[rshaffer61]

OK the next obvious question is has it ever worked correctly?

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Hi! When I got the Dell GX-620 secondhand the fitted TEAC CD drive did not work, and this problem has been resolved by your suggestion of uninstalling the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller drivers and re-booting Windows XP to let it re-install the drivers. As I said, I originally hoped to replace the CD drive with an Optiarc AD-7530A DVD/RW which had come from an Acer Inspire laptop with a faulty graphics chip. It is this DVD/RW drive which causes Windows XP PRO to hang/freeze during a normal boot at the point when there is the XP logo against black, with a blue progress bar. I have also tried a MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-850S, and both exhibit identical behaviour, but both also work when I boot in 'Safe Boot' mode. If you mean has the GX-620 ever worked correctly with a DVD optical drive, or anything other than the TEAC CD-224E CD drive which was fitted when I bought it, and now working, the answer is 'No'. Since I've now backed up my System drive and know I can restore it, I'm wondering about doing a clean install of Windows XP Pro from another Microsoft original disk (even though it's SP2), and seeing if it works with this, just to check. The bottom line to me is that two DVD optical drives work in Safe Boot, and all I'm trying to do is enable one of them to work in the same way after a normal Windows XP boot sequence. Thanks!

[Daftasabrush]

Hi! When I got the Dell GX-620 secondhand the fitted TEAC CD drive did not work, and this problem has been resolved by your suggestion of uninstalling the IDE ATA/ATAPI controller drivers and re-booting Windows XP to let it re-install the drivers. As I said, I originally hoped to replace the CD drive with an Optiarc AD-7530A DVD/RW which had come from an Acer Inspire laptop with a faulty graphics chip. It is this DVD/RW drive which causes Windows XP PRO to hang/freeze during a normal boot at the point when there is the XP logo against black, with a blue progress bar. I have also tried a MATSHITA DVD-RAM UJ-850S, and both exhibit identical behaviour, but both also work when I boot in 'Safe Boot' mode. If you mean has the GX-620 ever worked correctly with a DVD optical drive, or anything other than the TEAC CD-224E CD drive which was fitted when I bought it, and now working, the answer is 'No'. Since I've now backed up my System drive and know I can restore it, I'm wondering about doing a clean install of Windows XP Pro from another Microsoft original disk (even though it's SP2), and seeing if it works with this, just to check. The bottom line to me is that two DVD optical drives work in Safe Boot, and all I'm trying to do is enable one of them to work in the same way after a normal Windows XP boot sequence. Thanks!

[rshaffer61]

OK one question about the XP installation. Is this a disk that has been installed on another system and if so is there a sticker somewhere on the GX-620 that shows the original OS installed with a reg key?
Also has the Dell ever been formatted before?
If not there might be a recovery partition still on the hard drive to do the reinstallation.


The key combination is CRTL + F11 pushing the keys at the same time at the the dell screen during post. Once you push them then you want to release them.
It should go into the recovery partition so you can do a system restore.

[Daftasabrush]

Hi! I bought the Dell GX-620 secondhand from a stranger on the equivalent of Craigslist a couple of years ago, so I've no knowledge of the previous Windows installation history. I've always assumed that the copy of Windows XP PRo was legitimate, but I've just checked the Product Key on the sticker against the one recovered by MagicJellyBean, and they are different. I don't know if that means this is not a legitimate copy, but it's been updating without any problems from Windows Update since I got it. There is no recovery partition on the hard drive, but I got a Dell Windows XP PRO disk with the computer, and that is what I used to attempt the repair a day or so ago. It did not ask for a Product Key during the repair process. I don't actually know if the copy of Windows on the hard drive came from the Dell Windows XP Pro install disk which I got with the computer. I have an older copy (SP2) of Windows XP Pro which I bought for another computer, and this is definitely legitimate. I was wondering about installing it and (even without updating) checking if it works with the DVD optical drives. I can always restore the original system from my backup copy.

