XP will not run, does not wake
in [Windows XP]
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From: boatman312 on 27 May 2010 06:37 >> "David Kelsey"<david_kelseyNO(a)SPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message >> news:E6A9C363-F863-4DFC-86DE-094FC56C8F72(a)microsoft.com... >>> I have XP Home, AMD 1.1 processor, 1.5 MB Ram, 80 GB hard drive. >>> System went to sleep suddenly, and now will not wake. I can run in Safe >>> Mode, but 'Normal' results in scrambled screen and revert to safe mode. >>> I have restored several times to different dates. Hard drive reports >>> normal, and no errors shown in Device Manager. Startup goes through >>> normal Windows splash screen, but breaks up at the point when Windows >>> would normally run. Screen then goes to sleep, and cannot be woken. This >>> is one of two computers on a network - the other is Win XP Pro, and is >>> running normally. I am going to try to remove the last Microsoft update >>> and possibly the latest Superantispyware update, although the troubles >>> began before this installed fully. Any ideas please? >>> >>> David Kelsey When all else fails, I try a boot from a quality live Linux CD like Ubuntu. They are usually good at detecting the video modes available. You can also test the rest of the hardware with the included software.
From: David Kelsey on 27 May 2010 11:38 Thanks for the ideas guys. Things have deteriorated rapidly since yesterday. I can no longer get into safe mode, because the screen is now garbled from startup, including the DOS pages. This got progressively worse over the day until it is now useless. For the same reason, I can't use a boot disk because I can't change the startup order. Floppy startup disks don't work anyway, even though they are first in line. The screen itself is fine, and runs normally on another PC. I have cleared the CMOS and fitted a new battery to no avail. Because the graphics are scrambled from the beginning, I assume it can't be the video card, as this does not come on stream until after the DOS pages. The startup sequence lights on the MSI motherboard show three greens and one red, indicating fail at 'Testing real time clock'. It implies that everything else is OK, but it isn't in fact. I have had all greens several times, but the results are the same. The hard drive activity light is on and steady all the time. All this seems to suggest it is either the motherboard itself or the processor, which is an AMD 1.13 GHz. I can't see it being memory. I am happy to buy a new PC, but I would still like to get the old one working so I can transfer files etc. Does this seem a logical train of thought? "boatman312" <eracars(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:htli1c$5mb$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >>> "David Kelsey"<david_kelseyNO(a)SPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message >>> news:E6A9C363-F863-4DFC-86DE-094FC56C8F72(a)microsoft.com... >>>> I have XP Home, AMD 1.1 processor, 1.5 MB Ram, 80 GB hard drive. >>>> System went to sleep suddenly, and now will not wake. I can run in >>>> Safe >>>> Mode, but 'Normal' results in scrambled screen and revert to safe mode. >>>> I have restored several times to different dates. Hard drive reports >>>> normal, and no errors shown in Device Manager. Startup goes through >>>> normal Windows splash screen, but breaks up at the point when Windows >>>> would normally run. Screen then goes to sleep, and cannot be woken. >>>> This >>>> is one of two computers on a network - the other is Win XP Pro, and is >>>> running normally. I am going to try to remove the last Microsoft >>>> update >>>> and possibly the latest Superantispyware update, although the troubles >>>> began before this installed fully. Any ideas please? >>>> >>>> David Kelsey > > When all else fails, I try a boot from a quality live Linux CD like > Ubuntu. They are usually good at detecting the video modes available. You > can also test the rest of the hardware with the included software.
