XP wont boot up

ksamdfreak · May 12, 2003, 02:57 AM

When Xp starts to boot up it stops abruptly and locks up... Could this be a bad processor or something else??? Please help!!!!

NaumoJR · May 12, 2003, 03:02 AM

Have you made a drastic changes recently? Or is this just all of the sudden locking up?

ksamdfreak · May 12, 2003, 03:05 AM

I put a fresh install of XP on because nothing would happen, now the same thing is still happening. I installed XP on the hard drive attached to my other computer because it would not load on the f-upped one.

scobywhru · May 12, 2003, 05:24 AM

Give systems specs, what are you running it on, I know when I first installed XP I couldn't run my video card with the drivers that were supplied so I know how frustrating this can get, ended up installing XP something like 12 times in one week trying to find the cause.

ksamdfreak · May 13, 2003, 12:48 AM

Running an Athlon XP 1600, Kyro 2 64mb Video, 768MB SDRam, the funny thing is that XP ran fine on this system for over a year, then one day it wouldnt boot up, now XP wont even install using a fresh install on the same system...

tek · May 13, 2003, 12:55 AM

Must be something wrong with your bios

Try to default your bios.

scobywhru · May 13, 2003, 04:56 AM

Not necessarly BIOS, it could be a bad piece of hardware that went bad and it isn't completely dead but it won't work either, try to remove everything EXCEPT what you need to load XP and then add each part one at a time until you get it all working or it stops working and you will find out whats wrong

mike2h · May 13, 2003, 05:18 AM

can you boot up in safe mode?

ksamdfreak · May 13, 2003, 09:52 PM

No

WyreTheWolf · May 14, 2003, 02:03 AM

format the hard drive, do a low level format ... Fdisk the partition (dont forget to set it to active) Reinstall Win XP

~~Asuka~~ · May 14, 2003, 02:08 AM

Doing a low-level format will trash your drive with 100% certainty

If that's what you want...

Sounds to me like faulty memory. If you have two memory sticks, try only one of them and see if it's better. If not, try the other one by itself as well.

BWX · May 14, 2003, 03:32 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Asuka
Doing a low-level format will trash your drive with 100% certainty If that's what you want...

WTF? What are you talking about? It won't "TRASH" his drive..

Fdisk / C: format-- how will this hurt anything?

Falstaff · May 14, 2003, 04:01 AM

CORRUPTED VIDEO DRIVER? or a third party software problem....www.eldergeeks.com registry edit? diagnostic boot up? hmmmmmmm are you running Norton System works? or is a driver not loading? I have booted from the CD when all else fails...

~~Asuka~~ · May 14, 2003, 04:14 AM

Listen, Mr. Wolf, my patience is wearing thin as well. If you have no clue what you're talking about, better don't say anything.

A low-level-format has absolutely nothing to do with fdisk or formatting the drive (or "zero-fill", if you want to call it like this) - which is what you are talking about. This is just common formatting - high-level formatting.
Low-level formatting is something entirely different. It is done in the factory right after the drive is manufactured - this is the process in which the clusters on the hard drive are actually created, to get the drive in any usable state at all, which is also the precondition to being able to create partitions and format (high-level format) it in the first place!
If you were to low-level format it again (which would only be possible with very old Bioses, since all even halfway recent Bioses don't support it anymore), you would utterly trash the assignment of the clusters on the hd, making it completely unusable!

You would also not be able to recover this by any means whatsoever, the drive would be gone for good.
next time before you start spouting nonsense and make an ass out of yourself, you'd better read up on it before you go and insult others.

~~Asuka~~ · May 14, 2003, 04:21 AM

Originally posted by BWX232
WTF? What are you talking about? It won't "TRASH" his drive..
Fdisk / C: format-- how will this hurt anything?

fdisk and common formatting (high level formatting!) will certainly not hurt anything - except that all data on the hd will go down the wahoozie when using fdisk to re-partition (there are tools like Partition Magic to prevent data loss when repartitioning).
Low-level format, however, is something completely different - see my other post.

