• We’re currently investigating an issue related to the forum theme and styling that is impacting page layout and visual formatting. The problem has been identified, and we are actively working on a resolution. There is no impact to user data or functionality, this is strictly a front-end display issue. We’ll post an update once the fix has been deployed. Thanks for your patience while we get this sorted.

Just did a fresh install of Windows XP Home; system freezes seconds after full bootup

B

BBCMember

Senior member
This system had a pretty bad virus (would not even fully boot into Windows). So to save time, I formatted the drive and installed Windows XP Home. After it finished installing, when it first booted up fully, after 10 seconds, it froze. Could not move the cursor or anything.

Tried rebooting, same thing. I tested the hard drive, which is a WD 40GB drive, with Seatools, and it passed both the short test and the extended test. I am now testing the RAM with memtest86+. I am at 64% into the first pass, and there are no errors so far. It's been running for 50 min.

Any ideas as to why it would be freezing? It wasn't just a day ago when we were just dealing with the virus.
 
Freezes are often related to drivers, I'd update everything (which is a good idea anyway). Don't forget to check for motherboard drivers- updating those saved me from random freezes on a previous system.

Since you're system doesn't seem stable enough to install the drivers, do it from safe mode (press f8 after the BIOS screen and before Windows starts to boot and you'll see the menu for safe mode). On that note, if your system also freezes in safe mode that suggests to me a hardware issue.

If you can't connect to the internet from safemode to download the newest drivers, just download them from a different pc and copy to cd or whatever. And if you're not sure about what some of the hardware you have is, you can try any of these free utilities to help identify:
hwinfo32
system information for windows
pc wizard 2008

One other thing i know of is the driver verifier, I've used it for Vista but don't know if it exists for XP, see link for details:
http://www.winvistaclub.com/t79.html
 
Thanks. It boots up fully into Windows, but then freezes within a few seconds. What's weird is, when I go into Safe Mode, I'm able to get to the list of choices by hitting F8, but when I try to scroll up the list to Safe Mode with the arrow keys, it doesn't do anything. But it still counts down the timer and then boots up into windows. If it were the HD, I would think that it would just freeze.

And just to confirm, I did not use the manuf diagnostic, I used SeaTools. The HD is WD. I can try the WD Diag as well, but I have heard that sometimes the tests are not accurate.
 
It's a PS/2 keyboard that I'm using, and the PS/2 mouse driver is not correctly installed (I'm using a USB mouse). It's the only driver that is not installed correctly. Would that be related to the keyboard not working? I can't type anything when I am booted up either. And I definitely know it's a working keyboard.

I was able to install all of the other drivers without it freezing, but when I went to Windows Update, I got the Windows Update Error 0x80070715. I downloaded the Windows Agent that was suggest in a google search, but it said it encountered unrecoverable errors when I tried to install it.

Suggestions?
 
what virus did you have? some tend to stay around unless you zero the drive and fully wipe it, and some even copy themselves into the CMOS.
 
Wow. Didn't know that. This one seemed pretty bad, as it involved WinLogon. So I guess I have to fully wipe it. Do you think it might affect PS/2 drivers?

And if it affected the CMOS, how would I know? Would I just reset the CMOS via the jumpers? Do I need to take out the CMOS battery as well?
 
Just wrote zeros to the drive, did a long formatting of the drive, and did a fresh install of XP Home SP2. It still freezes seconds after it's fully booted. Have a spare HD that I also just zeroed out. Will try doing a fresh install on that.

Keyboard is working now.
 
I've got an idea that might be worth trying- installing a "slipstreamed" XP with SP3. This means you're installing xp with the integrated sp3 updates all at once instead of downloading and installing sp3 later. Don't know if it will help but I think it's worth a try. Google for "slipstream sp3" to learn how to do this.

You still can't boot into safe mode? Might try a different keyboard (maybe borrow one, else pay $10 for a cheapo), even if the one you have works. It's pretty weird it responds to the F8 key but not the arrow keys
 
OK. Thanks. Why do you think SP2 would cause it to freeze? Have never had that happen before with any system. This PC is about 5 years old.

I have not tried it yet, but before I wrote zeros to the drive and did a fresh install of XP, I was able to boot into Safe Mode with the keyboard. Since that is the case, what do you suggest? Install the drivers and update Windows in Safe Mode?
 
The mouse froze as I was going into safe mode, but I switched USB ports, and it worked. When I got in, I attempted to do a Windows Update, but got the same error message.
 
So you can use safemode w/o freezing- that's a good sign. I don't think sp2 specifically is making it freeze, I just think it's a good idea to have all updates installed beforehand to reduce any chance of conflicts.
And you're getting your drivers from the manufacturer's sites, not from Windows updates right? For example, an Intel video driver is (almost always) best downloaded from intel's site, not from windows update or from Compaq or Dell or whoever. B/c the the manufacturer will almost certainly have the most recent driver.

If wanna continue from your current install before trying the slipstream advice, I'd recommend downloading all drivers from the manufacturers sites (using a different pc) and installing those drivers from safemode. Then go to normal mode and do Windows Update (it's not unusual to for internet connections to fail in safe mode, that's probably why you're getting errors). If that doesn't work, try the slipstream thing, and if it still freezes my only advice (if you're on a desktop) is to remove pretty much all hardware cards (sound, network, etc, except video, otherwise you won't get a display), and see if the freezes go away, and if they do, replace the cards one at a time and reboot. If after replacing a certain card, windows freezes, then you've found the culprit (could be the hardware or the driver). If it still doesn't work then I'm pretty much out of ideas
 
OK. Thanks.

I actually got the drivers from the CD, but that doesn't really matter now, as I just tried doing a fresh install of Windows XP on the spare drive. This time it froze as I was finishing up installing XP. I was on the page that was asking if I wanted to register with MS right now. So, it's not the HD.

Could it be the onboard vid card?

Btw, it wasn't the internet connection that was failing. It was just that Windows Update was failing, as I could go to other sites no problem.

 
Download a free "live cd" version of one of the Linux distros (have had good hardware compatibility with Fedora and Ubuntu without any fiddling) and boot from it. See if any of your problems remain or go away.
 
It's possible it's the vid card, personally that would be the last thing I'd check as there are other things you can check before, and you need to have access to a spare video card (if you have one and you wanna try it, look for "Onboard video - enable/disable" in the BIOS after installing it. But personally I'd try the stuff in my above post before replacing the video but it's up to you
 
OK. Thanks. I actually just reset the CMOS and for some reason, Windows Update is working. All of the drivers are installed as well. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Back
Top