Windows XP won't boot

Hi, all was well and then 3 days ago my system would pause at start-up and won't even get to Windows booting.

It hangs during the DOS window and doesn't even get to the intializing part where it displays Master and Slave Drive info, etc...

I haven't done anything bad, and I actually managed to get it going fine 2 days ago. I installed SP2 just in case, and got it up again after that just fine. Now today it has started hanging again at the same spot. In DOS before the drive info is displayed and Windows won't even boot.

I also get a blinking cursor on the screen and it says to hit DEL for setup and Alt-F2 for EZ-Flash Utility but DEL won't even work. I also can't boot into Safe Mode when it hangs like this too.

Any idea? My fan seems fine and is running smoothly. Should I open her up and have a look at the fan? What do you think it is?

Fallon

 

Is your HDD detected in BIOS? Check if the USB Emulation is available in the BIOS and disable it.

 

Not sure, will check. How do I access my BIOS? If it's worked thus far, is this normal for it to just start doing it now?

 

Re: Windows XP won't boot/CD & DVD drives missing?

Hi, thanks for your help on this matter.

So, I hit DEL and just reviewed the entries in BIOS. I couldn't find anything that said PNP OS or USB emulation (as said in previous post). BUT!!!! When I exited and saved existing settings, it booted in WINDOWS! However, I noticed that when it loaded the MASTER/SLAVE info for Secondary (CDR/DVD Drives) It said NONE and NONE.

Now, when I look in MY COMPUTER. Under DEVICES WITH REMOVABLE STORAGE; my CD Drive and DVD drive are GONE. I also put a CD in to test and it isn't registering at all. It's spinning and there is power to the drives but they aren't recognized by the system.

Que pasa?

Fallon

 

From Fallon again: I also notice that when it boots now Secondary Slave and Master are listed as NONE. No dvd drive or cdr drive. I tried to reinstate them in BIOS as secondary S/M but it says the secondary S&M FAILED when I reboot.

Odd. Does that mean one of the drives is dead?

 

Well, now after a few hours away. I turned on the machine ad can't even get into the BIOS! Hitting DEL doesn't even work now. It just freezes at this:

Award Medallion BIOS v6.0, an Energy Star Ally
Copyright (C) 1984-2002, Award Software, INc.

Asus P4S533-MX ACPI BIOS Revision 1005

CPU1:*Intel (R) Pentium (R) 4 2800 MHz Processor
Memory Test : 491520K OK + 32768K shared memory

Award Plug and PLay B OS (should say BIOS? But "i" is missing??!!) Extension v1.0A


Then it freezes and the follwoing info is on the bottom of the screen.


Pres DEL to enter SETUP; press Alt+ F2 eo (to?) enter EZ Flash Utility 04/18/2003-SiS651/SiS962/IT8705F-P4S533MX






What the hell?

 

Ok, I'm learning something. But I still have the problem. I have been able to get into BIOS after letting system sit for a few minutes. I have set all Drives to Auto-Detect and my Primary Master is Boot Drive, Primary Slave is 2nd HD. Secondary Master is CD Rom and Secondary Slave is DVD. They have worked for 2 years this way with no problem. Now it says (when I boot) Secondary Master fails. So, does that mean my drive is dead or is it the IDE channel? Is it XP SP2 wreaking havoc?

Argh.

Someone please answer.

Fallon

 

What kind of computer is it? Did you build it?

You may want to isolate the issue. Pull everything but your essentials. Reset BIOS defaults. Place one device on primary channel and one on secondary channel. As you are booting watch not only your cpu fan but your Power supply fan as well. Are they both spinning?

Go back into BIOS are the devices recognized? Will it boot into Windows? Are the devices seen in My Computer and Device Manager?

You may have to try different configurations to determine if it is hardware (controller, device, power supply), firmware, or software.