WyreTheWolf · May 14, 2003, 04:28 AM

Older hard disks required periodic low-level formatting by the system configurator or end-user. To facilitate this, low-level format utilities were created. These are small programs written to control the low-level formatting process for the hard disk. The hard disk controller would normally include one of these programs in a ROM chip in hardware, enabling access to the software without requiring any drives to be running in the system. In addition, more sophisticated, third-party utilities were available that would perform a LLF and also do other related features such as scanning for bad sectors or analyzing the drive to determine an optimal interleave setting. These would typically be loaded from a floppy disk.

Low-level formatting an older hard disk could be a rather complicated procedure, particularly for one who was not very familiar with PCs and hard disks. Various factors needed to be taken into account, such as defect mapping and setting the interleave factor. The particular conditions of the drive when formatting were also important: due to the vagaries of stepper-motor actuators, doing an LLF when the drive was very cold or very hot could lead to errors when the drive returned to a more normal temperature. Even the orientation of the drive when it was formatted was an issue.

Hard drive manufacturers have created for modern drives replacements for the old LLF utilities. They cause some confusion, because they are often still called "low-level format" utilities. The name is incorrect because, again, no utility that a user can run on a PC can LLF a modern drive. A more proper name for this sort of program is a zero-fill and diagnostic utility. This software does work on the drive at a low level, usually including the following functions (and perhaps others):

* Drive Recognition Test: Lets you test to see if the software can "see" the drive. This is the first step in ensuring that the drive is properly installed and connected.

* Display Drive Details: Tells you detailed information about the drive, such as its exact model number, firmware revision level, date of manufacture, etc.

* Test For Errors: Analyzes the entire surface of the hard disk, looking for problem areas (bad sectors) and instructing the integrated drive controller to remap them.

* Zero-Fill: Wipes off all data on the drive by filling every sector with zeroes. Normally a test for errors (as above) is done at the same time.

When most users today talk about "low-level formatting" a drive, what they are really talking about is doing a zero-fill. That procedure will restore a functional drive (that is, one that does not have mechanical problems) to the condition it was in when received from the factory. There are occasions when a modern hard disk can become so badly corrupted that the operating system cannot recover it, and a zero-fill can help in this situation. Stubborn boot sector viruses for example can be hard to eradicate without resorting to low-level intervention. Since the zero-fill cleans all programs and data off the drive it will get rid of almost any data-related problem on the drive, such as viruses, corrupted partitions and the like. Just remember that it's a bit like burning down your house to get rid of termites: you lose everything on the drive.

There ... is this a better explanation?

Zero fill is still a low level structural format, and is quite capable of removing the boot sector, and any boot sector viuses that can be a real pain in the arse. As I have run into this problem before, I am lending my experiances. Since the member that is having problems has a fairly recent computer system (and therefore is incapable of doing a true low-level format) and the possability of the member having a rather nast boot sector virus) I would reccommend that he search for a zero fill utility made by the manfacturer of his hard dsik drive.

If there are any major problems with his hard drive, the diagnostic utilities that are included with such programs as zero-fill, and wipeout, will be able to find any potential problems, and will give options on how to remedy the problems.

ksamdfreak, if you would like to reach me on MSNM my msn contact information is wyrethewolf@msn.com.

Falstaff · May 14, 2003, 04:30 AM

Quote:

Listen, Mr. Wolf, my patience is wearing thin as well. If you have no clue what you're talking about, better don't say anything.

In the interest of maintaining the fine level of communication and tolerance for extremely right or extremely wrong viewpoints or opinions or whatever...chill out....

