Stalled boot - bios displays drives etc

My WinXP machine has developed a bug. When cold, in the morning, it
stops after displaying a list of drives. I have to turn it off with
the On switch. Pressing On once again results in NOT displaying the
drives, but the next thing I see is the Windows logo. After that point
everything seems to work OK. (and it doesn't grumble about the failed
boot, what do I want to do)
Seems like the next thing that's supposed to happen after that initial
drive display, that the bios reports, is that it should go the hard
drive and read? But if that is what's happening, I should have gotten
an error report, right? Anybody have thoughts or suggetions?

"John B. Smith" wrote in message
...

My WinXP machine has developed a bug. When cold, in the morning, it
stops after displaying a list of drives. I have to turn it off with
the On switch. Pressing On once again results in NOT displaying the
drives, but the next thing I see is the Windows logo. After that point
everything seems to work OK. (and it doesn't grumble about the failed
boot, what do I want to do)

A dying Power Supply Unit might cause this. A practical point is that
PSUs are so cheap and so easily replaced that most PC repair
shops will test yours without charge.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)

John B. Smith wrote:
My WinXP machine has developed a bug. When cold, in the morning, it
stops after displaying a list of drives. I have to turn it off with
the On switch. Pressing On once again results in NOT displaying the
drives, but the next thing I see is the Windows logo. After that point
everything seems to work OK. (and it doesn't grumble about the failed
boot, what do I want to do)
Seems like the next thing that's supposed to happen after that initial
drive display, that the bios reports, is that it should go the hard
drive and read? But if that is what's happening, I should have gotten
an error report, right? Anybody have thoughts or suggetions?

What does "displaying a list of drives" mean ?

Is that a screen you'd normally see as part of the BIOS startup sequence ?

Is it the BIOS popup boot menu ?

Is it the Windows boot manager screen, offering more than one
OS on a multiboot machine ?

You could take a picture of the screen and post it on imageshack.us
or some other photo hosting site. And then put the URL of the
image in a followup post.

Or, locate an example photo elsewhere on the Internet, which
matches the screen you're seeing, so we have something to refer
to.

It could be:

1) Bad CMOS battery on motherboard.
2) Hard drive slow to spin up.
3) Problem with power supply. Note any new noises, such as a
sizzling sound, the presence of a little puff of smoke near
the back of the PC at startup.

Those are just a few random suggestions. Knowing just
what screen is showing the hard drives, and what the BIOS
expects for input, would help.

I've had motherboards, where the motherboard gets a "Stop"
error. At the bottom of the screen, it'll mention "press F1"
to enter the BIOS and resolve the issue. A typical reason
for that, is a fan equipped with a tachometer, is spinning
too slowly, and the BIOS noticed it. You can also get stop
errors like that, if keyboard or mouse are missing. The
fact the machine appears unresponsive, could be a problem
with the keyboard, rather than the rest of the machine
(can't detect "F1" when you're asked to press it).

At least you can see the screen, so you'll have something
to go on.

Asus motherboards have "crash recovery" at the BIOS level,
which the BIOS might claim is "CPU overclock" error. The
machine may not be overclocked, but a report of a CPU overclock
failure, means the board failed to start, and the BIOS can
respond by resetting BIOS conditions. And a side effect of
that, is it can even make changes to the BIOS that are
undesired (I have a machine here, where a disk setting
changes, even though the BIOS should only be
resetting the CPU clock input speed).

So it would help to have a photo of the screen to look at,
or an example photo already on the net to look at.

Paul

On Oct 11, 9:04 am, John B. Smith wrote:
My WinXP machine has developed a bug. When cold, in the morning, it
stops after displaying a list of drives. I have to turn it off with
the On switch. Pressing On once again results in NOT displaying the
drives, but the next thing I see is the Windows logo. After that point
everything seems to work OK. (and it doesn't grumble about the failed
boot, what do I want to do)
Seems like the next thing that's supposed to happen after that initial
drive display, that the bios reports, is that it should go the hard
drive and read? But if that is what's happening, I should have gotten
an error report, right? Anybody have thoughts or suggetions?

