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#1
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PC Hangs while attmpting to boot -- even in Safe Mode or BIOS
My PC has been working fine for nearly a year. Recently, it started not
booting at all. This is what happens: I start it up, it POSTs OK, it goes through its inventory OK and then XP Pro splash screen comes up and it just STAYS there forever! I have a KVM switch which I use to switch back and forth between 4 PCs, and when this happens, the KVM switch will take several minutes to switch from this PC to another one (it is usually a 1-2 second affair). At first I thought it was the XP HDD, so I shut it off (no keyboard entries affect the "hang" state, not "ctrl-alt-del'" or anything else, so I just have to turn it off). I set the W2K Pro HDD to start up with the same result. W98 SE HDD won't start either and neither does the SCSI Win ME -- all of these hang after a while as well. The same happens when attempting to go into Safe Mode (it hangs and never gets there) as well as "Last Known Good Configuration"; all of these just hang up and don't go any further. Here are the PC's specs: Dual P3 700 MHz with 1 GB RAM, ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 32 MB Video Card, Panda AV 6.0 Platinum, ASUS P2B-DS MoBo Rev 1.06, LS-120 USB Drive, ZIP 100 USB Drive, "Mini-View" 4 port KVM switch, A-Open DVD Dual layer, dual format (+/-) DVD Burner, Microtek Slim Scan 6 Paralell port scanner, RomTec Trios HDD selector box with 3 bootable Hard Drives (1 20 GB HDD with Win 2000 PRO, 1 30 GB HDD with Win XP PRO, one 6 GB HDD with Win 98 SE -- can boot up to any one of these three depending on what switch is selected), 1 SCSI 4 GB HDD with Win ME on it (can be bootable if selected as boot device over IDE in BIOS), 120 GB HDD Back up drive accessible from either of the boot drives, networked via NIC to an AMD Athlon 2600 XP running Win XP PRO. Here is what I have tried so far: 1. I tried to restore the image I created recently using Ghost 9.0. I started the PC using the Ghost CD, but it too simply hangs after about 30 seconds or so -- it never gets to a point where I can do anything. 2. I tried going into BIOS to see if anything had changed. I have to hurry to make one change at a time, save it and get out as after 30 seconds or so it will ALSO hang in BIOS! So far everything looks OK in BIOS, but it seems VERY weird that it should hang up in BIOS as well. 3. Next I suspected a virus, so I used the Panda "SafeDisk32" CD to check it out (I had to boot using the CD), but it too simply hangs and doesn't go anywhere. I tried this several times with no luck. I found an old McAfee Virus Scan emergency floppy and tried it (this one actually ran through on one occasion to report no virus found but would not do it on subsequent attempts). 4. ONCE I got a BSOD (thank god for at least SOME feedback!!) that stated: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Technical information: STOP:OXOOOOOOD1, AIC78U2.SYS -- address F78619E2, base at F785EOOO, Date Stamp 3afaf8CD or something like that. I went to the MS Knowledge base, but found little except for one that referenced possibly a bad driver. The "solution" was to remove the driver (which in this case AIC... refers to the on board SCSI adapter -- this device was updated when I flashed the BIOS nearly a year ago with the latest version from ASUS -- BIOS "bxds1013.awd"), but it didn't say HOW to remove the driver if you can't get into Windows. Jsut the same, I booted into BIOS and quickly disbaled the SCSI adapter and its deivses, but no joy. 5. I then disconnected all the peripheral deives but no joy. 6. I removed all the expansion cards except the video card (removed SB Live sound card, NIC, Modem, USB 2.0) and attempted to re-boot but no joy -- still hanging! (incidentally, I decided to remove the USB Card as several days before this incident, I was attempting to connect the front panel USB connectors to the connectors on the card. I tried the configuration indicated by the card's documentation but no luck. I then tried all other possible combos but none worked, so I tied u the leads and decided on no front access USB ports). 7. I also removed all 4 of the 256 MB RAM Sticks and tried each one individually by itself, but no luck. 8. I bypassed the RomTec Trios selector and hooked up the XP HDD directly but you guessed it, no joy!! 9. I then tried the W2K HDD and the W98 SE HDD by themselves but no luck either! 