You have made a bold remark based on your opinion...but you have challenged someone with considerable knowlege, patience and integrity...If you wish to be treated the same, I implore you to establishe your own integrity and provide all of us with your valuable expertise in language that is couched in more diplomacy. I understand that you have some pet peeves, perhaps a different and potentially valuable comment to offer, therefore, I would enjoy it as well....if you would remind yourself and all of us that we don't know everything in a kind, polite and informative manner...thanx

WyreTheWolf · May 14, 2003, 04:33 AM

Fallang, I appreciate you stepping in, but, I asure you that it is not really neccessary. I was more at fault here than it appears. I retracted the remark, after I thought about it for a moment.

Falstaff · May 14, 2003, 04:36 AM

I shall fall on my sword, for I cannot return it to my scabbord....lol

BWX · May 14, 2003, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Asuka
Originally posted by BWX232
WTF? What are you talking about? It won't "TRASH" his drive..
Fdisk / C: format-- how will this hurt anything?

fdisk and common formatting (high level formatting!) will certainly not hurt anything - except that all data on the hd will go down the wahoozie when using fdisk to re-partition (there are tools like Partition Magic to prevent data loss when repartitioning).
Low-level format, however, is something completely different - see my other post.

Can anybody tell me why Partition magic 7 and 8 completely lock up my computer after I start the program? I used to use them in win98se, but now that I've switched to XP, I can't seem to use them.. They install just fine, but when I try to start the program it hardlocks my PC, weird, because they say they can be used in XP--- If anyone knows just post here and I'll start a new thread- Thanks.

WyreTheWolf · May 14, 2003, 04:45 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BWX232
Can anybody tell me why Partition magic 7 and 8 completely lock up my computer after I start the program? I used to use them in win98se, but now that I've switched to XP, I can't seem to use them.. They install just fine, but when I try to start the program it hardlocks my PC, weird, because they say they can be used in XP--- If anyone knows just post here and I'll start a new thread- Thanks.

BWX232, you may want to email the company... see if they can lend you some help.

Quote:

Originally posted by fallang_jeff
I shall fall on my sword, for I cannot return it to my scabbord....lol

LOL, such things are not neccessary!

~~Asuka~~ · May 14, 2003, 05:06 AM

Originally posted by BWX232
Can anybody tell me why Partition magic 7 and 8 completely lock up my computer after I start the program? I used to use them in win98se, but now that I've switched to XP, I can't seem to use them.. They install just fine, but when I try to start the program it hardlocks my PC, weird, because they say they can be used in XP--- If anyone knows just post here and I'll start a new thread- Thanks.

I've been using PM 7 on my Windows XP severaly times already, without any problems... used it to change partition's size, merge partitions, change partitions from FAT32 to NTFS... no problems.
Perhaps your copy is faulty - contact whoever you got it from and ask for a replacement.
Besides that, if you are using any tools to help your HD over Bios restrictions (like Ontrack manager or somesuch), this might throw PM off-track.

Zardon · May 14, 2003, 10:15 AM

ok Mr asuka, ive just about HAD it with your attitude and your rudeness on Driverheaven. you have had at least 10 warnings, most of which you seem to think you can ignore. problem is you cant.

Find yourself another forum, you are now banned from driverheaven.

PangingJr · May 14, 2003, 11:48 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by BWX232
why Partition magic 7 and 8 completely lock up my computer after I start the program?

may be because of too many services/programs was running in windows.
you can use the DOS version, pq8 in DOS is very good, its in the package.

Robert McClelland · May 14, 2003, 04:53 PM

Do you have cd drivers or full windows xp and driver cds? If you do you need used drivers cd from dos then type what ever you need to do then wright zeros to drive then do a full erase then go back to drivers cd then load OS system in then you should be fine. I think you formated flat 32 maybe thats why your system not booting up right. Or could be the video card. Do you still have warrten on your system yet? Or are you using on board video card or AGP? If you using AGP take it out and used on board video ram. That might help too get you back up and running. If you final installed everthing then try your video card you might have bad bios on your video card.

Shaman · May 17, 2003, 06:03 AM

I just repaired a computer that was locking up , went thru the whole cycle of moving pci cards and so on, turns out his one bank of memory had finally packed it in, positive outcome was that it was his 32 meg stick that failed his 256 was still good.He had 3 banks, swapped arround and when 32 meg went in his system would lockup during his welcome screen.Hope this might help.

