Urgent! Startup Problem

Hey guys im running Windows XP SP2 and it loads the bio like it always goes but when it trys to go to the windows loading screen it stays black and doesn't do anything. No error messages or anything and it was fine last night. Safe mode and any other option won't work it just freezes as soon as you select it. I figured i would try a Ubuntu Live CD and same thing as soon as you select to start up with it and it goes to load the OS black and freezes.

Any ideas are greatly appericated

AMD Athlon XP 3000+
nVidia 6600 256MB (Chaintech)
Main HD 200 Maxtor 7200 RPMs
Secondary HD 250 Seagate 7200 RPMs
ASUS A7N8X-E Deluxe
OCZ Performance Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel

 

you have two hard drives and a bootable linux CD. Surely this is a no brainer.

Boot to linux
Copy over your data and drivers
Clean reinstall of windows

total time less than 1 hour.

Studio T

 

It would be, except for this:

I had the same mobo and had the same problem. I ended replacing the mobo.

 

Im doing a memtest now and its taking forever almost an hour now and as for the mobo do you know anywhere where i can buy a new one? newegg doesn't carry it anymore

 

I assume that Pleeb was trying to use the CD to start windows but did not succeed. If Linux won't boot either will it boot from floppy?
From the description windows is found and starts, or the bootscreen options could not have been accessed. However boot does not get as far as handing over to the GUI hence the apparent 'freeze'.
If Just Playin is right and the system will not boot for any OS then things are definitely more serious.Is the hardware under guarantee?

Studio T

 

yeah it won't run any OS the most you can do is mess with the BIOs and go through the options for safe mode and then when you hit enter it goes black and doesn't do anything (longest i waited was 30 minutes) and as for the Ubuntu Live CD i can select the option to startup using the CD but then again as soon as it goes black it doesn't come back

 

I'm sorry I misunderstood your original post, Pleeb, especially as it means you have more serious problems.
There have been an unusually large number of faulty motherboard reported lately, but these have generally been new boards. I get the impression yours has been working successfully for some time?
Before definitely accusing the motherboard I would strip the system down to the minimum -- keyboard, mouse, monitor,floppy, no external connections, if you can start it from a win95/98 boot floppy you know to look somewhere else. Win 95 is best because it doesnot create a ramdrive at boot.
You really need to check the memory because all later Windows, and I think your Ubuntu, start by creating a temporary drive in ram, loading the first bootfiles into it and working from there. This hapeens around your point of failure.
You can download bootdisks from MG but I'm not sure where or

www.bootdisk.com.

Asus motherboards for AMD are notoriously tricky on timing, have a look at this thread.

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=119625

Let us know how you get on

Studio T

 

I did a memtest and it passed even though it took forever and i can't use floppy because there are no floppy drives in my house even though i wish there were and if it is the motherboard i'm going to upgrade my mobo, cpu, ram, and gfx card sinces its sorely outdated now and my system has been running for a year and a half now and reciently it was kinda sluggish before this happened

 

OK good luck!

Studio T