10. I then decided to re-flash the BIOS, but was concerned that if it hung while it was re-flashing I might really be in a tight place, so I booted up to the Flash program to see if it would stay on or hang. Lo and behold, it hung after 30 or 40 seconds, so I didn't attempt it. 11. I contemplated simply re-installing XP, but again the system hung after booting up with the XP CD (it gets up to the point where it says it is loading windows and just stays there. As an aside, I let this puppy hang for several hours just to see if maybe it was just botting up really S-L-O-W-L-Y, but it didn't move past the point where it usually hangs up. 12. I attempted going into the recovery console (not that I would know what to do with it: it was more of an experiment to see if THAT would load, but it didn't. 13. I again went into BIOS and selected "LOAD BIOS DEFAULTS" but all that happened is that the PC didn't recognize ANY of the HDDs or the DVD drive at all and then it hung again. 14. I then selected "LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS" and it again hung. 15. I haven't tried clearing the CMOS, mainly because I really don't know WHEN one would do that or even if there is reason to expect that it would make a difference. I downloaded the manual for this MoBo and it shows you HOW to do this, but it doesn't say WHY you would do it and what you can expect it will fix. I don't really know what else to do. I have some knowledge of PCs and I am very gutsy and able to follow directions, so if you have an idea what may be up and how I can fix it, please tell me in step-by-step instructions (assume I am totally clueless). I have in the past sucessfully edited the registry from DOS with guidence, so I am willing to try anything and any help would be greatly appreciated!! Please let me know what is up with this PC!!! Thanks, Byl PS: There have not been any hardware or software changes immediately preceeding this incident. About 2 weeks prior to this, I did remove a 45 GB HDD and replaced it with athe 120 GB back up HDD. That went smoothly and it booted up with no problem (actually I started it with both HDDs in the PC and transferred the files from the 45 GB to the 120 GB HDD and then re-formatted the 45 GB one all with no problems). Several days before this incident, I exchanged the existing 250 Watt A-Open PS with a 400 Watt "Hercules" PS as I thought it would be better. I have since replaced the 250 Watt one (thinking maybe that may have somehow caused this, but it did no good). |
#2
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The only place you didn't mention it hanging up was in the recovery
console. But I imagine it would there too. You might try disconnecting EVERYTHING (hard drives and all), except your keyboard and video, of course, and see if you can go into BIOS and stay there any length of time. I'm just trying to think of things you haven't tried, and it looks like you covered it all pretty good. Overheating comes to mind, but surely you thought of that. Fans all running? Unfortunately, it mostly sounds like "motherboard" to me... :-( And I thought I had a lot of stuff hooked up to MY computer... :-) Byl wrote in : My PC has been working fine for nearly a year. Recently, it started not booting at all. This is what happens: I start it up, it POSTs OK, it goes through its inventory OK and then XP Pro splash screen comes up and it just STAYS there forever! I have a KVM switch which I use to switch back and forth between 4 PCs, and when this happens, the KVM switch will take several minutes to switch from this PC to another one (it is usually a 1-2 second affair). At first I thought it was the XP HDD, so I shut it off (no keyboard entries affect the "hang" state, not "ctrl-alt-del'" or anything else, so I just have to turn it off). I set the W2K Pro HDD to start up with the same result. W98 SE HDD won't start either and neither does the SCSI Win ME -- all of these hang after a while as well. The same happens when attempting to go into Safe Mode (it hangs and never gets there) as well as "Last Known Good Configuration"; all of these just hang up and don't go any further. Here are the PC's specs: Dual P3 700 MHz with 1 GB RAM, ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 32 MB Video Card, Panda AV 6.0 Platinum, ASUS P2B-DS MoBo Rev 1.06, LS-120 USB Drive, ZIP 100 USB Drive, "Mini-View" 4 port KVM switch, A-Open DVD Dual layer, dual format (+/-) DVD