May 12, 2003, 02:57 AM	#1
ksamdfreak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Kansas Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	XP wont boot up When Xp starts to boot up it stops abruptly and locks up... Could this be a bad processor or something else??? Please help!!!!

May 12, 2003, 03:05 AM	Thread Starter #3
ksamdfreak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Kansas Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	reply I put a fresh install of XP on because nothing would happen, now the same thing is still happening. I installed XP on the hard drive attached to my other computer because it would not load on the f-upped one.

May 12, 2003, 05:24 AM	#4
scobywhru DriverHeaven Senile Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Penthouse Basement Posts: 619 Rep Power: 0	Give systems specs, what are you running it on, I know when I first installed XP I couldn't run my video card with the drivers that were supplied so I know how frustrating this can get, ended up installing XP something like 12 times in one week trying to find the cause. __________________

May 13, 2003, 12:55 AM	#6
tek DriverHeaven Senior Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: Boston, US Posts: 2,103 Rep Power: 0	Must be something wrong with your bios Try to default your bios. __________________ [COLOR=White][/COLOR]

May 13, 2003, 04:56 AM	#7
scobywhru DriverHeaven Senile Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Penthouse Basement Posts: 619 Rep Power: 0	Not necessarly BIOS, it could be a bad piece of hardware that went bad and it isn't completely dead but it won't work either, try to remove everything EXCEPT what you need to load XP and then add each part one at a time until you get it all working or it stops working and you will find out whats wrong __________________

May 12, 2003, 03:02 AM	#2
NaumoJR Paranoid Android Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Planet Telex Posts: 1,029 Rep Power: 0	Have you made a drastic changes recently? Or is this just all of the sudden locking up?

May 13, 2003, 12:48 AM	Thread Starter #5
ksamdfreak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Kansas Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	Running an Athlon XP 1600, Kyro 2 64mb Video, 768MB SDRam, the funny thing is that XP ran fine on this system for over a year, then one day it wouldnt boot up, now XP wont even install using a fresh install on the same system...

May 13, 2003, 05:18 AM	#8
mike2h DriverHeaven Extreme Member Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: norcal Posts: 6,483 Rep Power: 91 System Specs	can you boot up in safe mode? __________________

May 13, 2003, 09:52 PM	Thread Starter #9
ksamdfreak DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Kansas Posts: 14 Rep Power: 0	Safe Mode No __________________ Gigabyte 7VAX 512Mb pc3200 Ram Xabre400 128Mb Video 140 GB HD Athlon XP 2200 Windows XP Pro SP2 1204 Cyberdrive 36x12x48 CDRW Creative 16x DVD

May 14, 2003, 02:03 AM	#10
WyreTheWolf Wolfish Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: Cave; Ozark Mountains Posts: 2,110 Rep Power: 0	format the hard drive, do a low level format ... Fdisk the partition (dont forget to set it to active) Reinstall Win XP

May 14, 2003, 02:08 AM	#11
~~Asuka~~ BANNED Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 579 Rep Power: 0	Doing a low-level format will trash your drive with 100% certainty If that's what you want... Sounds to me like faulty memory. If you have two memory sticks, try only one of them and see if it's better. If not, try the other one by itself as well.

May 14, 2003, 04:01 AM	#13
Falstaff Old Codger Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: USAFA Posts: 19,048 Rep Power: 207	HOW ABOUT A CORRUPTED VIDEO DRIVER? or a third party software problem....www.eldergeeks.com registry edit? diagnostic boot up? hmmmmmmm are you running Norton System works? or is a driver not loading? I have booted from the CD when all else fails... __________________ "Inspiration is always a surprising visitor."