I used to format a drive according to the temperature. If cold the
data would be written at one point, hot to another. A causality of
relations between temperature and fingers holding the heads to platter
substratum. It would ride behind me in the back of an empty van,
without seats, in a cardboard box with a blanket, which always got
stopped because the license bin was registered by the factory for a
flatbed truck to the DMV. I found simplest just to format it in the
same Obi-Wan method as when being coerced by a flashlight. . .

Stormtrooper: These aren't the droids we're looking for.
Obi-Wan: Move along.
Stormtrooper: Move along... move along.

On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:33:28 -0400, Paul wrote:


What does "displaying a list of drives" mean ?

Is that a screen you'd normally see as part of the BIOS startup sequence ?

Yes, looks like it but didn't examine it close enough probably.


Is it the BIOS popup boot menu ?

Is it the Windows boot manager screen, offering more than one
OS on a multiboot machine ?

You could take a picture of the screen and post it on imageshack.us
or some other photo hosting site. And then put the URL of the
image in a followup post.

this morning it booted up OK. I do have a digital camera for next
failure, but have never posted on imageshack so far. I'll see if I can
figure it out.

Or, locate an example photo elsewhere on the Internet, which
matches the screen you're seeing, so we have something to refer
to.
alwaywith the keyboard, rather than the rest of the machine
(can't detect "F1" when you're asked to press it).

I nearly always get an angry BEEP from my slow to start aftermarket
cpu fan, but it's continued on successfully.

At least you can see the screen, so you'll have something
to go on.

Asus motherboards have "crash recovery" at the BIOS level,
which the BIOS might claim is "CPU overclock" error. The
machine may not be overclocked, but a report of a CPU overclock
failure, means the board failed to start, and the BIOS can
respond by resetting BIOS conditions. And a side effect of
that, is it can even make changes to the BIOS that are
undesired (I have a machine here, where a disk setting
changes, even though the BIOS should only be
resetting the CPU clock input speed).

It's an abit motherboard. My first homebuild, and I chose a company
who went out of the business a year later.

So it would help to have a photo of the screen to look at,
or an example photo already on the net to look at.

Paul

I do have a 'clone' hard disk, ie I bought one to clone to
occasionally (it otherwise sits unpowered, so should be in good
shape), as well as making image backups to an external drive. So I can
eliminate the hard drive by swapping it out if I get that desperate.

John B. Smith wrote:
On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:33:28 -0400, Paul wrote:


It's an abit motherboard. My first homebuild, and I chose a company
who went out of the business a year later.

A bit off-topic but, a third-party person has taken over the ABIT support
site, the address is;
http://mcgordon.se/abit/Abit/www.abi..._archives.html
Or;
http://preview.tinyurl.com/987rhzv

BTW, What ABIT board do you have?

I have three ABIT boards, two in use and one good but not being used.
This machine; ABIT_IC7-MAX3
Other working; ABIT_AI7
Not in use; ABIT_IS7

On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:04:03 -0400, John B. Smith
wrote:

My WinXP machine has developed a bug. When cold, in the morning, it
stops after displaying a list of drives. I have to turn it off with
the On switch. Pressing On once again results in NOT displaying the
drives, but the next thing I see is the Windows logo. After that point
everything seems to work OK. (and it doesn't grumble about the failed
boot, what do I want to do)

It won't grumble because Windows never started to boot.

Seems like the next thing that's supposed to happen after that initial
drive display, that the bios reports, is that it should go the hard
drive and read? But if that is what's happening, I should have gotten
an error report, right? Anybody have thoughts or suggetions?

One thing I would try--physically cold or electrically cold. Warm it
up a bit with outside heat. If that solves it you can try warming up
parts of it to find out what's guilty.

On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:37:45 +0100, "Patrick"
wrote:

John B. Smith wrote:
On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:33:28 -0400, Paul wrote:


It's an abit motherboard. My first homebuild, and I chose a company
who went out of the business a year later.

A bit off-topic but, a third-party person has taken over the ABIT support
site, the address is;
http://mcgordon.se/abit/Abit/www.abi..._archives.html
Or;
http://preview.tinyurl.com/987rhzv

BTW, What ABIT board do you have?

