WinXP: freeze on boot after flashing GTO2

[rxrfrx]

Edit: SHD isn't the main problem- it's the nF4 IDE drivers. See below.

I recently flashed my X800 GTO2 video card with the BIOS that enables 16 Pipelines. After flashing, I noticed that my Windows XP Professional was booting very slowly... for example, it would take 2 or 3 minutes at that screen with the green scrolly bar. Sometimes it would boot pretty quickly, but it wasn't like before (where the dark screen with the scrolly bar was only up for a couple seconds before I got the login screen).

Another interesting symptom: after one of these slow boots, ATITool would tell me that no ATI card was installed. I would have to uninstall ATITool and reinstall, and then it would run normally. However, after restarting, the problem would re-appear.

Thinking that this had something to do with Windows scanning for hardware changes, I disabled the Shell Hardware Detection service. Voila! This made boots fast again, and ATITool stopped complaining.

The only problem is that I now lack the ability to detect new hardware connected to my computer.

Anybody know what's going on here? Can I somehow turn Shell Hardware Detection back on and make it not flip out over my video card?

 

[Squeeken]

I am having a similar problem. I also flashed my Sapphire X800 GTO2 video card with the TechPowerUp modified bios enabling 16 pipelines. About half the time that I bootup the computer, Windows XP Pro takes about three times longer than normal to start. The delay takes place between the time the Windows XP screen (with the scrolling blue bar) appears, and the time it disappears. Everything works fine once I'm booted up; it just takes longer to bootup, and it only happens about half the time.

I have not experienced the problem with ATiTool and I have not changed my Shell Hardware Detection settings.

This computer is a new build. Since I performed the VGA BIOS flash during the initial build, I have no idea if the BIOS flash had any effect on the boot time or not.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[rxrfrx]

OK, after disabling SHD and having 2 weeks of problem-free booting, it's just started happening to me again. Scrolling green bar now freezes during boot, HD access light comes on solidly, and computer freezes (waited about 30 minutes before killing it). Boots fine in safe mode.

Back to the drawing board...

 

[Squeeken]

rxrfrx,

Are you using an nForce4 motherboard by chance? I have read in other threads that the nForce4 IDE drivers are causing problems similar to ours.

 

[rxrfrx]

Originally posted by: Squeeken
rxrfrx,

Are you using an nForce4 motherboard by chance? I have read in other threads that the nForce4 IDE drivers are causing problems similar to ours.

Yes, actually, I just figured out last night that this was the problem. Why it only manifested itself after flashing my video card BIOS, I'll never know (maybe a really really strange coincidence), but yes, it's the nF4 IDE drivers.

While using the nF4 SATA drivers, I changed my HD's mode from "let BIOS decide" to PIO. That fixed the boot hang problem, but introduced all sorts of stability issues.

I did "update driver" on all of my IDE devices, changed it back to the regular Windows IDE drivers, and bingo, problem solved. It's now in "use DMA if available" mode and works fine.

I'm pretty pissed at nVidia right now... their network features don't work (ActiveArmor/firewall), their ATA drivers don't work... it's ridiculous.