Windows XP won't boot

I recently bought a new computer. My old system that worked, was shut off for a month. I turned it on yesterday to transfer some files. It got to the windows screen and right before it would normally get to the blue windows screen, it hangs. I can get to the BIOS and I can get on through safe mode. In safe mode I can navigate the system. In safe mode I tried system restore. I booted from cdrom and windows xp disk. Went to install and repaired. ( not the console repair) The repair took about 15 minutes. I'm still back to it not loading other than in safe mode. I've searched the threads here and saw the suggestion to turn it on and walk away and see what happens. I'll try that tonight. I also saw to try chkdsk. I think at some point I did that but will try that again. I know there is a similar thread about this but I didn't want to hijack it. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I am not a huge computer person but I do have some knowledge. Thanks in advance. Chris

 

Could it be your screen resolution?
Try changing the screen resolution to bare minimums and see what happens
also open up MSCONFIG (START > RUN > msconfig > OK then click on Startup tab) and uncheck the boxes next to suspicious and/or unneeded entries. You could do more troubleshooting in this respect by enabling/disabling win.ini, sys.ini files one at a time. Win.ini file is not used by XP any more however some applications still refer to it or use it so they kept it, so try disabling processing of Win.ini file as a last resort to see if it helps.

Where does it exactly stop? Any errors at all?

 

I get the black windows screen and the progress bar, then the screen goes dark. I hooked up a spare hard drive, two in fact, and they both worked. I ran windows repair again. When it rebooted to finish the repair I scheduled a chkdsk, which it is doing now.(not sure if that will muck it up or not)
I don't get any errors and I'm pretty sure it's not my resolution. When chkdsk is finished I'll let you know if it worked. If not I'll try what you suggested. It's starting to look like the hard drive is going though. Thanks for the advice.

 

Good deal, make sure you re-post and let us know, ok?

Remember, you can boot in 'Safe Mode' but not in Normal Mode.
Brief summary of the differences between these 2 modes to give you a better understanding:
Safe Mode would, stop all applications/programs configured to start along with Windows from loading up after login process. You could achieve the same result during a 'Normal Boot' by holding down the SHIFT key immediately after logging in.
What Safe Mode differs in is that it doesn't allow majority of the services from running. Mainly, there should be about 10 processes running, the ones I can think of as must-have are:
1) System Idle Process
2) System
3) smss.exe
4) csrss.exe
5) winlogon.exe
6) services.exe
7) lsass.exe
8) svchost.exe
9) svchost.exe (another one)
10 explorer.exe <-- now this one can actually be killed but you would be looking at a blank screen because it is pretty much the GUI- Graphical User Interface that users normally see and use so killing it would be pointless)

and finally, besides majorty of the services and pretty much all programs configured to startup along with Windows, Safe Mode would be using bare minimum device drivers.
If Safe Mode works then the problem is with one (or more) of these 3 areas.

PS. also if you have any external devices connected, disconnect them, it is very common that external USB devices causes boot problems since they might be in conflict with the system or another device.

 

Well repair didn't work either. Got tired of messing with it, so I turned it of and then back on and went to bed. This morning still black screen. I'm at work now so I can't really do anything. I've printed this thread and will shut down the processes that you "DON'T" have listed. I'll let you know what happens tonight if I have the time to work on it. Thanks again.

 

Hi shakes21, Can you explain to me in detail what exactly this system does on boot?

Can you see the BIOS screen?
Can you see the Bootscreen?
Does it get to the logins?
Any error messages?

The more information you can provide me with the better I can assist you.

 

The list of processes was what you'd see when boot in 'Safe Mode' so if you can boot in normal mode (which you stated you couldn't) then don't mess with the processes just yet.

Again, I would stress two possibilities causing the problem (IMO):

A) a Startup entry either in registry or in Win.ini file
B) one (or slight chance more) faulty device drivers

Here is what I recommend for the time being, download StartupControlPanel. Using this standalone utility check these 4 pages:
1) Startup (user)
2) Startup (common)
3) HKLM/Run
4) HKCU/Run (especially these last two tabs)

UNcheck all (yes all!) entries, then reboot, if the problem is gone then the cause of it was indeed the possibility with 'A' option mentioned above.
If not, more than likely option 'B'. If it is B then the most common device driver that would be the culprit is Video drivers, followed by mobo drivers, Audio and NIC. The reason for this could be corruption of that particular device drivers (possibly) caused by:
a) virus infection
b) Improper shutdown or system activity last time you were on that PC.
c) Uninstalled or installed programs/drivers prior to the problem.
d) HardDrive is going bad, creating bad sectors and data on those sectors are unreadable or corrupted.

Again read everything thoroughly, do not panic or feel overwhelmed and make sure you try each and every possibility (if they are applicable to you) and re-post the results so I know what is going on.