Burner, Microtek Slim Scan 6 Paralell port scanner, RomTec Trios HDD selector box with 3 bootable Hard Drives (1 20 GB HDD with Win 2000 PRO, 1 30 GB HDD with Win XP PRO, one 6 GB HDD with Win 98 SE -- can boot up to any one of these three depending on what switch is selected), 1 SCSI 4 GB HDD with Win ME on it (can be bootable if selected as boot device over IDE in BIOS), 120 GB HDD Back up drive accessible from either of the boot drives, networked via NIC to an AMD Athlon 2600 XP running Win XP PRO. Here is what I have tried so far: 1. I tried to restore the image I created recently using Ghost 9.0. I started the PC using the Ghost CD, but it too simply hangs after about 30 seconds or so -- it never gets to a point where I can do anything. 2. I tried going into BIOS to see if anything had changed. I have to hurry to make one change at a time, save it and get out as after 30 seconds or so it will ALSO hang in BIOS! So far everything looks OK in BIOS, but it seems VERY weird that it should hang up in BIOS as well. 3. Next I suspected a virus, so I used the Panda "SafeDisk32" CD to check it out (I had to boot using the CD), but it too simply hangs and doesn't go anywhere. I tried this several times with no luck. I found an old McAfee Virus Scan emergency floppy and tried it (this one actually ran through on one occasion to report no virus found but would not do it on subsequent attempts). 4. ONCE I got a BSOD (thank god for at least SOME feedback!!) that stated: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Technical information: STOP:OXOOOOOOD1, AIC78U2.SYS -- address F78619E2, base at F785EOOO, Date Stamp 3afaf8CD or something like that. I went to the MS Knowledge base, but found little except for one that referenced possibly a bad driver. The "solution" was to remove the driver (which in this case AIC... refers to the on board SCSI adapter -- this device was updated when I flashed the BIOS nearly a year ago with the latest version from ASUS -- BIOS "bxds1013.awd"), but it didn't say HOW to remove the driver if you can't get into Windows. Jsut the same, I booted into BIOS and quickly disbaled the SCSI adapter and its deivses, but no joy. 5. I then disconnected all the peripheral deives but no joy. 6. I removed all the expansion cards except the video card (removed SB Live sound card, NIC, Modem, USB 2.0) and attempted to re-boot but no joy -- still hanging! (incidentally, I decided to remove the USB Card as several days before this incident, I was attempting to connect the front panel USB connectors to the connectors on the card. I tried the configuration indicated by the card's documentation but no luck. I then tried all other possible combos but none worked, so I tied u the leads and decided on no front access USB ports). 7. I also removed all 4 of the 256 MB RAM Sticks and tried each one individually by itself, but no luck. 8. I bypassed the RomTec Trios selector and hooked up the XP HDD directly but you guessed it, no joy!! 9. I then tried the W2K HDD and the W98 SE HDD by themselves but no luck either! 10. I then decided to re-flash the BIOS, but was concerned that if it hung while it was re-flashing I might really be in a tight place, so I booted up to the Flash program to see if it would stay on or hang. Lo and behold, it hung after 30 or 40 seconds, so I didn't attempt it. 11. I contemplated simply re-installing XP, but again the system hung after booting up with the XP CD (it gets up to the point where it says it is loading windows and just stays there. As an aside, I let this puppy hang for several hours just to see if maybe it was just botting up really S-L-O-W-L-Y, but it didn't move past the point where it usually hangs up. 12. I attempted going into the recovery console (not that I would know what to do with it: it was more of an experiment to see if THAT would load, but it didn't. 13. I again went into BIOS and selected "LOAD BIOS DEFAULTS" but all that happened is that the PC didn't recognize ANY of the HDDs or the DVD drive at all and then it hung again. 