Windows XP at start up, erm...

Sniipe

Right after the bios is finished (when it starts loading my OS from the ide-0)my PC will freeze at a black screen 4 out of 5 times. I have to restart the machine and windows then asks me if I want to "load last known config that worked" or "start windows noramlly" (you know what I'm on about ?!?!) So after choosing start normally, and going thru the same procedure 3 more times the PC will startup fine. What could it be? I'm gonna try hardware profile now but I've not a clue what it could be.

optiplexgx270

you using SATA hard drive at all?

Sniipe

nope. both are IDE.

Sniipe

anyone any idea's... drives me cracked

dahamsta

Have you installed any software recently? I had an issue like this with NetLimiter, had to get rid of it.

adam

Sniipe

Everything is newly installed, I only formatted the thing yest...

esquier

Mate of mine had a similar prob on a Compaq Pres., turned out it was a bad copy of XP, they sent on a boot patch which solved it for a few months but it happened again so he got a replacement XP disc. Hope this helps.

Sniipe

strange. I'm not convinced bout that, I'm hoping its not that, I'd hate another install. Could it be hardware related?

jessy

Sniipe wrote:

strange. I'm not convinced bout that, I'm hoping its not that, I'd hate another install. Could it be hardware related?

Of course it could be hardware related,
When the pc freezes do you notice any clicking noised from the hard drive?
What make is the Hard drive?
How old is it?
Did you try scanning the Disk?

Sniipe

hmmm I'll check out the clicking sound at next reboot but I've not noticed any so far. Think its a Baracuda HD tis about 2 1/2 year. Scanning I'll try now.

LoLth

have you checked if there's any bios updates available for your board?

hshortt

You mentioned two disks. Have you the jumpers set correctly? Are they both on the same IDE controller? Are all the connections properly made?

Try this.
Set the primary drive (0) to be master with the jumper at the back.
Disconnect the other drive and try to boot.

If that works then happy days. If not, try to use the other IDE controller and repeat the step.

After that, try a different IDE cable.

A couple of other suggestions.
1. Boot of the XP CD and run a repair.
2. If you connect to the internet via broadband always on, then ensure your firewall is on and your AV is up-to-date.
3. Open the boot.ini file on the root of the system drive and post the contents here on the forum, there are a bunch of optional parameters that can be set that may help.
4. Start in Safe Mode once and look at the event logs (System) and look for errors, post any here and I'll check them out.
5. Leave one disk installed and reformat and reinstall.

Good luck
Cheers
Howard

Sniipe

Boot.ini

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdish(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Restarting for safemode now.

Sniipe

Got new IDE Cable, checked the HD by itself and its still acting up.

PIC of system: