Strange boot problem

franklymydear

When I boot up (XP pro) sometimes (well more often than not) my computer decides to go stall mid-boot after the windows loading screen and before the user name log on screen.

I could understand (and maybe even accept) if it didn't boot at all but the fact that it is a lottery when I turn on my laptop is quite annoying.

Could anyone shed some light on the situation? Why or how could a laptop boot up sometimes but not other times?

Ruu_Old

Can you give us some system details? How old is the machine? It could be hardware related so first try running memtest to check for memory failures.

ressem

Yep, need more details.
e.g when you say stall, if left for an hour or two even overnight, will it eventually start. Are you seeing a bluescreen, or automatic reboot.
For example it might be a slow laptop attempting to install updates.

Any correlation between when the laptop is plugged in or running on battery and the stall.

Common steps in troubleshooting such issues:

1: does the problem occur when the network/ wireless network is disconnected/off/unavailable?

2: does the problem ever occur when you start the computer in safe mode?
(press F8 a few times just before and as the windows boot screen appears. Choose safe mode). If not there may be a driver, service or antivirus causing an issue.

3: Has the laptop ever been part of a corporate domain?

franklymydear

System details:

Dell XPS m1210 1.83Ghz dual core, 1Gb RAM, 100Gig HD
Win XP pro SP2
6 months old

The blank screen I get most of the time is just a plain black screen - though it looks like it is slightly lit - after the loading bar (xp logo+black screen+blue flashing bar at bottom) and before the login screen.

It happens randomly i.e. any time I start it regardless of variables -with or without network card/bluetooth being activated- it may or may not boot. I have tried eliminating the variables to see if it could be tied down to one specific problem but wasn't able to find the source of the problem. When it freezes I take the battery out and restart the machine. The problem happens whether or not the battery is in or solely using AC power.

The laptop was never out of my possession / in the corporate domain. It is set up for use with the college network but the problem happened before I set it up there so that's not it.

The laptop boots up every time in safe mode so it could be driver related but I have tried updating the drivers (the ones on the dell CD) to no avail. I ran memtest but everything showed up fine.

Could it possibly be a program I have installed? I have some software that uses dongle emulators.


Cheers for the input guys.

ressem

Yes, it's possible that a program that operates at a low level will cause this behaviour.

So it may be required to use msconfig to selectively disable startup items.

So boot in safe mode.
Start>Run>msconfig
Choose selective startup under the 'general' tab.

Deselect the 'load Startup items' and click OK.
Click OK and restart the computer in normal mode.

If it now starts consistently then your issue will be with the items listed under the msconfig>Startup tab.

If if still fails then disable the next item (Load system Services) under msconfig, and repeat.

Once you know which section causes the issue then you can work to deselect individual items. Or list the items and post them here.

Capt'n Midnight

Does it occur in safe mode too ?

Have you applied all the latest updates, there was something about hanging for 10 minutes on dot net service pack one or something