14. I then selected "LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS" and it again hung. 15. I haven't tried clearing the CMOS, mainly because I really don't know WHEN one would do that or even if there is reason to expect that it would make a difference. I downloaded the manual for this MoBo and it shows you HOW to do this, but it doesn't say WHY you would do it and what you can expect it will fix. I don't really know what else to do. I have some knowledge of PCs and I am very gutsy and able to follow directions, so if you have an idea what may be up and how I can fix it, please tell me in step-by-step instructions (assume I am totally clueless). I have in the past sucessfully edited the registry from DOS with guidence, so I am willing to try anything and any help would be greatly appreciated!! Please let me know what is up with this PC!!! Thanks, Byl PS: There have not been any hardware or software changes immediately preceeding this incident. About 2 weeks prior to this, I did remove a 45 GB HDD and replaced it with athe 120 GB back up HDD. That went smoothly and it booted up with no problem (actually I started it with both HDDs in the PC and transferred the files from the 45 GB to the 120 GB HDD and then re-formatted the 45 GB one all with no problems). Several days before this incident, I exchanged the existing 250 Watt A-Open PS with a 400 Watt "Hercules" PS as I thought it would be better. I have since replaced the 250 Watt one (thinking maybe that may have somehow caused this, but it did no good). -- --- A Freudian slip is when you say one thing but mean your mother. --- |
#3
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There are Windows XP specific newsgroups where you'll be in touch with folks
who specialize in Windows XP and troubleshooting for it. -- Richard G. Harper [MVP Shell/User] * PLEASE post all messages and replies in the newsgroups * for the benefit of all. Private mail is usually not replied to. * My website, such as it is ... http://rgharper.mvps.org/ * HELP us help YOU ... http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm "Byl" wrote in message ... My PC has been working fine for nearly a year. Recently, it started not booting at all. This is what happens: I start it up, it POSTs OK, it goes through its inventory OK and then XP Pro splash screen comes up and it just STAYS there forever! |
#4
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I believe you may have mobo probs.
Time to call in someone or take pc somewhere; you are going to need someone with diagnostic tools and capabilities. Good luck. ...Rex.. |
#5
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Byl wrote:
My PC has been working fine for nearly a year. Recently, it started not booting at all. This is what happens: I start it up, it POSTs OK, it goes through its inventory OK and then XP Pro splash screen comes up and it just STAYS there forever! I have a KVM switch which I use to switch back and forth between 4 PCs, and when this happens, the KVM switch will take several minutes to switch from this PC to another one (it is usually a 1-2 second affair). At first I thought it was the XP HDD, so I shut it off (no keyboard entries affect the "hang" state, not "ctrl-alt-del'" or anything else, so I just have to turn it off). I set the W2K Pro HDD to start up with the same result. W98 SE HDD won't start either and neither does the SCSI Win ME -- all of these hang after a while as well. The same happens when attempting to go into Safe Mode (it hangs and never gets there) as well as "Last Known Good Configuration"; all of these just hang up and don't go any further. Here are the PC's specs: Dual P3 700 MHz with 1 GB RAM, ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 32 MB Video Card, Panda AV 6.0 Platinum, ASUS P2B-DS MoBo Rev 1.06, LS-120 USB Drive, ZIP 100 USB Drive, "Mini-View" 4 port KVM switch, A-Open DVD Dual layer, dual format (+/-) DVD Burner, Microtek Slim Scan 6 Paralell port scanner, RomTec Trios HDD selector box with 3 bootable Hard Drives (1 20 GB HDD with Win 2000 PRO, 1 30 GB HDD with Win XP PRO, one 6 GB HDD with Win 98 SE -- can boot up to any one of these three depending on what switch is selected), 1 SCSI 4 GB HDD with Win ME on it (can be bootable if selected as boot device over IDE in BIOS), 120 GB HDD Back up drive accessible from either of the boot drives, networked via NIC to an AMD Athlon 2600 XP running Win XP PRO. Here is what I have tried so far: 1. I tried to restore the image I created recently using Ghost 9.0. I started the PC using the Ghost CD, but it too simply hangs after about 30 seconds or so -- it never gets to a point where I can do anything. 