What would you look at first.

DogsBody

DogsBody

DogsBody

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Looking a PC for a friend that was having startup problems.
It would occasionally show no signal on the monitor.
It would occasionally get to the XP loading screen and freeze as the image was fading in so that it was showing on screen very faint.
He also reported that sometimes after trying a dozen or so times it would boot. Although I could not replicate this.

I booted into safe mode when I eventually got it sorted and did a system restore to a point a month ago (problem had been occuring approx 2 weeks) pc then worked flawlessly.
Then whilst testing to make 100% sure the error reoccured, I went into safe mode again, exited straight away and then booted XP normally updated Norton and windows (2 security updates) and from then on could not get the problem to reoccur so all was well I thought, until later that evening where his wife had been using the computer no problem he came to switch on the PC and same problem.
So i went back around and was getting the same problem as before (either no signal or freezing on XP loading screen) all I did at this point was boot safe mode, disable on startup item (which as far as I am aware does not affect Windows until you actually logon) and since then again I cannot get the problem to reoccur.

But as far as I can tell the 2nd time I went round I did nothing to actually fix the problem.

I would say it was hardware related except it seemed to go away after a system restore and also once it is running fine it runs fine, when it wont run it repeatedly wont run.

Slightly baffled by this one tbh.


James.
 
Wife, XP, Norton, take a pick :)

If it's fine in safe mode, could be a software problem.

then

Checking Windows event log.

Checking Windows Startup processes.

If not, ...

Memory first. It's something you can leave running overnight.

Then hard drive. Running HD fitness test.

Then PSU. Checking the voltages at heavy load (although heavy load doesn't seem to be an issue, might come up more often).

I'd just wipe it clean, put WIn 7, and no Sodding Norton / McAfee on it, but go with Avast or Microsoft Security Essentials, adware, and the likes.
 
NathWraith said:
Problem. Detected.

.
Click to expand...

Now now. lol

The only problem I forsee with doing a fresh install of XP is the PC is a Dell and am i right in thinking Dell windows keys dont work with normal versions of windows (which is what i have) and you have to have a dell specific version of windows or is that just utter tripe I have been fed ?

Dell's arent something I have messed with extensively.

May be worth mentioning it did fail to boot safe mode once either that or it was just taking bloody ages to load so I restarted the computer.
Oh I did air dust it and reset the bios as well.
 
I had a similar issue with a clients computer some time back.

I reseated the gfx card that got the monitor working. Then i was called back as it too was freezing on startup, ended up reinstalling windows and it worked fine. Then called back again as it failed to post. Changed the RAM with spare sticks to test and it posted, ordered new RAM for them....fitted and the system then again failed to post.

In the end it was a faulty mobo, now i can't say this is the same in this case. However if you can test as many components as possible (including psu) it will help you diagnose the problem.

Regarding windows yes there a different "versions" as in retail and oem and the DELL key will most likely be an oem version. Windows xp will start to install but when you enter the key code it won't accept it as you have a retail version.

Hope this helps.....any more questions just ask
 
Error has reoccured.
The 2nd time I went back i booted into safe mode, installed Spybot and got bored about 15% of the way into the scan so cancelled it. After that i couldnt get the error to reoccur so I thought sorted.

Got a phone call few days later error has re-occured.
I removed the HDD and did a full AVg scan no virus found.
Error still happening.
I am pretty sure its a software issue as when I got it backl to my house the thing fired straight up, sometimes will fire straight up sometimes wont.

What is the best way to find out which driver/program is causing it to hang on the splash screen ?

Thanks for the responses so far guys any help is welcome.
 
Msconfig has quite a few proggys but just clarify something for me, would a startup file in msconfig affect the boot files that are loading at splash screen.
As far as I was aware I was on the understanding that anything in MSconfig didnt load until windows had actually loaded.
 
I have run a malwarebytes scan and it found nothing.
Nothing out of the ordinary in msconfig either.

The thing is since I have got it to boot safe mode i cannot get it to error when trying to normally start windows.
I just know when he gets it back he will have this error again.

Is there a logger I can use that will log program use, I know keyloggers exist but i dont think they will be any use in this case.
 
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