WinXP Pro - freezing at startup

[Naki]

Hello, I have this very annoying problem with my WinXP Pro SP2 install.

Very often I’m unable to boot into WinXP. The boot process starts, and the progress bar starts moving, but after 10-15 progress bar motions the progress bar stops updating. The system has frozen/locked up/hanged. I need to restart the computer (via the Reset button on the case) like 10-15 times in order to boot into Windows.

Now, I probably can fix this by doing a clean install, but - I don’t have the time to reinstall all the stuff (including Borland C++ Builder 6, Visual Studio 6 + Service Pack, Visual Studio 2005 + Service Pack), and I’m quite sure that after 2-3 weeks the problem will appear again, making the clean install useless. I tried a Repair install, which preserves all programs and data, that didn’t help.

So I want to try and fix this. I know it is not the RAM and not the videocard, as both were replaced and that didn’t help. It could be:

* PSU - bad or not enough power, will try to replace it.

* Damaged motherboard? - not sure

* CPU overheat - need to try to replace cooler.

* Something else - Windows/Registry/etc corruption maybe?

Thanks in advance for any help!

Note: It also freezes in Windows itself, but quite more rarely than it freezes during startup.

[N1K]

I suspect that drivers could be the issue here.. Can you remember if you installed any new drivers prior this problem started happening..

Also, I suspect on PSU rather than CPU overheating, since mostly you can even boot into system without system being restarted.

Can you post full hardware list of your PC here?

[iceradish]

Could be a bad sector on your hard disk. I have seen sample issue from my client's laptop. Try take out of your hard disk from your computer, and connect to another computer as a secondary hard disk. Scan it.

[Naki]

I tried booting into safe mode, same problem, so I think that rules out any driver issue.

Also, I tried booting into Win2003 (which I also have installed), same problem, although I do know that my Win2003 install is fine (never had a problem with it). It could be HDD problem, bad blocks or something else...

Yes, PSU, I will change the PSU soon, hopefully that will fix it...

Edit: Spoke too soon. It seems Win2003 is OK. I will have to do a clean install of WinXP now, maybe that will fix it...

Edit: Specs -

* DFI NFII Ultra Infinity motherboard (Socket A AMD) with NVidia NForce2 Ultra 400 chipset (NVidia SoundStorm audio built-in)

* AMD Athlon XP 3000+ CPU (32-bit, 2.1 GHZ, 400 MHZ FSB)

* 2 GB DDRAM (2 x 1 GB Kingston HyperX)

* Chaintech GF6800GT AGP 256 MB

* 2 ATA + 2 SATA HDDs (Maxtor 60 GB & Hitachi 250 GB, Maxtor 300 GB & Seagate 500 GB)

* 1 ATA CD-RW (Teac 48x)

* Logitech MX 510 mouse @ PS/2 port

* Standard PS/2 Compaq keyboard

* lots of USB devices - Canon LiDE 25 scanner, generic USB Card Reader, USB HDD Enclosure (Spire GigaPod III), 3 USB Flash drives (Corsair, AData, SuperTalent)@Hama 4-port USB hub, XFX gamepad, Mustek Webcam.

* 2 PCI cards - 1 3Com NIC 100-Mbit, 1 USB 2.0 4+1 ports card

* 1.44 MB Floppy

Edited March 28, 2007 by Naki

[Naki]

I did some testing - tried doing a clean install of WinXP Pro SP2, but the problems were there even with the clean install (system booting 1-2 times out of 10).

I also tried moving my HDD to another system (different motheboard and chipset) - everything worked fine, my old WinXP install (full of software, games, etc) and the new clean install booted perfectly, 10 out of 10 times. So, it is either the PSU or the motherboard. I’m planning to try another PSU, then if that fails, change motherboard and CPU (I want to get a dual-core Athlon).

[Naki]

UPDATE:

* Changing PSU didn't help (tried 400W Fortron PSU).

* I managed to salvage an old Win2000 Pro install, and it worked just fine - booted 10 out of 10 times, no BSODs, no crashes, no freezes. WinXP Pro continued to have problems, regardless of Win2K working fine.

* Problem was fixed by changing motherboard + CPU + videocard (I suppose my AGP videocard is OK, but the new motherboard is PCI Express, so no way to use the AGP card).