2. I tried going into BIOS to see if anything had changed. I have to hurry to make one change at a time, save it and get out as after 30 seconds or so it will ALSO hang in BIOS! So far everything looks OK in BIOS, but it seems VERY weird that it should hang up in BIOS as well. 3. Next I suspected a virus, so I used the Panda "SafeDisk32" CD to check it out (I had to boot using the CD), but it too simply hangs and doesn't go anywhere. I tried this several times with no luck. I found an old McAfee Virus Scan emergency floppy and tried it (this one actually ran through on one occasion to report no virus found but would not do it on subsequent attempts). 4. ONCE I got a BSOD (thank god for at least SOME feedback!!) that stated: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Technical information: STOP:OXOOOOOOD1, AIC78U2.SYS -- address F78619E2, base at F785EOOO, Date Stamp 3afaf8CD or something like that. I went to the MS Knowledge base, but found little except for one that referenced possibly a bad driver. The "solution" was to remove the driver (which in this case AIC... refers to the on board SCSI adapter -- this device was updated when I flashed the BIOS nearly a year ago with the latest version from ASUS -- BIOS "bxds1013.awd"), but it didn't say HOW to remove the driver if you can't get into Windows. Jsut the same, I booted into BIOS and quickly disbaled the SCSI adapter and its deivses, but no joy. 5. I then disconnected all the peripheral deives but no joy. 6. I removed all the expansion cards except the video card (removed SB Live sound card, NIC, Modem, USB 2.0) and attempted to re-boot but no joy -- still hanging! (incidentally, I decided to remove the USB Card as several days before this incident, I was attempting to connect the front panel USB connectors to the connectors on the card. I tried the configuration indicated by the card's documentation but no luck. I then tried all other possible combos but none worked, so I tied u the leads and decided on no front access USB ports). 7. I also removed all 4 of the 256 MB RAM Sticks and tried each one individually by itself, but no luck. 8. I bypassed the RomTec Trios selector and hooked up the XP HDD directly but you guessed it, no joy!! 9. I then tried the W2K HDD and the W98 SE HDD by themselves but no luck either! 10. I then decided to re-flash the BIOS, but was concerned that if it hung while it was re-flashing I might really be in a tight place, so I booted up to the Flash program to see if it would stay on or hang. Lo and behold, it hung after 30 or 40 seconds, so I didn't attempt it. 11. I contemplated simply re-installing XP, but again the system hung after booting up with the XP CD (it gets up to the point where it says it is loading windows and just stays there. As an aside, I let this puppy hang for several hours just to see if maybe it was just botting up really S-L-O-W-L-Y, but it didn't move past the point where it usually hangs up. 12. I attempted going into the recovery console (not that I would know what to do with it: it was more of an experiment to see if THAT would load, but it didn't. 13. I again went into BIOS and selected "LOAD BIOS DEFAULTS" but all that happened is that the PC didn't recognize ANY of the HDDs or the DVD drive at all and then it hung again. 14. I then selected "LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS" and it again hung. 15. I haven't tried clearing the CMOS, mainly because I really don't know WHEN one would do that or even if there is reason to expect that it would make a difference. I downloaded the manual for this MoBo and it shows you HOW to do this, but it doesn't say WHY you would do it and what you can expect it will fix. I don't really know what else to do. I have some knowledge of PCs and I am very gutsy and able to follow directions, so if you have an idea what may be up and how I can fix it, please tell me in step-by-step instructions (assume I am totally clueless). I have in the past sucessfully edited the registry from DOS with guidence, so I am willing to try anything and any help would be greatly appreciated!! Please let me know what is up with this PC!!! Thanks, Byl PS: There have not been any hardware or software changes immediately preceeding this incident. About 2 weeks prior to this, I did remove a 45 GB HDD and replaced it with athe 120 GB back up HDD. That went smoothly and it booted up with no problem (actually I started it with both HDDs in the PC and transferred the files from the 45 GB to the 120 GB HDD and then re-formatted the 45 GB one all with no problems). Several days before this incident, I exchanged the existing 250 Watt A-Open PS with a 400 Watt "Hercules" PS as I thought it would be better. I have since replaced the 250 Watt one (thinking maybe that may have somehow caused this, but it did no good). Sounds like a memory or a heat problem. Here are some of the things I've seen after messing around with the hardware. 