Another XP boot issue

[skykaptain]

I have had some problems with XP booting. When I try to boot into XP it stops at the loading screen where my monitor shows “no signal” and goes from green to brown light. My HDD light blinks every five seconds, just like a lighthouse after that.

I have tried to have my monitor plugged into different DVI ports but that didn't work.

Check disk has found no problems and when in safe mode it will some times freeze and/or the monitor turn off, like it was booting normally.

I have Ubuntu installed in a different partition, which is what I am writing this in, and it has worked wonderfully.

I would like to fix this issue without reinstalling or formating if possible.

Before this boot issue happened I was in XP and it started to freeze up/monitor turn off like above. I thought it was a overheating issue as it is ~85 degrees F  here but my GPU has never gone over 40 degrees C and my GPUs over 65 C. I not have my case cover off with a fan blowing inside but so far nothing.

My PC specs:
EVGA 780i SLI mobo
Core 2 Duo E6600 @ 3.2 GHz
EVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 640 MB x2 SLI
3 GB of OCZ SLI-ready RAM
500 GB Hitachi HHD (boot) and 1TB Hitachi (storage/backup)
Windows XP Pro SP3 -can't boot, has problems
Ubuntu 8.04 64bit -works good, no problems

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

When I try to boot into XP it stops at the loading screen

Just to make sure, did you get as far as the loading bar going across the screen under the Windows Logo?

[skykaptain]

Just to make sure, did you get as far as the loading bar going across the screen under the Windows Logo?

Yes, that is where my monitor turns off.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

Can you get into Windows via Safe Mode?

[skykaptain]

Can you get into Windows via Safe Mode?

Yes, for a little bit, longer if in command prompt mode.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

So no matter how you boot into Windows, the screen still 'loses signal' but not in Ubuntu?

I think I would try removing the CMOS Battery for about 10-20 minutes and then reinserting it.
Then try again and post back.

[Chir6]

Here's an idea you may not have though of.  After booting into safe mode, can you change the display properties to a lower resolution?   I am thinking that you resolution may be set to high and is incompatible with you monitor.  Maybe even the monitor frequency, buy make sure that you hide modes your monitor cannot display when fiddling with this.  Good luck, hope this helps!

[skykaptain]

I think I would try removing the CMOS Battery for about 10-20 minutes and then reinserting it.
Then try again and post back.

It really caused more harm than good. Now I have two gigs of RAM instead of three because my BIOS would not boot with three. It helped for a while, I was able to log in but not for long. I have done chkdsk /f and /r and nothing.

Here's an idea you may not have though of.  After booting into safe mode, can you change the display properties to a lower resolution?   I am thinking that you resolution may be set to high and is incompatible with you monitor.  Maybe even the monitor frequency, buy make sure that you hide modes your monitor cannot display when fiddling with this.  Good luck, hope this helps!

Nope, didn't work. It can't be refresh rate because I'm using DVI so I can't change my rate.

[skykaptain]

It works now, I have three faulty RAM sticks.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

It works now, I have three faulty RAM sticks.

What did you do? What happened?

[skykaptain]

What did you do? What happened?

It seemed to have started when I removed the CMOS battery. I still couldn't boot into XP and after a while Ubunto. I tried the Ubunto Live CD and it would not load either so I removed one of my sticks. That worked then I ran Memtest with one stick in each slot and it passed all the tests. when I tried to add more sticks my motherboards Post LCD showed C1 and had a long steady beep. C1 means memory presence/base memory detect. I have contacted my motherboard's manufacture dor tech suport.

[Carbon Dudeoxide]

All right. Glad you know the problem. Now you just need some RAM. 

[skykaptain]

Looks that way. I'm just glad I can do the things I need to do. Thanks everyone.