Strange Boot-up problem

[tviman]

I've been having an intermittent problem during boot on my Dell Dimension. System seems to start OK but then stalls during desktop program loading (clock, speaker, etc.). When I power-down and reboot it will usually finish without problems.

The OS is win98se, 2 20gig hard drives, floppy disk, and CD burner, 1/2 gig of memory. Programs that load at boot are: a telephony system, DSL modem program, speaker, cd-rom, tweakui, Zone Alarm, and the other necessary system programs.

I've been running Bootlog lately and I've noticed that the last entry in the log (when the boot stalls) is a reference to a tape drive controller. I do not have a tape drive on this system.

I've defragged, I keep the registry fairly clean, but I'm stumped on this. Does anyone have any clues?

There's always a better way...

 

[jrbarnett]

Does device manager show that there is a tape drive installed in the PC and inactive?

John

 

[tviman]

John,

There is no tape drive in device manager. That was the first thing I checked. Thanks anyway.



There's always a better way...

 

[TonyBose]

Just a hunch....disable ZoneAlarm from starting...see what happens.

...Mac

Humpty Dumpty was pushed!!

 

[tviman]

Zone Alarm has no bearing. In fact, it's the last thing to get loaded.

I guess I should have said that I have already selectively removed from the boot sequence the telephony program, the DSL modem program, as well as Zone alarm. No effect on the problem.

Remember - it's intermittent. May work fine for 3 or 4 days, then it stalls on every boot! I'm to the point of calling my liquor store!!!

There's always a better way...

 

[Jontmke]

Any USB or SCSI devices?
Also, boot in to safe mode then go into device manager and remove all the old crap that you see. It is a good idea to have a comparison of what it shows in Regular mode to compare with. If you have all your drivers you can remove practically all things in Device manager. I would not remove any System devices though.
Like, if you have 4 references to your sound card or video card (in safe mode) you could remove them all and when you reboot Windows will reinstall it.
If you have your chipset drivers, on the hard drive not a cd because your cd might not work right away, you could even remove the system devices. That would get Windows to reinstall almost everything.

Jon

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge. (Bertrand Russell)

 

[CSCWheels]

Run a scanreg /fix in DOS mode, see if that works or just blow away the registry and reboot. The OS will replace or re-construct the registry.

 

[G0AOZ]

How about trying a good memory checker - I use Quick Tech Pro - this puts it through its paces! Alternatively, remove some of the memory you've currently got installed and see if this makes any difference.

ROGER - G0AOZ.