1)Heat sink got jostled on the processor and is not making intimate contact. 2)Dirt got between the processor and heat sink. 3)Paper Label on the processor between the heat sink, but this was after new processor install and probably not related. 4)Fan left disconnected, hooked up backwards, or fan wire broken. stuck fan, screw fell in it, wire poked into the blades, coincidence. 5)memory got bumped and is no longer fully seated. 6)static zap killed something. Make sure you've not tweeked something in the bios to overclock the processor or memory or bus or anything. If it crashes in the BIOS it can't be operating system related. First thing I'd try is a memory test program like memtest32. Try turning off the cache to see if that's the problem. But you've tried all the memory modules individually; even if you find something wrong on the motherboard, you won't be able to fix it anyway. I have seen mismatched ram to work or not work depending on which order they're installed. Have no idea why unless the bios is testing one for speed and applying that to all. If it fails with one RAM, that's not the issue. You have learned (the hard way) the first rule of computing, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" mike -- Return address is VALID but some sites block emails with links. Delete this sig when replying. .. Wanted, PCMCIA SCSI Card for HP m820 CDRW. FS 500MHz Tek DSOscilloscope TDS540 Make Offer Wanted 12" LCD for Compaq Armada 7770MT. Bunch of stuff For Sale and Wanted at the link below. MAKE THE OBVIOUS CHANGES TO THE LINK htremovethistp://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Monitor/4710/ |
#6
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Don't see the obvious trial solution. Remove the KVM switch, and try the
keyboard by itself on each PC. "Byl" wrote in message ... My PC has been working fine for nearly a year. Recently, it started not booting at all. This is what happens: I start it up, it POSTs OK, it goes through its inventory OK and then XP Pro splash screen comes up and it just STAYS there forever! I have a KVM switch which I use to switch back and forth between 4 PCs, and when this happens, the KVM switch will take several minutes to switch from this PC to another one (it is usually a 1-2 second affair). At first I thought it was the XP HDD, so I shut it off (no keyboard entries affect the "hang" state, not "ctrl-alt-del'" or anything else, so I just have to turn it off). I set the W2K Pro HDD to start up with the same result. W98 SE HDD won't start either and neither does the SCSI Win ME -- all of these hang after a while as well. The same happens when attempting to go into Safe Mode (it hangs and never gets there) as well as "Last Known Good Configuration"; all of these just hang up and don't go any further. Here are the PC's specs: Dual P3 700 MHz with 1 GB RAM, ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 32 MB Video Card, Panda AV 6.0 Platinum, ASUS P2B-DS MoBo Rev 1.06, LS-120 USB Drive, ZIP 100 USB Drive, "Mini-View" 4 port KVM switch, A-Open DVD Dual layer, dual format (+/-) DVD Burner, Microtek Slim Scan 6 Paralell port scanner, RomTec Trios HDD selector box with 3 bootable Hard Drives (1 20 GB HDD with Win 2000 PRO, 1 30 GB HDD with Win XP PRO, one 6 GB HDD with Win 98 SE -- can boot up to any one of these three depending on what switch is selected), 1 SCSI 4 GB HDD with Win ME on it (can be bootable if selected as boot device over IDE in BIOS), 120 GB HDD Back up drive accessible from either of the boot drives, networked via NIC to an AMD Athlon 2600 XP running Win XP PRO. Here is what I have tried so far: 1. I tried to restore the image I created recently using Ghost 9.0. I started the PC using the Ghost CD, but it too simply hangs after about 30 seconds or so -- it never gets to a point where I can do anything. 2. I tried going into BIOS to see if anything had changed. I have to hurry to make one change at a time, save it and get out as after 30 seconds or so it will ALSO hang in BIOS! So far everything looks OK in BIOS, but it seems VERY weird that it should hang up in BIOS as well. 3. Next I suspected a virus, so I used the Panda "SafeDisk32" CD to check it out (I had to boot using the CD), but it too simply hangs and doesn't go anywhere. I tried this several times with no luck. I found an old McAfee Virus Scan emergency floppy and tried it (this one actually ran through on one occasion to report no virus found but would not do it on subsequent attempts). 