May 14, 2003, 04:14 AM	#14
~~Asuka~~ BANNED Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 579 Rep Power: 0	Listen, Mr. Wolf, my patience is wearing thin as well. If you have no clue what you're talking about, better don't say anything. A low-level-format has absolutely nothing to do with fdisk or formatting the drive (or "zero-fill", if you want to call it like this) - which is what you are talking about. This is just common formatting - high-level formatting. Low-level formatting is something entirely different. It is done in the factory right after the drive is manufactured - this is the process in which the clusters on the hard drive are actually created, to get the drive in any usable state at all, which is also the precondition to being able to create partitions and format (high-level format) it in the first place! If you were to low-level format it again (which would only be possible with very old Bioses, since all even halfway recent Bioses don't support it anymore), you would utterly trash the assignment of the clusters on the hd, making it completely unusable! You would also not be able to recover this by any means whatsoever, the drive would be gone for good. next time before you start spouting nonsense and make an ass out of yourself, you'd better read up on it before you go and insult others.

May 14, 2003, 04:21 AM	#15
~~Asuka~~ BANNED Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 579 Rep Power: 0	Originally posted by BWX232 WTF? What are you talking about? It won't "TRASH" his drive.. Fdisk / C: format-- how will this hurt anything? fdisk and common formatting (high level formatting!) will certainly not hurt anything - except that all data on the hd will go down the wahoozie when using fdisk to re-partition (there are tools like Partition Magic to prevent data loss when repartitioning). Low-level format, however, is something completely different - see my other post.

May 14, 2003, 04:28 AM	#16
WyreTheWolf Wolfish Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: Cave; Ozark Mountains Posts: 2,110 Rep Power: 0	Older hard disks required periodic low-level formatting by the system configurator or end-user. To facilitate this, low-level format utilities were created. These are small programs written to control the low-level formatting process for the hard disk. The hard disk controller would normally include one of these programs in a ROM chip in hardware, enabling access to the software without requiring any drives to be running in the system. In addition, more sophisticated, third-party utilities were available that would perform a LLF and also do other related features such as scanning for bad sectors or analyzing the drive to determine an optimal interleave setting. These would typically be loaded from a floppy disk. Low-level formatting an older hard disk could be a rather complicated procedure, particularly for one who was not very familiar with PCs and hard disks. Various factors needed to be taken into account, such as defect mapping and setting the interleave factor. The particular conditions of the drive when formatting were also important: due to the vagaries of stepper-motor actuators, doing an LLF when the drive was very cold or very hot could lead to errors when the drive returned to a more normal temperature. Even the orientation of the drive when it was formatted was an issue. Hard drive manufacturers have created for modern drives replacements for the old LLF utilities. They cause some confusion, because they are often still called "low-level format" utilities. The name is incorrect because, again, no utility that a user can run on a PC can LLF a modern drive. A more proper name for this sort of program is a zero-fill and diagnostic utility. This software does work on the drive at a low level, usually including the following functions (and perhaps others): * Drive Recognition Test: Lets you test to see if the software can "see" the drive. This is the first step in ensuring that the drive is properly installed and connected. * Display Drive Details: Tells you detailed information about the drive, such as its exact model number, firmware revision level, date of manufacture, etc. * Test For Errors: Analyzes the entire surface of the hard disk, looking for problem areas (bad sectors) and instructing the integrated drive controller to remap them. * Zero-Fill: Wipes off all data on the drive by filling every sector with zeroes. Normally a test for errors (as above) is done at the same time. When most users today talk about "low-level formatting" a drive, what they are really talking about is doing a zero-fill. That procedure will restore a functional drive (that is, one that does not have mechanical problems) to the condition it was in when received from the factory. There are occasions when a modern hard disk can become so badly corrupted that the operating system cannot recover it, and a zero-fill can help in this situation. Stubborn boot sector viruses for example can be hard to eradicate without resorting to low-level intervention. Since the zero-fill cleans all programs and data off the drive it will get rid of almost any data-related problem on the drive, such as viruses, corrupted partitions and the like. Just remember that it's a bit like burning down your house to get rid of termites: you lose everything on the drive. There ... is this a better explanation? Zero fill is still a low level structural format, and is quite capable of removing the boot sector, and any boot sector viuses that can be a real pain in the arse. As I have run into this problem before, I am lending my experiances. Since the member that is having problems has a fairly recent computer system (and therefore is incapable of doing a true low-level format) and the possability of the member having a rather nast boot sector virus) I would reccommend that he search for a zero fill utility made by the manfacturer of his hard dsik drive. If there are any major problems with his hard drive, the diagnostic utilities that are included with such programs as zero-fill, and wipeout, will be able to find any potential problems, and will give options on how to remedy the problems. ksamdfreak, if you would like to reach me on MSNM my msn contact information is wyrethewolf@msn.com.

