help with computer that hangs on shutdown/restart

[ZippyDan]

i did a search and spent quite some time reading up on tons of other people with similar problems in the board archives, but nothing was able to help me primarily due to the fact that i am getting this problem from a fresh installation of WinXP Pro

stats:
ECS K7S5A motherboard
Athlon 1.4c Thunderbird
Inno3D Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB 8x AGP
52X CD-Rom
512MB Crucial PC2100 RAM
Antec 350watt SmartPower

i had more stuff in there (like SB Live soundcard and Controller Card for CD-Writer, but I removed all those things in an attempt to find cause of the problem). only things plugged in are monitor and ps/2 keyboard.

im doing a fresh installation of WinXP Pro on a clean 120gb Hard Drive. i boot from the WinXP Pro CD. when it gets done with the initial 'installation' setup (dos-like blue background), it automatically tries to reboot the computer in order to head to the next phase of installation. at this reboot, it hangs.

i can manually reboot and continue the installation, but it still continues to hang at every shutdown or reboot. aditionally, i had problems with internet explorer crashing once i got windows installed, so i figure the problem is related.

every piece of hardware in this machine has been in use with no problems for at least a year so i really doubt any hardware is bad

as i said, i already tried removing everything to the bare minimum. i tried messing with some settings in bios (like turning off power management). i also tried pressing f5 during WinXP setup and forcing ACPI installation. no effect.

any suggestions?

~Zippy!

 

[ZippyDan]

hi

 

[ZippyDan]

🙁

 

[InlineFive]

Is your Windows XP CD scratched? If it is that might be causing some errors in the software it is installing on your computer.

And just a shot in the dark how long is the list for Startup Items in msconfig? (Start Button>Run>Type: msconfig>Click: Startup). Dont mess with anything in the Services Tab because you can screw a lot of stuff up that way.

-Por

 

[ZippyDan]

my post may have been long, but the thing is that my computer fails to shutdown properly AND NOTHING IS ON IT. so i cant check the anything in windows because the drive is blank

additional updates: i tried switching out memory - same thing. i tried resetting cmos - same thing. i tried hard drives from two other computers (another WinXP Pro and Win2k Pro), but both drives froze when going into windows, so that wasnt conclusive.

i will next try swapping out the vid card, double checking bios (im 99.9% sure it is running newest version), trying different cd drive, and trying another brand new hard drive

after that, the only thing left is... the motherboard? :/

~Zippy!

 

[ZippyDan]

k wtf.

changed cd drives. now Windows setup freezes right at the beginning

changed back to previous cd drive. Windows setup still freezing at the beginning

switch out video cards. now Windows setup installs as normal, but still freezes when trying to restart

switched video cards back. Windows setup freezes at beginning again. restart computer: Windows setup installing normally...

wtf

~Zippy!

 

[Paperlantern]

might be some weird hardware incompatabilities? jsut a shot in the dark here, maybe a bios update on the mainboard? give it a shot, seems like youve tried a bunch of other stuff, couldnt hurt

 

[jjyiz28]

i have similar probs. im pretty sure my installation went smoothly, but when i try to restart my computer its just hangs, and i have to reset it. shutdown is fine though.

its a km400chipset, 1800 retail

my guess is that its a mobo problem. when i got my newegg package, it looked brand new, but they put on a plastic foam underneath my mobo, and wrapped it in anti static bag. im thinking the plastic foam which was in direct contact with my mobo may have caused some static damage. just a guess.

 

[ZippyDan]

well i updated bios... same thing

i tried switching out hard drive... same thing

only thing left now is... powersupply (an ANTEC 400watt), motherboard, and processor??

~Zippy!

 

[ZippyDan]

tested with another antec powersupply (smart blue psupply from lanboy case)... same thing

sigh. so i guess that means mboard or cpu.... but can a cpu even cause this? damn ecs 🙁

~Zippy!

 

[Paperlantern]

ive never heard of it, ive had hanging problems with a corrupt install disc, try using another copy maybe?

 

[Firus]

Originally posted by: Paperlantern
ive had hanging problems with a corrupt install disc, try using another copy maybe?

Me too. Before you go swapping any hardware, try just swapping the CD for a different copy. if not, then I have now idea 🙂

 

[Sunny129]

Originally posted by: ZippyDan
well i updated bios... same thing

i tried switching out hard drive... same thing

only thing left now is... powersupply (an ANTEC 400watt), motherboard, and processor??

~Zippy!

i seriously doubt your CPU is the problem. if you were able to get through winXP installation (despite getting system hangs in the process), the CPU was doing its job. you see, a CPU either works or it doesn't...there is no in between, unlike a mobo, where static might fry a USB or parallel port, but everything else continues to work fine.

by process of elimination, you are down to the mobo, and its damn near impossible to pinpoint where the problem is coming from, let alone fixing it. a while back my mobo got fried by lightning, and it took me a few days just to figure out what happened. apparently the only wire going to my mobo that wasn't surge protected was a cat5 cable connecting me to the LAN. so the surge came in through there, and fvkced up my whole mobo. the thing is, once i figured that out, it didn't in any way help me fix the mobo. so chances are, if your mobo is at fault, you're most likely going to have to get a new one.

but like some others said, try installing w/ a different copy of XP first to see if the stupid CD wasn't what was causing you a problem this whole time.