Also, if you have an anti-virus program (might have an entry in the services list), UNinstall it as well when you boot in the 'Safe Mode', ok?

 

Bjgarrick,
Here's what happens.Turn on comp. First screen is my BIOSTAR motherboard screen with option to hit DEL and enter the BIOS.( which I can do) Then I get screen that verifies HD, Floppy drive, ect.. Then black screen with white progress bar. Then it goes to black screen with windows logo and progress bar at the bottom. At this point it would normally switch to blue windows screen but it doesn't. The screen goes black and just hangs there. I don't get any error messages.


Turcoloco,
I assume I need to download this program on a floppy? Can I install it in safe mode? Can anything be installed in safe mode? Also can I connect to the internet while in safe mode.( always thought you couldn't) I did see that when I did the repair the second time it said it couldn't find a video file NV4_mini.sys. I've read that this might cause a problem. I couldn't find my disk for this so I hit escape.( I have video on board as well as a TI4400. I use the TI4400. Is there a way to disable the TI4400 and try just the onboard? I look in BIOs but didn't see it. Sorry if the information seems like pulling teeth.

 

This could be a number of things. But I will let Turcoloco take care of you. If either of you need anything, send a PM my way.

 

That program runs in both normal and safe mode, it doesn't need to be installed as it is a 'standalone' program meaning no installation. The program doesn't have to be running from floppy, just download and save it on your desktop. You could install and run any program in Safe Mode that does NOT require any of the services or devices bypassed by Windows since 'Safe Mode' is meant for troubleshooting. The system will have very limited resources/services available which is good for troubleshooting but at the same time preventing certain functions to not run at all. Even the system itself could run slower than normal. Since device drivers are skipped during the loading of registry and the GUI, NIC would be out of commission, so no network connection. Although Windows Advanced Options Menu where you select the 'Safe Mode' also includes the Safe Mode with Network, that may not guarantee a valid Internet connection.

What you said in your last post mad sense to me.
So I guess I was correct with my assumptions on corrupt device drivers, mainly the video card. Yes having multiple video cards (even if one is disabled) is not a good thing when you are having this type of an issue.
In BIOS you should have an option similar to this:
Onboard VGA........enabled (in your case, it would say 'disabled' since you have an additional Video Card in a PCI or AGP slot), if it does say 'enabled' then that even could be your problem since with the other card installed and in use (monitor cable is connected to it) yet the BIOS also set to acknowledge and active the onboard video, it could easily cause problems at any point.
At this point, disregard all other things said in previous posts since your last update narrowed the possibilities quite a bit.

What you need to do:
Find that BIOS settings I mentioned, if you can't then check the manual or visit the mobo manufacturer's website. Worst case scenario, reset your BIOS settings (I am assuming you can find the option in BIOS or the BIOS reset jumpers (if there is one on mobo) to do it, again check manual. Another way to reset BIOS is to remove the CMOS battery (flat metal battery that looks like a giant wrist-watch battery). Reseting BIOS would enable onboard Video so after resetting BIOS make sure you unplug the power cord and monitor cable, remove the installed Video card, plug the monitor cable to your onboard video connector then plug the power cord and boot away...
Let me know what happens.

 

OK I'll try it tonight.
The one thing that makes me skeptical about a video driver is this. One of the hard drives I got to work on the system was from an old work computer that had windows 98, and more importantly, never was hooked up to the TI4400 before. When I hooked it up, after all the plug and play devices found,(it seemed like 9 or 10) the system worked.

 

Is the Ti4400 the Video card added later on or is it the onboard one? I am assuming it is the one installed on a slot. If so then the onboard video must be disabled and the Ti4400 drivers must have been somehow corrupted in XP that is having the problem. so boot in 'Safe Mode', using Add-Remove Programs, uninstall the drivers but do not reboot before removing the display adapter from the 'Device Manager' list if it is still listed on there. Then reboot and once XP acknowledges the device it should install some generic drivers for it if not once on desktop you install the drivers manually and reboot afterwards which it should prompt.
I hope I didn't miss anything?

 

Wahoooo!!! I booted in safe. Removed nividia driver. Then cleaned them using drive cleaner and I'm back in business. It's still really slow but I haven't downloaded the new drivers yet or defragged. I deleted a whole bunch of useless programs. Thanks a bunch for your help. I'm sure I'll be back because now I'll need to transfer pics and music to the new computer. Once again thanks.

 

Anytime! I am glad we figured it out and able to resolve it. For cleaning up junk/temp files and folder in system, I suggest you d/l and use CrapCleaner, this freeware does a very good job with a few clicks you will get rid of junk files and folders. The program has 3 sections:
1) Windows 2) Applications 3) Issues, generally all you need to run the first two (Windows/Applications).
For cleaning up your registry, I suggest you use the freeware RegScrubXP, it does a real good job as well.

Take care.