May 14, 2003, 04:33 AM	#18
WyreTheWolf Wolfish Bastard Join Date: May 2002 Location: Cave; Ozark Mountains Posts: 2,110 Rep Power: 0	Fallang, I appreciate you stepping in, but, I asure you that it is not really neccessary. I was more at fault here than it appears. I retracted the remark, after I thought about it for a moment.

May 14, 2003, 04:36 AM	#19
Falstaff Old Codger Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: USAFA Posts: 19,048 Rep Power: 207	okey dokey I shall fall on my sword, for I cannot return it to my scabbord....lol __________________ "Inspiration is always a surprising visitor."

May 14, 2003, 05:06 AM	#22
~~Asuka~~ BANNED Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Germany Posts: 579 Rep Power: 0	Originally posted by BWX232 Can anybody tell me why Partition magic 7 and 8 completely lock up my computer after I start the program? I used to use them in win98se, but now that I've switched to XP, I can't seem to use them.. They install just fine, but when I try to start the program it hardlocks my PC, weird, because they say they can be used in XP--- If anyone knows just post here and I'll start a new thread- Thanks. I've been using PM 7 on my Windows XP severaly times already, without any problems... used it to change partition's size, merge partitions, change partitions from FAT32 to NTFS... no problems. Perhaps your copy is faulty - contact whoever you got it from and ask for a replacement. Besides that, if you are using any tools to help your HD over Bios restrictions (like Ontrack manager or somesuch), this might throw PM off-track.

May 14, 2003, 10:15 AM	#23
Zardon DriverHeaven Founder Join Date: May 2002 Posts: 32,480 Rep Power: 179	ok Mr asuka, ive just about HAD it with your attitude and your rudeness on Driverheaven. you have had at least 10 warnings, most of which you seem to think you can ignore. problem is you cant. Find yourself another forum, you are now banned from driverheaven.

May 14, 2003, 04:53 PM	#25
Robert McClelland PAX Tweaker, PAX Expert. Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: Somewhere in Wood County Ohio Same Town :) Posts: 10,643 Rep Power: 196 System Specs	Do you have cd drivers or full windows xp and driver cds? If you do you need used drivers cd from dos then type what ever you need to do then wright zeros to drive then do a full erase then go back to drivers cd then load OS system in then you should be fine. I think you formated flat 32 maybe thats why your system not booting up right. Or could be the video card. Do you still have warrten on your system yet? Or are you using on board video card or AGP? If you using AGP take it out and used on board video ram. That might help too get you back up and running. If you final installed everthing then try your video card you might have bad bios on your video card. __________________ "XTREME AUDIO IS CRAP!" "There no support for it. It's crapist card on face of the earth it should be throw into the sun" http://www.speedtest.net/result/1949536385.png

May 17, 2003, 06:03 AM	#26
Shaman DriverHeaven Newbie Join Date: Jun 2002 Location: BC Canada Posts: 4 Rep Power: 0	I just repaired a computer that was locking up , went thru the whole cycle of moving pci cards and so on, turns out his one bank of memory had finally packed it in, positive outcome was that it was his 32 meg stick that failed his 256 was still good.He had 3 banks, swapped arround and when 32 meg went in his system would lockup during his welcome screen.Hope this might help.