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XP Pro Hangs at Login

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19 replies

by crosscheck

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I had a 2 year old PC motherboard fail so I moved it's 200GB ATA WD HD with XP Pro (current w/SP2) to a new Dell Dimension XPS GEN4 3.4Ghz, 1GB RAM 533Mhz, 800FSB, HT with an existing 160GB SATA HD. I added the 200GB ATA HD to the single IDE controller and shared master/slave with a DVD RW. I booted from the 200GB HD in safe mode and added the Dell XPS drivers for the sound card, graphics card, gigabit ethernet controller, etc. and it seems to work fine in safe mode. When I boot in normal mode it gets to the login for XP Pro and then the screen goes black and the system hangs with the HD access LED constantly on. The only thing it will accept at that point is a hard power down. I think it is a driver problem, but I am not sure how to identify and fix it. I looked at the Dell System Resource Information at addresses and IRQs, but there doesn't seem to be any obvious conflicts.

19 replies

by hereinoz

Yes, put in the XP CD and do a repair installation. That should get it up and running again.

Be aware that all updates that you have applied will be lost and the system will be taken back to the update level of the original CD, but at least all your applications will still work.

Alan

by blackcurrant

Hi

The drive needs to have XP installed /repaired whilst it is connected to the new computer. Then you can add any specific drivers required.

Good luck

by crosscheck

I did try a repair install from an XP Pro OEM CD, but still had the same problem after the install. Could there be any old drivers from the old computer on the 200GB HD that might be causing a conflict even if the corresponding hardware is not in the new computer? For example, I had a Promise drive array with an IDE RAID controller on the old computer. The FASTTRAK.SYS driver still shows up in the Windows Sysstem32 directory, but I don't know if that would cause a problem on the new computer or not.

by liame

Are you booting from the HDD that came with the dell or the one from your old PC? Boot with 1 hdd in at a time to work it out. I presume the dell one works and the old one dont. If it boots to safe mode thats a start. Uninstall any drivers from there and stop stuff loading up using msconfig.

I wouldnt use the dell recovery cd to repair the installation on the old HDD install of xp and dell modify their installs.

by maxwell edison

Boot up again into Safe Mode and locate the bootlog.txt file. In that file you will be able to determine what failed in the bootup process. While still in Safe Mode, you could then either correct the problem or disable that particular device, correcting it later (or ignoring all together, depending on what it is).

---------- OR THIS OPTION ----------

Look at Microsoft article 314503 titled, "Computer stops responding with a black screen when you start Windows XP".

SYMPTOMS:
When you try to start Microsoft Windows XP, the computer may appear to stop responding (hang) with an empty, black screen immediately after the power-on self test (POST) is complete and before the Windows XP logo typically appears on the screen.

CAUSE"
This issue may occur if one or more of the following elements are corrupted:
? Master boot record
? Partition tables
? Boot sector
? NTLDR file

RESOLUTION:
To resolve this issue, follow these steps:

See link.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314503/EN-US/

by willcomp

You're probably on the right track. When XP will boot into safe mode but not normal mode, it is nearly always a driver problem.

Since such problems are usually related to hardware that is physically installed and since you have already done a repair install, my first likely culprit would be the video driver. Could also be any one of the drivers you installed in safe mode.

Try removing each driver (or all of those drivers) in safe mode and reinstall in normal mode.

Dalton

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