Totally clueless

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dick Sidbury
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Dick Sidbury

OK, I built a computer for my daughter several years ago. It has an
IWill mobo with a via chipset, 1gb ddr memory, an sb live, a voodoo 3k
agp video board, dvd drive, cd burner, floppy, superdisk, 10 gb system
disk and a 35 gb drive, promise IDE board, some standard cheap NIC. All
of it old but nothing special.

Anyhow win2k and win xp pro dual boot. It was working fine using XP.
Then my daughter booted up 2k to play an old game (monkey island if it
matters). When she switched back to XP when it booted the screen was
black. It would safe boot in XP. So I reformatted my system disk and
reinstalled xp pro. The result is black screen but will boot in safe mode.

It was working fine a week ago. I'd appreciate a suggestion as to what
to look at or try.

Thanks.

dick
 
Dick said:
OK, I built a computer for my daughter several years ago. It has an
IWill mobo with a via chipset, 1gb ddr memory, an sb live, a voodoo 3k
agp video board, dvd drive, cd burner, floppy, superdisk, 10 gb system
disk and a 35 gb drive, promise IDE board, some standard cheap NIC. All
of it old but nothing special.

Anyhow win2k and win xp pro dual boot. It was working fine using XP.
Then my daughter booted up 2k to play an old game (monkey island if it
matters). When she switched back to XP when it booted the screen was
black. It would safe boot in XP. So I reformatted my system disk and
reinstalled xp pro. The result is black screen but will boot in safe mode.
Click to expand...

The Windows 2000 system was on the 'system' disk too? Because it sounds
like cross contamination between the two.
 
Dick Sidbury said:
OK, I built a computer for my daughter several years ago. It has an
IWill mobo with a via chipset, 1gb ddr memory, an sb live, a voodoo 3k
agp video board, dvd drive, cd burner, floppy, superdisk, 10 gb system
disk and a 35 gb drive, promise IDE board, some standard cheap NIC. All
of it old but nothing special.

Anyhow win2k and win xp pro dual boot. It was working fine using XP.
Then my daughter booted up 2k to play an old game (monkey island if it
matters). When she switched back to XP when it booted the screen was
black. It would safe boot in XP. So I reformatted my system disk and
reinstalled xp pro. The result is black screen but will boot in safe mode.

It was working fine a week ago. I'd appreciate a suggestion as to what
to look at or try.
Click to expand...

Video card going south, maybe? Try swapping it out
for another one. Other than that, since it's an old system,
you might do a basic hardware check:

1. Make sure your CPU and case temperatures are OK, and
that the CPU fan, case fans, and any other fans are
working. One tool you can use to check temperatures
is Everest. You can download it from
http://www.lavalys.com. Run it, expand "Computer",
and click on "Sensor".

2. Monitor your power supply voltages for a while -- check
for fluctuations and voltages out of spec. You can
use Everest (see step 1 above) to check voltages:
expand "Computer" and click on "Sensor". The display
updates itself automatically every few seconds

3. Shut down your computer and turn off power *at the
surge protector* (which cuts off standby power while
leaving your computer grounded) or unplug it. Take
the standard protections against static electricity
(wear a wrist strap or keep one hand grounded at all
times).

4. Open up your computer and dust it out. *Do not use a
vacuum cleaner* - it might cause static discharge.
Get some dust remover spray (RadioShack has it) and
a dust mask, and take your computer outside and spray
out the dust. Keep the end of the spray straw at least
six inches from any components and keep it moving so as
to avoid excessive thermal shock to the components.

5. Reseat all the modules, including the memory modules,
and cables inside your computer.

6. Remove your CMOS battery and check its voltage
(or just replace it). Note: If you do this step, you'll have
to set up your BIOS again.

7. Turn on your computer, and run a few cycles of "memtest86"
(download from http://www.memtest86.com) to thoroughly
check out your memory. You should get zero errors.

