strange problem, what should I look at? 1

[Crowley16]

xp pro sp2

everything working fine, then this morning, when turning it on, gets to the windows splash screen, then blank screen and nothing else. No error messages, no crashes, just stays at the blank screen for ever.

tried last good configuration, same thing...

tried to use safe mode, after all the loading is done, nothing happens...

after a few re-starts, it suddenly works again...

basically, I've no idea what's going on so am wondering what things I should try to find out the problem.

Obviously I'll do a virus scan and a check disk, however not sure where to go from there, so any suggestions welcome.

Also, I'm at work now so won't be able to actually do this stuff till I get home...

Thanks guys.

--------------------
Procrastinate Now!

 

[cpjust]

What was the last thing you installed (and when)?
There should be a boot option that lets you see and confirm every driver that gets loaded. Try that and see if a specific driver is causing the problem. When you find it, skip the loading of the driver and then see if you can uninstall it or get a newer version.

 

[electronicsfreak]

Could be a few problems here. First off run a scan below with housecall.

http://housecall.trendmicro.com/

If it comes up clean then move on to testing memory.

http://www.memtest.org/

(follow the instructions)

Also another possible conclusion is the hard drive. I had a similar experience with a western digital hard drive. It worked fine for 9 months the out of the blue one day it quit working. One day it wouldnt find the hard drive at all.

Could not get it to work so I ordered a Seagate and it worked fine. Few weeks later decided to mess with the western digital again out of boredom. Plugged it back up and it started working like nothing ever happened.

That western digital hard drive continues to do that to this day. It will work for a period of time which you never know how long that will be then one day it will just quit. I finally quit using it due to getting tired of panic rescues when it would have its fits.

Anyway long bit of information there but its relevant lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[Crowley16]

actually electronicsfreak, you might be onto something there with the hdd issue...

I did find that one of my old ide hard drives isn't working...

Will confirm this when I get home...

Although, I have found that if I reboot using the reset button, then turn off by holding the power button, then turn back on, it all works again...

--------------------
Procrastinate Now!

 

[electronicsfreak]

What all do you have in this computer, give detailed specifications including the power supply. Processor, video card, motherboard and model number and on power supply, wattage and also amperage on +12v



There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon

 

[Crowley16]

it was the hard drive...

a maxtor 200gb one, once that was disconnected, everything worked fine.

ironic that I've been wanting to get rid of that hdd for ages, only kept it cos I was too lazy to move the files off, but now I've got a reason...

anyway, good catch electronicsfreak, I wouldn't have guessed it was the hdd, otherwise I'd have posted in the hardware forum. Have a star...

--------------------
Procrastinate Now!

 

[electronicsfreak]

thanks appreciate the star. lol well thats where past experiences on my end came in handy. Glad my pain in the butt hard drive finally had a use lol.

There is a point in wisdom and knowledge that when you reach it, you exceed what is considered possible - Jason Schoon