help!!

[intelfanboy88]

I have recently built a new computer for myself and it works great. The only thing wrong with it is when I turn it on (from being off), the first attempt to boot windows results in a frozen blank screen. This happens in the same place almost every time, right before the XP loading bar. When I press the reset button it resets and loads right into XP and works flawlessly. But I can never get into XP on the first try. I have never experienced this type of problem with any computer. What is going on?

 

[PC eye]

It sounds like the XP loader was fully installed or the master boot record is incomplete or damaged. That would be the software possibility there. The other is a need to look over all bios settings to see if they are at default or set to what is needed. OS2 and Plug'n'Play should be enabled as well as AGP for an AGP board or PCI-E for PCI-Express over the PCI default seen default on most boards. The choice of setting the first boot device to the Drive #0 or #1 for hard drive and disabling the others can help force the boot from the hard drive. This sounds more like a partitiion error rather then a hardware problem to start with where two commands can be tried at the recovery console or a repair install could correct this.

There are actually three commands for repair of the mbr with two available by choosing the cd drive as the first boot device in order to load from the XP installation disk. Once the installer is loaded the option to repair with "R" being pressed brings you to a manual command prompt similar to an old dos prompt where "FIXBOOT" and "FIXMBR" are the two commands to enter there. The alternative method would be to boot from an old WIN98 startup floppy and type in "fdisk /mbr" at the dos prompt. A repair install preserves your software and Windows installation alike while repair and replacement of the essential system files takes place. One additional thought is the jumper setting on the drive itself or a bad cable needing replacement.