Normal boot freezes, Safe boots OK, NO Messages

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dennis
  • Start date Start date
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Dennis

After more than a year of rock solid stability, this XP machine now
normal boots only after repeted attempts. It freezes up at or just
after the log on screen. There are no messages, just a total
indefinite freeze.

Safe boots are always OK, but there are no messages to indicate what
could be wrong. Repeated normal boot attempts from safe mode
eventually succeed (about 1 in every 10 attempts work). Once running
in normal mode, all is well with no problems at all until the next
normal boot attempt.

System:

ASUS A7V8X main board
512 MB Toshiba RAM (two sticks)
SMC 10/100 Ethernet PCI NIC (enabled)
56k V92 PCI modem (enabled)
ATI Radeon 7000 PCI VGA
On board Broadcom 10/100 Ethernet LAN port (diasabled)
On board audio (enabled)
Windows XP SP1
Cable modem via SMC PCI NIC

No IRQ conflicts shown in device manager.
Machine always POSTs normally.
Temps, fan speeds and voltages all appear normal.
Hibernate mode works OK.
System restores worked for a while, now these have no affect and take
a very L O N G time to do.

Ths problem seems to have started just after an Earthlink cable modem
installation. Two Bright-House techs (local cable service house) have
looked at this problem, but have no clue.

What is the best way to do a "step-by-step" boot to see just where the
freeze happens? I know about bootlog and event viewer, but the
messages these produce is so much jibberish to me.

Ideas, suggestions? Thanks in advance.

Dennis
 
What is the best way to do a "step-by-step" boot to see just where the
freeze happens? I know about bootlog and event viewer, but the
messages these produce is so much jibberish to me.

Check your startup settings to find out what is causing this.
Applications that start with Windows can be found here:
- the WIN.INI, section [windows], entries "run=" and "load="
- the Registry keys
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\RunServices
- the folders
C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\ALL USERS\START MENU\PROGRAMS\STARTUP
C:\DOCUMENTS AND SETTINGS\{username}\START MENU\PROGRAMS\STARTUP
See also "How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows
XP" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310560) and "How to Perform a
Clean Boot in Windows XP" (http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=310353).
 
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