From: Paul on 27 May 2010 15:04 David Kelsey wrote: > Thanks for the ideas guys. Things have deteriorated rapidly since > yesterday. I can no longer get into safe mode, because the screen is > now garbled from startup, including the DOS pages. This got > progressively worse over the day until it is now useless. For the same > reason, I can't use a boot disk because I can't change the startup > order. Floppy startup disks don't work anyway, even though they are > first in line. The screen itself is fine, and runs normally on another > PC. I have cleared the CMOS and fitted a new battery to no avail. > Because the graphics are scrambled from the beginning, I assume it can't > be the video card, as this does not come on stream until after the DOS > pages. The startup sequence lights on the MSI motherboard show three > greens and one red, indicating fail at 'Testing real time clock'. It > implies that everything else is OK, but it isn't in fact. I have had all > greens several times, but the results are the same. The hard drive > activity light is on and steady all the time. All this seems to > suggest it is either the motherboard itself or the processor, which is > an AMD 1.13 GHz. I can't see it being memory. I am happy to buy a new > PC, but I would still like to get the old one working so I can transfer > files etc. > Does this seem a logical train of thought? If you have 1.5GB of RAM, that means there are multiple sticks of RAM present. You can move the sticks around, so if there is a defect in the RAM (like below 640K), that area might not be bad in a second stick. Stick_1 Stick_2 Stick_3 to Stick_2 Stick_1 Stick_3 and so on. The memory addresses assigned to the sticks, should follow the slot order, on a single channel three slot board. (On a dual channel motherboard, you need to think "single channel mode" to do this.) As to your comment about graphics, when the computer first starts up, and your BIOS is running things, the video device is run in some VESA mode. That is what gives you a 640x480 screen. The BIOS queries the device, to see what modes are supported. Normal video devices, whether they're integrated graphics or a separate video card, follow that convention. They all should support the mode the BIOS is looking for (with some Matrox cards being an exception and mis-behaving). Nvidia has had a string of chip failures, due to how the chips make their electrical connections. That would be an example of a situation, where you'd be curious about the brand of video, and the vintage, as a means of identifying a higher probability of failure. Some people have actually managed to "bake" the PCB assembly in their computer that is affected and fix it. But that is a pretty extreme solution, when you consider that the person baking their motherboard or video card, has no idea what temperature they're applying. That's like whacking a vacuum tube (CRT) TV on the side, to make it stop "flipping". A motherboard video could also fail, due to the motherboard regulator powering the video, having failed. And that would be classed as a motherboard failure. So I would start with the sticks, and see if things improve with some simple swaps. After the one above, I'd try this one next. Stick_1 Stick_2 Stick_3 to Stick_1 Stick_3 Stick_2 If you only have two sticks, there are fewer test cases :-) If you can boot something like memtest86+, you can use that for testing, but that can't test the memory reserved by the BIOS (below about 1MB). Which is why the stick rotation is a useful thing to try, in conjunction with running the test. Two error free passes of this is enough testing, before trying your next hardware configuration. Test 5 is where you may observe your first failures - if you're in a hurry, you can advance to Test 5. http://www.memtest.org (for CD, USB key, floppy) What MSI motherboard is this ? The name may be printed in white letters, on the motherboard surface. In this example, you can see "KM4M" (it is actually KM4M-L), and MS-6734 Ver.1 as identifying marks. You may need to zoom in to see those. This is a VIA chipset Athlon board, with integrated graphics under the heatsink. http://www.msi.com/uploads/prod_eea119d9512d4e2abc561d8b006c2466.jpg Paul > > "boatman312" <eracars(a)gmail.com> wrote in message > news:htli1c$5mb$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >>>> "David Kelsey"<david_kelseyNO(a)SPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message >>>> news:E6A9C363-F863-4DFC-86DE-094FC56C8F72(a)microsoft.com... >>>>> I have XP Home, AMD 1.1 processor, 1.5 MB Ram, 80 GB hard