startup problem: screen goes blank

[calosIII]

hi all. my system is p4 2ghz, xp sp2, 256mb pc2100. i have 2 problems.

1) this pblm started after i did a reinstall of windows some time back. my system works fine now but for one thing. at every boot after its done post, the screen goes blank/dark/black for about 40 seconds, then a white progress bar appears at the bottom of the screen and only then does the windows logo with the blue progress bar appears. from then on its smooth sailing, a few seconds till the welcome screen and i'm in windows.

2) this hasn't happen for a few weeks now. sometimes while in windows the pc reboots by itself but during post it wont recognize the hd. like nothing connected to the ide cable. it'll only work again after disconnecting/reconnecting the ide cable.

the original pblm before i reinstalled was that the pc would suddenly reboot itself and it would get to the windows logo, then blue screen with error msg, then reboot again. and the loop continues. i could only fix it after reboot with another hd (master) and running checkdsk on my hd (slave). now after reinstall that pblm has gone away but the startup thing happens.

my software before and after the pblm started is the same. no changes in startup tab in msconfig. i tried unchecking everything except antivirus but no diff. used spybot, ad-aware, crapcleaner, antivir and avg (not both at the same time) and online trendmicro scan. also ran checkdsk a couple of times. no changes.

i know my ram and proc is not the best but the time it takes to get to the welcome screen now is about the same as another pc here with a p3 <1GHz 128mb. previously it took only a fraction of the time. the whole process till the welcome screen minus the blank 40 seconds. surely somethings wrong here.

so sorry if the explanation was too long. can someone help please?

 

[htcs]

It definately looks like a hardware problem. Replace the IDE cable from your HDD to the Mobo... also, make sure its the right type of cable.

Removing all those things from startup would not have made much of a difference as the issue you described is happening before any of those programs would get the chance to start. Usually the things in teh MSCONFIG do not start until you have logged in - or 'auto login'.

I've had a similar issue in the past - for me, the problem was my Power supply... the +5v was Under, causing teh HDD to turn off. At that point i would either freeze up or automatically restart.

If your computer is restarting automatically, you can turn that feature off so you can see the BSD and get the error code... this may help you in determining what is causing the problem:

From Control Panel, open System properties.
Select Advanced tab.
Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
Under System Failure, uncheck Automatically restart.

Other suggestions;

Make sure you have the correct motherboard drivers installed for the Chipset - i've see where older versions on newer boards slow you down and where newer versions on older boards cause reboots and blue screens.

Check your BIOS settings:
-put the option for plug and play OS to No
-allow the mobo to configure latency time and other RAM settings.
-check your boot sequence - if the network card is in teh sequence, remove it. Soemtimes leaving a CD in the drive during boot can slow you down as the system checks the drive to see what's in there.

Good luck

 

[calosIII]

Check your BIOS settings:
-put the option for plug and play OS to No
-allow the mobo to configure latency time and other RAM settings.
-check your boot sequence - if the network card is in teh sequence, remove it. Soemtimes leaving a CD in the drive during boot can slow you down as the system checks the drive to see what's in there.

Good luck

thanks for the reply.
i've checked the bios settings above. all ok. i even put the hd as 1st boot device but still no change.
now i'm looking for another ide cable to try out. see how that goes.

anyone else please?

 

[calosIII]

ok i've tried another ide cable but the problem's still there.

 

[Osiris]

before i start giving ideas, is this fixed yet?

 

[calosIII]

not fixed yet. so please, ideas...

 

[calosIII]

still not fixed...

 

[htcs]

i would suggest downloading the diagnostics software for your hdd from the manufacturer... this is just to rule out a possible hardware problem with the hdd.



The diagnostics app usually will run from a bootable floppy. Try that. If it still doesn't work - i would suggest reformat again. If the issue continues - there is definately a hardware issue somewhere.

We gotta go through the process of elimination. You could also try removing any other devices such as sound cards, trying another video card, modems etc.

if that doesn't make a difference, possibly a motherboard issue on your hands.

Maxtor
Western Digital
Seagate

 

[calosIII]

funny thing. i dnloaded the diagnostics software like you said fm the site. reboot fm floppy and ran the quicktest. it finished and said no errors were found. so i restarted and whaddayaknow... the problem's gone. no more 30 sec blank screen during startup.
although i've only restarted 2 times to check lets just hope its stays ok.
htcs thank you very much fr your replies and suggestions.