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Cold-boot vs Restart problem in Win2K

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11 replies

by michaelfr

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I upgraded my copy of Win NT 4 to Win 2K Professional. Ever since then, the computer boots fine from a cold-boot, but STOPS in the middle of the boot sequence when I restart (warm-boot). I've tried using the "/SOS" option, and don't see anything significant except a line about not being able to identify the drive type of drive "/??/..." - but I also saw the same line when it booted normally.

My PC is a Compaq Prosignia with a P3/450 and 256mb RAM. I've installed SP1 & 2.

Any assistance would be appreciated.

11 replies

by idtent

Just a quick thought, See is a new BIOS revision is available and if so flash it. I've seen 2K do odd things on one system while fine on an identical system. I flashed the BIOS and all was well. Good Luck!

by michaelfr

Thanks Mike, but I've already spoken with Compaq Tech Support, updated the BIOS per their instructions, and ran Compaq's own diagnostics from a floppy.

And I still had the problem after doing that.

by jdfcomputer

This is most likely a timing problem with yoour hard drive or the io controller. WIn2000 is asking for information before the system has refreshed itself.

A bios flash is most likely the best course of action. Also another step to try is removethe hard drives and controllers from device manager and reboot the computer. This will force windows to redetect the hardware and correct any invalid entries in the registry.

by michaelfr

Thanks for your suggestion.

I've already updated the BIOS using Compaq's ROMPAQ utility. That didn't do it.

I then removed the hard-drives in the Device Manager & rebooted.Still no luck.

Thanks...

by parbo

Give RegMon from sysinternals.com a try. You can monitor the boot in realtime. that can give you an idea of what's going on with it on a warmboot.

by michaelfr

Good suggestion, but due to the nature of my problem, I can't get REGMON to successfully monitor a warm-boot(it always fails before REGMON starts tracking).

Thanks, anyway.

by hypersoniq mcse

hold down the shift key when you click OK to restart. Try once and see if it works, this avoids re-initialising the hardware and just restarts windows.
ALSO, check the MSWIN2k home page for HOTFIXES

by michaelfr

Thanks for the input, but when I hold down the SHIFT key and press OK after selecting "Restart", my PC does nothing (i.e., it does NOT restart).

As for HOTFIXES, I've got every Win2K patch & fix installed (as far as the Windows Update page tells me).

Thanks anyway...

by maxwell edison

From the following site:

http://www.jsiinc.com/SUBG/TIP3300/rh3322.htm
(REMOVE SPACES from the pasted URL.)

Windows 2000 hangs when loading your video driver:

When you restart your Windows 2000 computer, it hangs while loading your video driver?
To workaround this problem, which is likely to be video driver corruption, restart in VGA mode.

In VGA mode:

1. Delete your video driver (see the NOTE).

2. Right-click My Computer and press Manage.

3. In Device Manager, select Show hidden devices on the View menu.

4. Locate your video adapter under Display adapters.

5. Right-click the video adapter and press Uninstall.

6. Shutdown and restart your computer. Windows 2000 should detect your device and reinstall it.NOTE: If you are not sure which driver to delete, right-click your video adapter (step 5) and press Properties. On the Driver tab, press Driver Details.... Your driver is the file that is listed at %SystemRoot%\System32\DRIVERS.

Best of luck and have a GREAT 2002!

Maxwell

by michaelfr

Thanks for your reply.

After trying your solution without success, another situation came up which required me to completely re-install Win2K Professional.

Oddly enough, after doing that, and applying only Microsoft updates to my OS, I still had the same result. I've come to the conclusion that there is a conflict between some aspect of the BIOS in my PC and Windows 2000. I believe this simply because this did NOT happen under Windows NT (which I had on my PC before Windows 2000).

Thanks again.

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