Freeze at windows screen

[Callipygous]

my computer overheated and shut itself off yesterday. it worked fine afterwords, i thought it was just a fluke. it did it again today so i took it apart and cleaned off the CPU heatsink, which was covered in so much dust i doubt there was any airflow at all.

 

i put it all back together again and now it wont start unless its in safemode. it gets to the windows screen (with the scrolling blue bars) and then they stop scrolling. if i start in safe mode it has no problems at all.

 

im normally pretty good about fixing this stuff myself, but i cant even figure out where to start on this one.

[Pleiades]

You may have knocked something loose while you had the case open, a partially seated card can cause all sorts of weird problems, I’d re-seat all the connections.

[Callipygous]

i have my doubts... but this is really annoying, so ill give it a shot.

[5614]

Check all the hardware. Best idea (if you are desperate) is to unplug everything and then plug it all back in.

 

=====

 

On Friday I turned my computer on, it was loading Windows then the HDD just turned itself off and wouldn't start. I checked hardware, tried safe mode, nothing worked. It started loading Windows then the HDD stopped (you can hear it). So I reinstalled Windows using the reinstallation CD. That worked, for a bit. Then I got the same issue again. So I installed a fresh copy of Windows (as opposed to reinstalling over the old copy), backed up some data (luckily all of the My Docs etc. which you can't access unless you are on that account was already backed up) and then I formatted the whole HDD and installed Windows from fresh. Of course that works.

 

Here's what I learnt:

 

1) Windows can fail for no reason. I had no new or problematic hardware, no new software (incl. updates and drivers), had gone to no dodgy websites, had very good AV/firewall, infact my computer had been running for many hours that day, then I left it for a bit, when I came back it crashed and when I rebooted my problems started.

2) Reinstalling Windows, which is a quick fix I always try, doesn't actually always work (noo!)

3) Have data backed up*

4) A format always works (unless it's a hardware issue).

 

*Having two smaller hard drives is better than having one big one because you can back up each hard drive on the other, so if one failed you would still have an operational computer with all your software.

 

=====

 

What you should do:

 

Reinstal Windows:

 

Boot off the CD

Select Instal (not repair)

It will detect your current copy and ask if you want to fix/repair that, say yes.

Follow the wizardy thingy which will do it all.

 

Also from your problem it is possible that the sudden shut down yesterday somehow corrupted the HDD. Try the hardware check and Windows reinstallation for now though.

[bluesmudge]

How do you mean it will only start in safe mode? is that the only boot option or will windows just not boot into normal mode?

 

If so, what error do you get? Have you tried all the hardware profiles to see if there are any warnings?

 

Is your internal PC speaker connect? if so is there a sequence of beeps where you turn on? if there is find out your mobo make and consalt a manufaturer's website as to their meaning . . .

 

Do you have the facility to download Knoppix, its a very useful live distrobution of linux, you boot it from cd and its a full operating system.

its wise to try that especially if nothing appears to be wrong phyiscally with the computer.... it will give you a chance to check your hardware is definately working, if all is fine in knoppix, then there is something wrong with the windows install, in which case

back into knoppix back up your work, then reinstall windows (full hard drive format the lot)

 

Its funny XP supplied OEM always seems to be more stable than buying of the shelf and installing it on a home build. Mine has fallen over Once in in the last 2 months, which is one more that my OEM Desktop did in a year.

 

Being windows sudden turning off could be hardware or software, or even all powerful wizards living in the PSU, - Good Luck

 

 

edit: - oh dear someone got there a little quicker

[5614]

If he booted up with Knoppix then could he access the Windows protected My Documents folder?

 

Because when I installed a second copy of Windows I could not access that because, although I was admin (as was the other account) I did not have permission to view it. Luckily it was backed up already though.

[Callipygous]

i unplugged everything, put my graphics card back, turned it on, and it worked fine.

 

then i added my sound card and my wireless card. (leaving out my secondary graphics card) and it still works. i dont know if it was the other card, or loose connections.

 

when i say it will only boot in safe mode, i mean if i use regular mode it doesnt get past the windows loading screen. no error message. it just stops moving, and i know i wasnt just being slow because i left it like that while i went and watched a movie and it didnt get past it.

[5614]

So does it all work now?

[bluesmudge]

If he booted up with Knoppix then could he access the Windows protected My Documents folder?

 

Because when I installed a second copy of Windows I could not access that because' date=' although I was admin (as was the other account) I did not have permission to view it. Luckily it was backed up already though.[/quote']

 

 

yeah he should be able to

[5614]

So using Linux can bypass Window's user document protection systems, interesting.

