Windows Startup Issues

[[JiF]LtWaterboy]

Ok gurus,

Here's what I originally thought was a simple issue that I might need your expertise with:

Starting up in Windows (Vista) you get the Microsoft Corporation "black screen" with the little bar that look's like
Knight Rider's front hood or a cyclon's eye.

Not all the time (but more than enuff!), it will freeze up at this phase. You then have to power off, and try to start up (either in safe mode or normally).
It sometimes get past this freezing in normal mode, sometimes it doesnt.
In safe mode, it does, but when you restart, it can freeze up again.

I always thought this was a driver or service issue, but going into msconfig, I turn all those off (to verify this in general is the root cause) but it still gives the problem on start up.

I also tried to do a repair system in startup but it does find any errors.

Did chkdsk and HD checks and everything comes back fine.

Any thoughts (and dont say - 'get XP'.....I had the same issue, although less, with it too before!!)

Tanxs in advance!!

LT

[[JiF]Mike]

When you checked your HDD did you scan for bad sectors? If you had this same issue on XP with this same hardware I would suspect a problem with the HDD especially if it's a few months old....I've read some disturbing stuff about the rate of HDD failures increasing recently.

[[JiF]LtWaterboy]

Mike,

Thanks for the reply.

And yes, 0 bad sectors on both HD's (running in RAID format).

Originally, had XP on this (my new computer). Then installed Vista Ultimate.

Had an old computer with XP on it. Can't remember which of the two (if not both!) had the issue.

Just tried to turn off all services & startup stuff again. Immediately on boot up it froze at the same screen. Tried a few times to no avail.

Turned everything back on, restarted and got through it ok. Again, really wierd.

Saw some stuff in some forums which may link it to windows updates being installed. Would hate to try & go back and uninstall these..

LT

[[JiF]zougathefist]

hmmmm,
have you tried percussion therapy?

[[JiF]Mike]

Have you tried re-seating your video card and any other cards you might have? Basically pull em out, hit the port with a little compressed air and put the card back in making sure it is all the way in. Kind of a long shot but easy enough to try.

[[JiF]Djsmg]

Don't forget the ram too, I had bad ram once that resulted in similar problems.

[[JiF]LtWaterboy]

Have you tried re-seating your video card and any other cards you might have? Basically pull em out, hit the port with a little compressed air and put the card back in making sure it is all the way in. Kind of a long shot but easy enough to try.

Havent tried that, but didnt have a problem initially with the system. And the computer has not moved (actually locked down) since.

Checked the RAM - no problems.

Looks like it might be tied to the windows updates. Damn if I didnt just install two new ones yesterday, and froze again on the restart.
Took 5 reboots to finally get through. FYI...started up this morning with no problems....ugh!!

LT

[[JiF]Mike]

Even locked down the fans/people walking by can cause things to vibrate a little and over time it's possible something might come loose enough to cause problems. It probably isn't the problem, but usually its easy to try and it has fixed my problem in the past. I had a video card that looked like it was seated properly, but when I pushed down on it it moved into the slot a quarter inch. I pulled the card and reseated it to be sure, didn't have any issues after that.

[seadogs]

you fiddled with safe mode, sm with networking, sm with command prompt to see if its any particular service thats killing you.

if it happens only ever 5/6 boots then im thinking a service/process starting up is killing you, and as its boot stage, it could well be something like windows activation, windows update, or a network service/protocol that is bringing you down?

:S

I'd format it and start again though, a fresh version does no harm.