I have three ABIT boards, two in use and one good but not being used.
This machine; ABIT_IC7-MAX3
Other working; ABIT_AI7
Not in use; ABIT_IS7


Thanks for the abit info. My board is IP35XE, doesn't seem to be
listed on that site. I expect to replace/rebuild when it fails (as of
right now I have a working MSI machine I hope to use should I rebuild,
as well as a laptop I use once a month). Beware the next MB I select,
that company will probably quit making them too.

Thanks everyone for trying to help. After starting this thread the
stated problem hasn't shown up on any morning boot. I'm sure it'll be
back and I'll take a pic of the screen and try to figure how to post
it.

John B. Smith wrote:
On Fri, 12 Oct 2012 18:37:45 +0100, "Patrick"
wrote:

John B. Smith wrote:
On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:33:28 -0400, Paul wrote:


It's an abit motherboard. My first homebuild, and I chose a company
who went out of the business a year later.

A bit off-topic but, a third-party person has taken over the ABIT
support site, the address is;
http://mcgordon.se/abit/Abit/www.abi..._archives.html
Or;
http://preview.tinyurl.com/987rhzv

BTW, What ABIT board do you have?

I have three ABIT boards, two in use and one good but not being used.
This machine; ABIT_IC7-MAX3
Other working; ABIT_AI7
Not in use; ABIT_IS7


Thanks for the abit info. My board is IP35XE, doesn't seem to be
listed on that site.

http://mcgordon.se/abit/Abit/www.abi...&fMTYPE=LGA775

Or;
http://preview.tinyurl.com/cyute3s


BTW;
alt.comp.mainboards.abit
alt.comp.periphs.mainboards.abit

On Thu, 11 Oct 2012 14:33:28 -0400, Paul wrote:

John B. Smith wrote:
My WinXP machine has developed a bug. When cold, in the morning, it
stops after displaying a list of drives. I have to turn it off with
the On switch. Pressing On once again results in NOT displaying the
drives, but the next thing I see is the Windows logo. After that point
everything seems to work OK. (and it doesn't grumble about the failed
boot, what do I want to do)
Seems like the next thing that's supposed to happen after that initial
drive display, that the bios reports, is that it should go the hard
drive and read? But if that is what's happening, I should have gotten
an error report, right? Anybody have thoughts or suggetions?

What does "displaying a list of drives" mean ?

Is that a screen you'd normally see as part of the BIOS startup sequence ?

Is it the BIOS popup boot menu ?

Is it the Windows boot manager screen, offering more than one
OS on a multiboot machine ?

You could take a picture of the screen and post it on imageshack.us
or some other photo hosting site. And then put the URL of the
image in a followup post.

Or, locate an example photo elsewhere on the Internet, which
matches the screen you're seeing, so we have something to refer
to.

It could be:

1) Bad CMOS battery on motherboard.
2) Hard drive slow to spin up.
3) Problem with power supply. Note any new noises, such as a
sizzling sound, the presence of a little puff of smoke near
the back of the PC at startup.

Those are just a few random suggestions. Knowing just
what screen is showing the hard drives, and what the BIOS
expects for input, would help.

I've had motherboards, where the motherboard gets a "Stop"
error. At the bottom of the screen, it'll mention "press F1"
to enter the BIOS and resolve the issue. A typical reason
for that, is a fan equipped with a tachometer, is spinning
too slowly, and the BIOS noticed it. You can also get stop
errors like that, if keyboard or mouse are missing. The
fact the machine appears unresponsive, could be a problem
with the keyboard, rather than the rest of the machine
(can't detect "F1" when you're asked to press it).

At least you can see the screen, so you'll have something
to go on.

Asus motherboards have "crash recovery" at the BIOS level,
which the BIOS might claim is "CPU overclock" error. The
machine may not be overclocked, but a report of a CPU overclock
failure, means the board failed to start, and the BIOS can
respond by resetting BIOS conditions. And a side effect of
that, is it can even make changes to the BIOS that are
undesired (I have a machine here, where a disk setting
changes, even though the BIOS should only be
resetting the CPU clock input speed).

So it would help to have a photo of the screen to look at,
or an example photo already on the net to look at.

Paul


It's been 3 weeks and the stalled screen finally showed up again this
morning. I took a pic and posted here
http://img594.imageshack.us/img594/8...otupscreen.jpg

Sorry about the camera focus, I guess it doesn't like closeups
anymore. I can see nothing informative on this screen.