[vewyphishy]

First off, great site. I've been looking for a place like this since I started having my problems with my computer.

Diving right into the problem... the system specs are as follows:

Mobo- ECS KT600a
Processor- AMD Semperon 2500+
Mem- Corsair 256mb 3200
HD- Seagate 40gb

When I power on the system, it goes through the checks (IDE, SATA) with no problems. Everything is recognized as it should.

Right after this, the WinXP logo should appear almost immediately. Well, it doesn't. It takes about 10 seconds before it actually does appear. After another 5-8 seconds of thinking/loading... one of three things occurs.

1. It never makes it into Windows. The system stays "on" but the monitor no longer receives a signal and goes idle. Must reboot.

2. The blue screen with "Welcome" appears... and then the computer locks up.

3. Windows loads up all the way... and then the computer locks up after about 3 to 5 minutes.

I went to the ECS website and downloaded the latest BIOS along with the flash utility to be used while in Windows. If I am in Windows long enough to run this program, I get a message that states "OnBoard BIOS not Award BIOS" which doesn't make much sense because it IS an Award BIOS.

I did a manual flash of the BIOS and it looks like nothing has changed.

I've read from various sources that I need to get SP1 installed... but how would I go about doing that if I can't even get the computer to stay on long enough to do so?

Does anyone have a clue as to what might be the problem... and more importantly, how do I fix this?

Again, and as always, TIA.

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Try booting into safe mode or VGA mode. Do this by tapping F8 when the computer is starting up. You will then see a menu to choose 1 or these options. If you are able to boot in one of these modes successfully, you may have an incorrect video driver, or perhaps your video card is overheating. What type of video card? Brand? Onboard? PCI? PCI-E? AGP? Does it have a fan?

Note: try safe mode first, then try VGA mode.

[Dr Superb]

Try booting into safe mode or VGA mode. Do this by tapping F8 when the computer is starting up. You will then see a menu to choose 1 or these options. If you are able to boot in one of these modes successfully, you may have an incorrect video driver, or perhaps your video card is overheating. What type of video card? Brand? Onboard? PCI? PCI-E? AGP? Does it have a fan?

Note: try safe mode first, then try VGA mode.

[vewyphishy]

I can boot into the various safe modes without any problems. The vid card is an ATI Rage 128 PCI (kind of old) but I've never had any problems with it. With that said, it doesn't mean I won't.

Is VGA mode one of the options when you hit F8?

[added]
I also read somewhere that the hard disk size may have something to do with it... perhaps the mobo (or perhaps windows) needs to be patched to support large disk volumes?

Edited by vewyphishy, 20 June 2005 - 12:29 PM.

[Dr Superb]

I can boot into the various safe modes without any problems. The vid card is an ATI Rage 128 PCI (kind of old) but I've never had any problems with it. With that said, it doesn't mean I won't.

Is VGA mode one of the options when you hit F8?

VGA: Yes.

The ATI Rage 128 PCI is a good card. That being said, it should have a fan. Check if it is spinning (working). If its not, the card is definetly overheating. A videocard overheating would definetly cause a system to lock up around the time of the login process, at about 800x600 resolution and 32bit color. The fan could have a ton of dust / dirt in it which would cause it to not function properly.

Check all the fans while you are inside your computer.

Edited by Dr Superb, 20 June 2005 - 01:47 PM.

[Johanna]

A 40 gig hard drive does not require any of the SPs to be recognized by XP. I have to agree with Dr. Superb- if it's doing okay in safe mode, then your video card is the first suspect. After you follow the Dr.'s suggestions, use Device Manager to uninstall the card, reboot, let XP "find" it...if no joy, physically remove and reseat it, or you could try temporarily replacing it with a known good working card, and see if the symptoms remain.
Johanna

[vewyphishy]

Looks like it was the vid card. I took it out of this computer and put it in another. That computer worked fine. Took that computer's vid card and put it into this new one and it works fine too.

Anyway to make the current computer "like" the other vid card?

[gerryf]

install the latest drivers (from safe mode) for the ati rage card...


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