--Bob Day
http://bobday.vze.com
 
Dick Sidbury said:
Anyhow win2k and win xp pro dual boot. It was working fine using XP.
Then my daughter booted up 2k to play an old game (monkey island if
it matters). When she switched back to XP when it booted the screen
was black. It would safe boot in XP. So I reformatted my system
disk and reinstalled xp pro. The result is black screen but will
boot in safe mode.
Click to expand...

Does it still boot into Win2K? I'm no expert on dual-booting but I would
think that having two OS so similiar would be asking for trouble. If it
still boots Win2K, then I would bet that you have a software problem but I
don't know how to troubleshoot dual-boots.

The last time I had a machine with the same symptoms, it was because I had
installed the wrong monitor driver. Try resetting both OS to the standard
VGA driver and plugnplay monitor and see what happens.

Just curious... why are you dual booting 2K and XP?
 
David said:
The Windows 2000 system was on the 'system' disk too? Because it sounds
like cross contamination between the two.
Click to expand...

Yes it was. So why does the error persist after wiping out Win2k
reformatting the disk and then installing WinXP?
dick
 
JAD said:
why I don't know, but it sounds like your video drivers in XP went
sour, reinstall.
Click to expand...

I reformatted the drive and reinstalled windows XP. So essentially I
did reinstall.

dick
 
Mac said:
Does it still boot into Win2K?
Click to expand...

Don't know. Win 2K is no longer on the machine and I forgot to check.
I'm no expert on dual-booting but I would
think that having two OS so similiar would be asking for trouble. If it
still boots Win2K, then I would bet that you have a software problem but I
don't know how to troubleshoot dual-boots.

The last time I had a machine with the same symptoms, it was because I had
installed the wrong monitor driver. Try resetting both OS to the standard
VGA driver and plugnplay monitor and see what happens.
Click to expand...

Tried that with XP and it didn't help.
Just curious... why are you dual booting 2K and XP?
Click to expand...

We had 2K on the machine because of some software and hardware that
wasn't at the time compatible with XP. We also put XP on the machine
because that was what was on my daughter's other machine and it didn't
cost anything to put it on the computer. But we decided when the problem
occurred that 2000 wasn't really necessary now since the software could
be used with XP now.

dick
 
Well, if the video is OK in safe mode (standard VGA 640x480), it must
be the WinXP video drivers. Do you have drivers for the voodoo? If
yes, try uninstalling the WinXP drivers and then install the voodoo
drivers. If you uninstall the WinXP drivers, you should be able to
boot to normal mode WinXP OK but with the same standard VGA 640x480
that you get in safe mode.

hawk
 
Dick said:
Yes it was. So why does the error persist after wiping out Win2k
reformatting the disk and then installing WinXP?
Click to expand...

Well, if it were a 'software' problem it wouldn't. That's why I asked.

You did the 'obvious' thing so I'd say it's time for basic trouble
shooting. Break it down to the bare minimum to run (remove extra drives,
cards, etc.), reset everything you're leaving in (display card, memory,
etc.), check cables, do a general visual, and go from there.
 
Dick Sidbury said:
Don't know. Win 2K is no longer on the machine and I forgot to check.


Tried that with XP and it didn't help.


We had 2K on the machine because of some software and hardware that
wasn't at the time compatible with XP. We also put XP on the machine
because that was what was on my daughter's other machine and it didn't
cost anything to put it on the computer. But we decided when the problem
occurred that 2000 wasn't really necessary now since the software could
be used with XP now.

dick
Click to expand...

Just wondering if something in another thread may apply here. Did you
activate XP when it asked? It mentioned that after 30 days of non
activation, it would only boot into safe mode. Here is the message ID:
(e-mail address removed)

MC
 
Moderately said:
Just wondering if something in another thread may apply here. Did you
activate XP when it asked? It mentioned that after 30 days of non
activation, it would only boot into safe mode. Here is the message ID:
(e-mail address removed)
Click to expand...
After the Windows opening logo (where the bar moves across the screen in
blue) the screen went BLACK. There was no question about activation and
the hard disk was reformatted before installing windows.

dick
 
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