Blue screen and connection problems.

[Aolish]

ok, i feel like i'm going through one problem after another with this comp. its starting to get to me. anyhow I now have two problems im hopeing someone can help me out with.

#1. This happens extremely randomally, there is no pattern to this. It just happens randomally. When my comp finishes booting, at random times all i'll see is a blue screen (no not a BSOD) with the hour glass spinning. After that i can't do anything else. I always have to reset for it to fully boot. any ideas on why this is happening???

#2. Right now using a netgear ethernet card, Westell DSL modem, and isp is verizon. Again this is also random so there isn't really a pattern for this either. Whenever i connect to the net, it just doesn't work AT ALL, i can't use aim or browse a single website. I can connect just fine. but as far as that goes i can't do nothing else after that. Its only after a reset that my net connection will work again.

As always thx in advance for any help you guys can give.

 

[Ryoga]

Actually, I suspect the two problems might be symptoms of the same issue. I'm assuming this relates to the system in your .sig.

1. One of the last things Windows does is load network device drivers. I'm not certain if it brings the interface up until you log on (I would hope so) but one of the most common issues with boot times is that network drivers can take a very long time. The blue screen you're seeing is, I suspect, the desktop background color of Windows XP that comes up before you log on.

2. It's hard to tell with this one, but it may also be network-card related. When this occurs, try opening a command prompt and running ipconfig and ping 127.0.0.1 to see if TCP/IP is functioning correctly.

I suspect you're using the most up-to-date drivers for the card, but I would install Everest Home to be sure you've identified the network card correctly. The problem is that this is an intermittant error, however, so it's not very likely to be a driver issue. It's much more likely to be damaged hardware.

First thing I would do is check Device Manager to see if there were any problem devices. If so, I would resolve those problems first.

Next, I would swap out the PCI network card, and replace the Ethernet cable between the DSL modem and the NIC. If you can, put the new NIC into a different PCI slot than the current one (just to be sure that one PCI slot isn't somehow bad).

 

[Aolish]

1. yes, im sure the background color that im seeing with just the hour glass is the xp background.

2. i checked the device manager and the network card seems to be fine. ill try out that ipconfig the next time it happens. i was never good with the command prompt. do i just put in the ipconfig then the ping? thx for the great help Ryoga.

EDIT: i had forgotten to mention this on my first post, it might help you or anyone out to my problem. This has been an on going problem for awhile now, i just kept ignoring it because i couldn't find a solution for it....... when everything is done booting on the desktop, I would have to wait about 30secs-1min for me to do some stuff. I can open up some programs while others i can not. Like my temp monitor program won't come out even after clicking on it. I can't even click the PPPoe icon to connect to the net until the freeze goes away. This problem even comes out even after a complete format of the drive. I do notice however that when i disconnect the cable away from the network card my pc boots just fine, no freezes. but when i put the cable back on it'll freeze again. Again, just something i wanted to mention as it might help out with the solution. thx again for the help.