 

And of course it is bootable, so you can just take it along to any computer, boot off the CD and then you have access to user documents which would usually be protected, like I said, interesting!

[LazerFazer]

I had a similar problem lately, only different circumstances leading up to it. My boot partition was a logical partition, so using PartitionMagic I converted it to a primary partition. Then, when I tried booting up windows, it told me something along the lines of hal.dll could not be found, reinstall the file. So, I copied the file from the windows CD (booted from the CD into the recovery console, and worked from there) but still no luck. I ended up installing a 'backup OS' on my secondary harddrive, and then fixed the problem with the primary OS (the boot.ini needed changing...apparently when PartitionMagic converted the boot partition, it didn't take into account that it was a boot partition and thus would need to change the boot.ini as well). Anyways, when I went to boot into my primary OS, the thing froze after nine scrolls of the little blue bar thingy. Booted into safe mode, and it all of a sudden started reinstalling all my device drivers... very strange. Then, I booted into 'normal' mode and it worked fine, only now my floppy controller has not enough resources (not a problem, don't even have a floppy drive in my system). So ya, just saying you should try booting into safe-mode and then into 'normal' again (if you haven't already).

 

Also, any idea why my device drivers were being reinstalled after fixing the problem? My guess is that since I copied an old(er) hal.dll, somehow the record of all devices was changed/removed.

 

Cheers,

LazerFazer

[Cap'n Refsmmat]

hal.dll is most likely the Hardware Abstraction Layer, part of the kernel that manages how to connect to different devices and cards. If that's messed up, Windows will have a hard time.

[5614]

From the sounds of it when you changed the partition data which should be in the primary partition was no longer there and stuff which should not be in the primary partition now was. Well, that's a really simplified version of what I reckon could have happened.

 

So for example the drivers were no longer in the primary partition so when you booted up and there were (seemingly) no drivers the computer had issues, then when you booted into safe mode the computer fixed that issue and then it was fine.

[Callipygous]

yes, everything works now.

 

as for seeing windows files from knoppix... thats why you make the HDD the primary boot device and put a password on your bios. and then pray they dont have access to the box to unplug your battery for 10 seconds : P

[5614]

My primary HDD (containing the OS) is my primary boot device and my BIOS is password protected, but on my computer if you press F12 before the Windows loading screen it will give you a list of of boot options, ie. HDD or CD etc.

[bluesmudge]

Well perhaps vista will fix the problem . . . but to be honest i hope not, its a useful escape route for WHEN windows dies

[5614]

Yer, don't even get me started on Vista... it won't fix problems. I dislike the OS. I go through the "new features" list and they are all unnecessary things, mainly.

 

New "security" some of which is firewall, err, I already have a good one thanks, and the "security" which stops illegal software etc. now fair enough, but I don't want that running in the background just because some people want to use software illegaly. I can't be bothered to register every game I own online just so I can use it. No.

New graphics, I don't need that and it'll just run slower.

New IE looks a lot like FF, err, but we already have FF.

I don't need a new media player.

etc.

 

Besides, the F12 option to boot from a chosen device is before Windows loads, it appears at the same point when you can enter the BIOS... it will appear regardless of the OS.

[Klaynos]

Well perhaps vista will fix the problem . . . but to be honest i hope not, its a useful escape route for WHEN windows dies

 

I doubt it given it'll be using ntfs...

[LazerFazer]

LOL. 'Judging the book by it's cover', it seems like Vista is gonna be another waste of time. Who the heck needs all those fancy graphics just in the Windows GUI? How many people actually sit there staring at Explorer windows for hours on end? Seriously, with a minimum requirement of 512MB of RAM, people are not gonna be too happy with the OS once it comes out.

 

As to my other issue, I found out the problem. But before I did that, I found even more problems that I created for myself in the process of fixing the non-booting OS. You see, the first thing I tried to fix the initial problem was to recopy the hal.dll file from the windowsXP SP2 integrated CD. Turns out I copied the wrong hal.dll file. Apparently there are different versions depending on the specifications of your PC, and since mine is an HT capable one, I was supposed to use halmacpi.dl_ instead of hal.dl_ from the XP CD. So, when I was checking out my devices and stuff yesterday, I disovered that HT wasn't enabled on my PC. Did some tests, and they confirmed that HT wasn't enabled. So, I did some research and finally found a way to 'replace' the hal.dll with the correct version without having to boot into my backup OS. But what I also found out that when you change the hal.dll file, it reinstalls all your devices, supposedly because of the way each different version deals with the hardware and how the hardware is accessed. So, ya, that's just my experience, thought I'd share in case anybody ever runs into the same problem.

 

Cheers,

LazerFazer