Hope you guys can help as I'm out of ideas. The system:- Windows XP 32 bit sp3, Q6600 processor, 4GB ddr2 ram (only showing 3.2 because of OS limit), asus mobo believe P5K model? ATi 3850 graphics pcie The problem:- As presented, intermittent fault where by the screen would suddenly go as described as green material and pc would do nothing and had to have forced restart. However I also found the system was very very slow starting and initiating devices such as wired lan connection. What I've done:- The HDD bios setting was in Enhanced IDE mode, I found that changing it to compatible mode partialy solve the start up problem. Wired lan was still slow to initiate though, as was a start up program Hp printer software, looked at events viewer and found error saying this program had hung. Found that going into services changing the HP discover service from automatic to manual start solved this issue. Ran furmark and prime95 in attempt to replicate green screen issue but this did not happen and system appeared stable once started. Ran memtest86 and due to errors have replaced first bank of ddr modules...now test runs without error. Disconnected front panel usb's from mobo header as ports were damaged possibly shorting? All now apears fine apart from one strange problem. The pc does not start up properly from a cold start ie when powered off for 30 secs, it posts and then starts the windows load screen scan bar for 5secs or so but then crashed back to restart, then goes to the windows failed to load screen and if you select start normally it will start properly. It does not do this if you select a restart from within windows ie without powering down for 30 secs. I'm wondering if it is a driver issue as it happens when windows is loading or if that HP software is causing other issues or if its the mobo battery (although the clock is correct etc) I've reinstalled the latest graphics driver, tried bios settings of plugnplay os both yes and no, altering the peg/pci bios graphics settings, restricting ram to 2GB on boot through msconfig, disabling and enabling bios memory remapping, different keyboards and mice. Struggling for ideas now, the system seems to be running fine apart from this start up issue??? any help please.
You're taking a bit of a scattergun approach to troubleshooting with this -- you really need more information to know where to start. Does the system momentarily flash a blue screen that you don't get chance to read? If so, when the system is booted right click on “My Computer” and go to “Properties”. Then go to the “Advanced” tab and under the headline “Startup and Recovery”, press the “Settings” button. Untick automatically restart. Restart the system from cold and make a note of what the bluescreen says and post it here. Nealieboyee's suggestion will also help you to determine whether the problem is caused by a rogue service, driver or startup program by loading the bare minimum required to boot.
Technogiant, do you still need to solve the slow wired LAN connection on startup? If so, run services.msc and look for something on the lines of ".NET Framework NGEN" and change its startup type from Automatic to Disabled. I do this on all XP machines that have this installed and have come across no ill affects disabling it
Still trying with this......the wired lan is starting alright now since I switched the hp discovery service to "manual". Did a full avg scan and it found 143 tracking cookies, but nothing more sinister...all removed. Have completely stopped all the HP software from start up....seemed to work for a few start ups then it was back again. Its very difficult though as this start up problem seems to go away and you think it's been solved and then its back again.....must have restarted the thing 50 times this evening and its still doing it......I'll have another go with some more of your suggestions tomorrow...thanks guys.
I remember a similar problem with an old computer of mine when I was running Linux. It was related to the graphics card which I think was just beginning a long slow demise. However you shouldn't rule out a driver failure quite yet. At this point I feel compelled to ask: have you considered formatting the hard disk and reinstalling Windows? It's a nuclear option I know, but at least it would clear up whether the issue was driver related?
If you are putting so much effort and time into solving the boot issue I would just back up and clean install. If you are confident that the computer hardware side is ok then id do that. Typical advice I know but last thing you want to be doing afterwork is restarting your mothers computer 50 times to fault replicate!
I hear what your saying about a complete reinstall....but I'm a stubborn guy.....I'm becoming increasingly convinced this is due to an incompatibility between the HP software and the wire lan driver (attansic). I tried to reinstall the lan driver and it crashed to restart......the only way I could instal it was to boot in safe mode and instal it...sort of confirming my suspicion these was a conflict with a third party driver. I'm going to uninstall the HP software to see if this clears it.
Yeap that appears to have fixed it, uninstalled all the HP software and went into safe mode and ran driver sweeper.....seems to be starting properly now....thanks for your help and suggestions guys.
My instinct as soon as I read "green screen" was graphics card. It's pretty much a guess though, and not easy to check as I don't think your board has onboard graphics.
