Dear lazyweb..

[theducks]

So our Media PC running Windows XP is a little fruity. It will cold boot, after the power has been unplugged, but if it's a restart, the thing "hangs" at the XP logo screen, only it doesn't, the bar keeps going ultra slowly. If left for a day, it still doesn't boot.

Also, during the go-slow boot, there are red and green lines in the progress bar. New mobo (Asus M3A), processor, ram, but an old PCI-E 6600GT video card.

Comments

[david adam <zanchey> (from livejournal.com)]

I haven't had to mess around with XP boot options for a while, but there should be a way to get it to show you which drivers it's loading (I think in 2000 this was called Verbose Boot, but the only way to do it in XP is to use Safe Mode). If it's hanging in a particular driver, that might give you a clue.

Also, what are the temperatures like? I was having a similar problem on the occasional boot thanks to a broken fan on the graphics card which then required the entire system to be powered down for a number of minutes before reattempting booting. Adding a new fan fixed things (go go gadget cable ties).

[theducks.livejournal.com]

Nah, verbose boot shows it stopping at Mup.sys, which is usually the driver because it loads the HAL

As for temperature, I've tried running it with no lid on and it hasn't helped

[david adam <zanchey> (from livejournal.com)]

If it gets to MUP, I assume you've checked the Event Log and things.

Running with the case off may not assist. Try Motherboard Monitor and the NVIDIA Performance tools (both ugly programs but they work).

[shigawire.livejournal.com]

Might be XP leaving PnP devices in a state that either the BIOS or XP itself doesn't expect/doesn't deal with well on boot; That'll only show up on a warm-boot (bringing the ~RESET pin low is only going to reset the CPU and enter the BIOS)

Check to see if the BIOS has a setting as to if the OS is PnP aware. It's a bit of a long shot. :-)