the restart hang will expand itself to mean I can't boot at all and would still like to get this fixed, this probably isn't as much of a problem at the moment as the startup slowness, because it is a pretty simple workaround to the restart hang to just shutdown and power on

Look forward to your next reply

[bugatronic25]

Hi rshaffer61,

No problems at all. I figured that might be the case, I noticed you are at the top of "todays top 20 posters", you are obviously very generous with your time.

I have checked the msconfig BOOT.INI tab, there is no tick in the /NOGUIBOOT box.

I would appreciate your comments with regards to the startup slowness as well. Whilst I am worried that the cause of the restart hang will expand itself to mean I can't boot at all and would still like to get this fixed, this probably isn't as much of a problem at the moment as the startup slowness, because it is a pretty simple workaround to the restart hang to just shutdown and power on

Look forward to your next reply

[rshaffer61]

When you bootup and the system hangs, is this at the splash screen where Windows logo is showing and the little bar at the bottom of it seems to repeating and repeating?
Or is this the black screen with the long white bar on the bottom?

[bugatronic25]

Hi rshaffer61,

Thanks for your reply
Neither description matches - I get the manufacturer screen, then this clears and the screen is black, then the screen changes to a slightly lighter colour say a really dark grey and it stays there. I don't get a screen with a bar at the bottom at all even when powering off and on which loads all the way up.

The next screen that appears after this dark grey screen when powering on as opposed to restarting is the black screen with the windows logo with the little bar at the bottom of it you refer to, then the blue welcome screen and windows tune then the desktop but when restarting I don't get past the dark grey screen. When powering off and on there is a delay at the same dark grey screen for around minute which seems to have started since XP SP3 was installed

From my earlier posting enabling /SOS on the BOOT.INI tab of msconfig does not show any info on what is being loaded until after the dark grey screen. So not sure what processes are performed when this screen is showing that the system is having trouble with

Hope that helps

[rshaffer61]

I believe the black black\grey screen you refer to is a normal occurance when booting. I get that also
I believe the only issue we have is the not restarting problem.

Lets take alook at something if you don't mind

Please click on
Start>>Run>>Type in msconfig>>>press enter
Now click on Bootini tab
Please copy and paste the contents of that in your next results

[happyrock]

try updating your video card drivers...here

[rshaffer61]

Thanks Happyrock for the suggestion. your assistance is always welcomed and appreciated.

[bugatronic25]

Hi rshaffer61,

Unable to copy the text, I have attached screens for you -

Screen 1 - the BOOT.INI tab
Screen 2 - the BOOT.INI tab with top section scrolled to the right
Screen 3 - Advanced Options sub screen
Screen 4 - Check All Boot Paths result

Hope this provides the info you were after

Attached Thumbnails

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[rshaffer61]

Follow Happyrock's suggestion and reply back with result.

[bugatronic25]

Hi rshaffer61 & happyrock,

Driver updated but did not help - I did actually have a windows-selected driver in use so I could be stuck on 1024x768 rather than 640x480 from back when I couldn't change the screen resolution, as I forgot to install the manufacturer one again when the XP SP3 install appeared to correct this.

Driver update went through, restarted to complete install - hung, powered off and on, checked driver version in device manager had changed, restarted, hung again

Any further ideas appreciated

[rshaffer61]

Very very strange indeed. Guess it's time to go into mode. This is turning into a real nail biter for sure
When you reboot from safe mode and choose the safe mode option again does the hangup happen there?

We may have to do a repair installation of Xp. This will require for you to borrow a Xp of the same version you have
Home or Pro. This will allow us to repair anything wrong with windows itself but not lose any of your data and programs you currently have. As a word of caution I would recommend backing up any important data due to any installation there can be issues and I don't want to take the chance on losing any of you data.

If you decide to continue with this path we can help further. A good reference is to read through the topic How To Repair Win Xp located Here

[happyrock]

From my earlier posting enabling /SOS on the BOOT.INI tab of msconfig does not show any info on what is being loaded until after the dark grey screen. So not sure what processes are performed when this screen is showing that the system is having trouble with

look in the bios...enable boot logging...it may just work by turning off the splash screen...then when you boot up it will scroll the post operations and should hang at the offending problem...write that down...

[usasma]

Black screen issues in XP are mostly due to 2 things:
- Video driver corruption
- Hard drive issues.

I see that you've done a lot of these things, but let me address all of them. If you've done one, it's safe to skip over it:

- uninstall video drivers, reboot, install a freshly downloaded copy of the appropriate drivers
- chkdsk /r
- From the recovery console (not likely to be your issue, but give it a shot anyway) - FIXMBR and FIXBOOT
- A hard drive diagnostic (to check the physical state of the drive): http://usasma.vox.co...iagnostics.html

[bugatronic25]

Hi rshaffer61, happyrock, usasma

Thanks to you all for your suggestions. I have tried what I could but not much luck

When you reboot from safe mode and choose the safe mode option again does the hangup happen there?

Yes - although in testing this I noticed that after the restart hung when I powered off and on again I did not experience the delay in bootup safe mode to safe mode. Normal mode to safe mode and normal mode to normal mode that screen that restarting hangs on stays there for around a minute, maybe one of you could tell me what the difference is that could explain why this delay does not occur safe mode to safe mode so perhaps I can adjust things to get the normal boot starting without the delay

look in the bios...enable boot logging...it may just work by turning off the splash screen...then when you boot up it will scroll the post operations and should hang at the offending problem...write that down...

I enabled /NOGUIBOOT, /BOOTLOG, /BASEVIDEO and /SOS options on the msconfig BOOT.INI tab and restarted but no change, no boot info displayed on screen or logged in the C:/WINDOWS/ntbtlog.txt file (its not getting that far in the boot process). Powered off and on, the progress on screen appeared, the log entries were made.

I looked in the BIOS settings but could not pick up on anything that looked like it might be an issue

Is there log feature available (from the BIOS settings?) that records what happens in the early stages of the boot process, as /BOOTLOG is only for what happens after where my restart is getting stuck?

- uninstall video drivers, reboot, install a freshly downloaded copy of the appropriate drivers
- chkdsk /r

I have tried these options earlier on

- A hard drive diagnostic (to check the physical state of the drive): http://usasma.vox.co...iagnostics.html

I have some blank CD's at work, will need to bring one home to try this

We may have to do a repair installation of Xp. This will require for you to borrow a Xp of the same version you have Home or Pro.

From the recovery console (not likely to be your issue, but give it a shot anyway) - FIXMBR and FIXBOOT

I would need to get a Windows XP Install CD to install the recovery console or try a repair installation - if I can get one and I have trouble with these options I will let you know



So a few options still in my court, but if there is anything else you guys can come up with from my feedback please let me know
Thanks for your assistance

[usasma]

There's a link in this post for an ISO of the Recovery Console files for XP: http://usasma.vox.co...epair-isos.html