4. ONCE I got a BSOD (thank god for at least SOME feedback!!) that stated: DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL Technical information: STOP:OXOOOOOOD1, AIC78U2.SYS -- address F78619E2, base at F785EOOO, Date Stamp 3afaf8CD or something like that. I went to the MS Knowledge base, but found little except for one that referenced possibly a bad driver. The "solution" was to remove the driver (which in this case AIC... refers to the on board SCSI adapter -- this device was updated when I flashed the BIOS nearly a year ago with the latest version from ASUS -- BIOS "bxds1013.awd"), but it didn't say HOW to remove the driver if you can't get into Windows. Jsut the same, I booted into BIOS and quickly disbaled the SCSI adapter and its deivses, but no joy. 5. I then disconnected all the peripheral deives but no joy. 6. I removed all the expansion cards except the video card (removed SB Live sound card, NIC, Modem, USB 2.0) and attempted to re-boot but no joy -- still hanging! (incidentally, I decided to remove the USB Card as several days before this incident, I was attempting to connect the front panel USB connectors to the connectors on the card. I tried the configuration indicated by the card's documentation but no luck. I then tried all other possible combos but none worked, so I tied u the leads and decided on no front access USB ports). 7. I also removed all 4 of the 256 MB RAM Sticks and tried each one individually by itself, but no luck. 8. I bypassed the RomTec Trios selector and hooked up the XP HDD directly but you guessed it, no joy!! 9. I then tried the W2K HDD and the W98 SE HDD by themselves but no luck either! 10. I then decided to re-flash the BIOS, but was concerned that if it hung while it was re-flashing I might really be in a tight place, so I booted up to the Flash program to see if it would stay on or hang. Lo and behold, it hung after 30 or 40 seconds, so I didn't attempt it. 11. I contemplated simply re-installing XP, but again the system hung after booting up with the XP CD (it gets up to the point where it says it is loading windows and just stays there. As an aside, I let this puppy hang for several hours just to see if maybe it was just botting up really S-L-O-W-L-Y, but it didn't move past the point where it usually hangs up. 12. I attempted going into the recovery console (not that I would know what to do with it: it was more of an experiment to see if THAT would load, but it didn't. 13. I again went into BIOS and selected "LOAD BIOS DEFAULTS" but all that happened is that the PC didn't recognize ANY of the HDDs or the DVD drive at all and then it hung again. 14. I then selected "LOAD SETUP DEFAULTS" and it again hung. 15. I haven't tried clearing the CMOS, mainly because I really don't know WHEN one would do that or even if there is reason to expect that it would make a difference. I downloaded the manual for this MoBo and it shows you HOW to do this, but it doesn't say WHY you would do it and what you can expect it will fix. I don't really know what else to do. I have some knowledge of PCs and I am very gutsy and able to follow directions, so if you have an idea what may be up and how I can fix it, please tell me in step-by-step instructions (assume I am totally clueless). I have in the past sucessfully edited the registry from DOS with guidence, so I am willing to try anything and any help would be greatly appreciated!! Please let me know what is up with this PC!!! Thanks, Byl PS: There have not been any hardware or software changes immediately preceeding this incident. About 2 weeks prior to this, I did remove a 45 GB HDD and replaced it with athe 120 GB back up HDD. That went smoothly and it booted up with no problem (actually I started it with both HDDs in the PC and transferred the files from the 45 GB to the 120 GB HDD and then re-formatted the 45 GB one all with no problems). Several days before this incident, I exchanged the existing 250 Watt A-Open PS with a 400 Watt "Hercules" PS as I thought it would be better. I have since replaced the 250 Watt one (thinking maybe that may have somehow caused this, but it did no good). |
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