[rshaffer61]

OK as long as the sticker says Win Xp Pro then you should be able to use the Dell disk you got with the system.

[Daftasabrush]

Hi! I tried a clean install of Windows XP Pro SP3, didn't do any updates, etc, but the Optiarc DVD/RW drive worked without causing the normal boot sequence to hang. I then restored the original Dell XP Pro system from my backup image, so system was back to original state. I then tried a Windows XP Pro repair from a standard Microsoft retail copy of XP Pro (rather than from the Dell XP Pro disk which I have). When this completed the Optiarc DVD/RW drive caused the usual problem of progress bar freezing during normal boot. It seems like I may have to do a clean install to resolve this problem, but my feeling is that it may even be pointing to an installed application, in conjunction with a DVD optical drive, interfering with the boot sequence. The DVD drives work in Safe Boot mode, so it's something which is loaded in full boot (Windows or other installed application) which is causing the problem. One thing I noticed was that with the clean install, the Intel 82801G IDE ATA/ATAPI controllers (see attached screen grab) were not shown in Device Manager, and instead primary and secondary IDE channels were shown, and I think default controllers. I should have saved a screen grab but didn't. The only thing is that if I uninstall these controllers, a DVD drive still causes boot to hang, and they're reinstalled automatically once I login. They're also still there after a repair. Any hints as to how to disable anything else in full boot, given the selective boot tests which I described earlier (post #9)?

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[rshaffer61]

I then restored the original Dell XP Pro system from my backup image, so system was back to original state. I then tried a Windows XP Pro repair from a standard Microsoft retail copy of XP Pro (rather than from the Dell XP Pro disk which I have). When this completed the Optiarc DVD/RW drive caused the usual problem of progress bar freezing during normal boot.

It seems the problem is with your backup then. If everything works on a clean install then I would go with that and do all the updates through Microsoft and see if the issue returns then.

[Daftasabrush]

Yes, I imagine that a clean install would do the trick, but I'd just hoped that I could avoid that, and re-installing all the other software too. I might try to take a closer look at what's running with Process Explorer or similar to compare services running in Safe Boot mode as opposed to selective boot with all services disabled.

[rshaffer61]

You could go to mscong\services and then hide all Microsoft services.
Then unclick everything and reboot.
If it works right then click one thing on and reboot. Keep doing that till you click everything back on or find the culprit.

[Daftasabrush]

I did already try disabling all the services by unticking the boxes, also selective startup mode with 'Load System Services' and 'Load Startup Items' both deselected, with no luck either time (post #9)

[rshaffer61]

Then it isn't a service causing the issue.

[Daftasabrush]

I did a clean install from the Dell Windows XP Pro SP3 disk, and it works with the DVD drives. I wondered whether it was something about the Dell version of XP which was causing the problem, but seems not. I've updated fully and installed Zone Alarm and AVG as per the original install, and still working. I'll maybe slowly work on re-einstalling all the software, while keeping the present copy as current until I get it all done. Thanks for all your help anyway, but it doesn't seem like there's any quick fix in this case!

[rshaffer61]

I'll maybe slowly work on re-einstalling all the software, while keeping the present copy as current until I get it all done. Thanks for all your help anyway, but it doesn't seem like there's any quick fix in this case!

Quick suggestion...install one program at a time and make sure the drive is still responding correctly. That way if it is some software causing all this you will find it right away. The only reason I can see the Dell XP causing this is because of drivers it may load if the Dell XP is not for this system.

[rshaffer61]

Are you still having problems with your issue?
It has been 14 days since your last response and I was wondering if the issue has been resolved?
If so can you explain how it was resolved so others may be able to fix it if they have the same issue.
If not please let us know and we can continue with helping you to resolve the issue.

[rshaffer61]

Are you still having problems with your issue?
It has been 39 days since your last response and I was wondering if the issue has been resolved?
If so can you explain how it was resolved so others may be able to fix it if they have the same issue.
If not please let us know and we can continue with helping you to resolve the issue.