XP unable to soft boot

[Bevlar]

Hi,

I reinstalled XP on a laptop at work.

The problem I have is as follows

if I cold boot the laptop it will load up and log into windows without incident.

However, if I attempt to restart windows it will restart the OS as expected and then hang on the XP loading screen.

Any ideas on what the problem might be?

Thanks,

Bev.

[Allan]

Boot to safe mode. Now try to restart. What happens?

[Bevlar]

Hi Allan.

I started Windows in safe mode, restarted and it still hangs on the XP loading screen.

I just don't understand why it won't warm boot. If it was a hardware error, it wouldn't get past the POST after a cold boot.


I also ran the built-in memory and HDD diagnostics - both came back with no errors.

[Allan]

I'm guessing it is a hardware or bios issue of some sort or it would reboot from safe mode (AND, it would get past that point in the boot process because no software has been loaded or called yet).

[patio]

Is there a BIOS setting along the lines of boot on keyboard prompt ? ?

[Transfusion]

I have an almost exactly identical issue as yours with the Intel computer in my specs. The computer would certainly fail to restart, and it would hang at the Win 7 loading screen, followed by a BSOD which stated something like "An attempt to execute non-executable memory..." Memtest86+ for 10 passes turned up no errors. However, I noticed that when copying or downloading large files(1GB+), they would often get corrupted(can check this from the MD5 sums.) Programs would often turn up errors like "Reinstalling the program is recommended because so-and-so.dll has become corrupted" and zip files would turn up CRC-32 errors. I finally discovered it was the new 2 GB RAM I had installed few days ago that was the issue. Gonna RMA the RAM first thing tomorrow.
I really find it odd that Memtest86+'s reliability has been called into question... 10 passes and no memory errors...

[Allan]

One other thought - if there is no setting in bios and if you haven't made any hardware changes lately, you might want to replace the battery on the motherboard. I know - it doesn't make any sense to me either since you can cold boot - but on the other hand, what's the harm?

[patio]

One other thought - if there is no setting in bios and if you haven't made any hardware changes lately, you might want to replace the battery on the motherboard. I know - it doesn't make any sense to me either since you can cold boot - but on the other hand, what's the harm?

You must be a mind-reader...that was my next suggestion...

[Allan]

You must be a mind-reader.

Just another of my myriad talents

[Bevlar]

I should be able to lay my hands on a known working cmos battery.

I'm also going to double check I've got the most recent chipset and video drivers although I don't think that's the problem as it boots into safemode but its worth a shot.

[Computer_Commando]

I should be able to lay my hands on a known working cmos battery...

CMOS battery - CR2032; available at any drugstore or supermarket.

[Bevlar]

I've checked all the drivers were up to date - no change.

Changed CMOS battery (conveniently placed under the keyboard) - no change. 

 

I guess that just leaves the installation media.

[Bevlar]

It was the installation media.

I used a XP Pro disk from home and did another clean install and it now works perfectly.

Thanks for all of your suggestions.