drive. >>>>> System went to sleep suddenly, and now will not wake. I can run in >>>>> Safe >>>>> Mode, but 'Normal' results in scrambled screen and revert to safe >>>>> mode. >>>>> I have restored several times to different dates. Hard drive reports >>>>> normal, and no errors shown in Device Manager. Startup goes through >>>>> normal Windows splash screen, but breaks up at the point when Windows >>>>> would normally run. Screen then goes to sleep, and cannot be woken. >>>>> This >>>>> is one of two computers on a network - the other is Win XP Pro, and is >>>>> running normally. I am going to try to remove the last Microsoft >>>>> update >>>>> and possibly the latest Superantispyware update, although the troubles >>>>> began before this installed fully. Any ideas please? >>>>> >>>>> David Kelsey >> >> When all else fails, I try a boot from a quality live Linux CD like >> Ubuntu. They are usually good at detecting the video modes available. >> You can also test the rest of the hardware with the included software. >
From: thecreator on 27 May 2010 15:43 Hi David, You replaced the CMOS Battery. That's why the Testing failed. The Date and Time were not reset to current Date and Time with a reboot. However, my bet, it would normally fail, because the Date and Time were not set in BIOS. If you reboot whether or not you do set the current DATE and Time, it would go all green. Replace the memory cards and see what happens or simply remove the Hard Drive from the computer and mount it into a new Computer. You can use the Hard Drive as Storage with the new computer. -- thecreator "David Kelsey" <david_kelseyNO(a)SPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message news:3DF5B753-81A1-40F1-85A5-0273072D20FD(a)microsoft.com... > Thanks for the ideas guys. ****I have cleared the CMOS and fitted a new > battery to no avail. Because the graphics are scrambled from the > beginning, I assume it can't be the video card, as this does not come on > stream until after the DOS pages. The startup sequence lights on the MSI > motherboard show three greens and one red, indicating fail at 'Testing > real time clock'. It implies that everything else is OK, but it isn't in > fact. I have had all greens several times, but the results are the same. > The hard drive activity light is on and steady all the time. All this > seems to suggest it is either the motherboard itself or the processor, > which is an AMD 1.13 GHz. I can't see it being memory. I am happy to buy > a new PC, but I would still like to get the old one working so I can > transfer files etc. > Does this seem a logical train of thought? > > "boatman312" <eracars(a)gmail.com> wrote in message > news:htli1c$5mb$1(a)news.eternal-september.org... >>>> "David Kelsey"<david_kelseyNO(a)SPAMhotmail.com> wrote in message >>>> news:E6A9C363-F863-4DFC-86DE-094FC56C8F72(a)microsoft.com... >>>>> I have XP Home, AMD 1.1 processor, 1.5 MB Ram, 80 GB hard drive. >>>>> System went to sleep suddenly, and now will not wake. I can run in >>>>> Safe >>>>> Mode, but 'Normal' results in scrambled screen and revert to safe >>>>> mode. >>>>> I have restored several times to different dates. Hard drive reports >>>>> normal, and no errors shown in Device Manager. Startup goes through >>>>> normal Windows splash screen, but breaks up at the point when Windows >>>>> would normally run. Screen then goes to sleep, and cannot be woken. >>>>> This >>>>> is one of two computers on a network - the other is Win XP Pro, and is >>>>> running normally. I am going to try to remove the last Microsoft >>>>> update >>>>> and possibly the latest Superantispyware update, although the troubles >>>>> began before this installed fully. Any ideas please? >>>>> >>>>> David Kelsey >> >> When all else fails, I try a boot from a quality live Linux CD like >> Ubuntu. They are usually good at detecting the video modes available. >> You can also test the rest of the hardware with the included software. >
From: Bert Hyman on 27 May 2010 15:57
In news:3DF5B753-81A1-40F1-85A5-0273072D20FD(a)microsoft.com "David Kelsey" <david_kelseyNO(a)SPAMhotmail.com> wrote: > Because the graphics are scrambled from the beginning, I assume it > can't be the video card, as this does not come on stream until after > the DOS pages. Your video card is "on stream" from the moment you turn your PC on; it's where your monitor is connected, isn't it? Based on your earlier problems and the continued degradation of your video, it's almost certainly your video card. Unless you're a gamer, a new one will be cheap. -- Bert Hyman St. Paul, MN bert(a)iphouse.com |