# Pc Freezes On Boot To Windows Xp



## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

I have an ASRock P4S55FX+ motherboard running an Intel Celeron D 2.93 GHz cpu. Radeon 9555 128 video card and 2 gigs of (pc3200) 400 DDR memory, and an 80gig Hard Disk Drive. The problem is when I boot my pc up, right before it gets to the Windows xp logo it freezes. Then I have to do a restart after the restart I boot to safe mode (but sometimes I have to try this 3-4 times before it will boot to safe mode) after I restart from safe mode and sometimes it loads windows and sometimes it doesn't, and if it doesn't I have to repeat the process again, by booting to safe mode and restarting or just picking the step, boot windows normally or last known configuration that worked. Well thinking it might be my hard disk drive, I hooked up a hard disk drive that I know is good from another pc, and again the same problem it still freezes on boot to windows. Also I put my Hard Disk Drive, in another working pc, to test to see if it's the HD and it booted to windows just fine. So I think I've ruled that it's not the hard disk drive. So if it's not my HD I'm thinking that it would have to be my motherboard, but before ruling that out, I used my Windows xp cd and ran a installation repair from recovery console and after I did that it still continuses to freeze. And I also tried msconfig in run command and rebooting using msconfig and again after I did that the pc still continuses to freeze on boot to windows. So now I'm diffently thinking it's the motherboard, I was wondering could it be the cmos battery or is the board just wearing out and going bad? 

Any suggustions for this new member???


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

in msconfig startup
start disabling the items one by one
rebooting each time
when it reboots normally,either disable the one causing the problem or reinstall it


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*Thanks dai*

Thanks dai, I'll try and post back


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*Disabled all of them one by one and still freezes on boot*

Disabled all of them one by one and still freezes on boot, sometimes I can boot successfully 7 or 8 times but after the the 8th boot, and tring to restart for the 9th time in a row, it will freeze:4-dontkno. Any suggustions on what I should try next? I was able to do a clean install of windows xp formating my HD eariler before I tried the the msconfig. Booting didn't seem to be a problem then. But after install the freezing started again, like before, I had done the clean install. I've had this motherboard for 2 years, I'm thinking maybe it's time to buy a new one, unless I can fix this one.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

check for bulgeing or leaking capacitors
d/l and the the hard drive manufacturers diognostic utility on the h/drive
run memtest on the ram
http://www.memtest86.com/
check voltages and tempretures


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*Tried Memtest86-3.2, Powermax 4.22, and Speedfan428. No success*

Tried Memtest86-3.2, Powermax 4.22, and Speedfan428. No success ran Memtest86-3.2 and did 3 passes and no errors tested ok. Ran Powermax 4.22 tested HD, and HD passed, no errors. Installed and ran Speedfan in desktop I tried lowering the temps on cpu, motherboard, and HD. The temps read that they were lowered after I changed but I went to my system setup and checked the temps there and they were reading the same as they were before. Cpu reads 54C and mobo 29C in my system setup. In the Speedfan my readings were cpu 40C and mobo 29C, so I guess my mobo reading was the same on both, but after using, still freezing on boot to windows xp. Not real sure on checking the voltages, they all seemed to be working, they were both the same I think in my system setup and Speedfan. Is there anything else I could try?


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Hi,

Enter bios and let the computer idle in there for 15 minutes, then list your temps.

Also list the voltages of the 3.3v, 5v and 12v

maybe we can see a voltage problem


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*My bios*

Cpu temperature 55C/131F

M/B temperature 28C/82F


Cpu Fan Speed 4358 RPM

Chassis Fan Speed N/A

Vcore 1.413 v

+3.30 v 3.323 v

+5.00 v 5.250 v

+12.00 v 12.645 v


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Your voltages look good but the cpu temp is high for idle so take the case side off and check the heatsink for dust build up and clean using a can of compressed air if necessary. Be carefully when using compressed air that you don't invert the can and cause fluid to come out.

Leave the case side off and see if the behavior continues and report back what the cpu temp is now.


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*Put new Heatsink on processor 2 days ago*

Put new Heatsink on processor 2 days ago, it's a Spire heatsink I bought from newegg.com standard for socket 478. It came with thermapaste preapplied, if it's not cooling the cpu very well could a better grade of thermapaste (gease) be a good idea? What happened originally was I had a stardard intel heatsink that came with the processor but about 2 weeks ago, is when it started freezing. Thinking the board was bad I bought a new board from newegg.com a ECS 648FX-A2 1.0 Socket 478 SIS 648FX Intel Motherboard along with some thermapaste for installing my Celeron D processor.
Not a real pricey board but would run my Celeron D and house my memory and run my video card. So setting this board up I put my Celeron D processor in the board applied the thermapaste and mounted the heatsink, after everything was ready I started it up and it booted to my windows application the very first time. After that it would just contously reboot when I would try to boot to windows. Then I tried to do a clean install of xp, during format it crashes, with a blue screen coming up. Also to see if it was the processor, I unmounted the heatsink and put in a socket 478 3.00Ghz Pentium 4 from another pc I have, applied fresh thermapaste and mounted heatsink once more. Finely I thought I had found the problem, I booted to xp startup, setup my partation and begain format, format was successful, then it rebooted to install xp, things were going fine, got to the xp logo, then right after the logo it crashes, blue screen again. So I was never able to boot to windows expect for the first time. All the other times it crashes, or reboots on every boot. So I thought at least, and I'm still hoping it's not the processor, because the Pentium 4 I pulled from my other pc, I pulled again and put back in the pc I took it from, and after reinstalling it in it again, the pc works great. So that told me, and was making me think that both processors had to be good and that it had to be the motherboards. So I sent the new motherboard back to newegg, and I decided to try and fix my Asrock the original board I had, that was freezing on boots to xp. So I reinstalled my orginal Asrock motherboard, now this is were the new heatsink comes into play. I had ran out of thermapaste from installing cpu in the other new board that I ended up sending back. I did'nt want to buy more thermapaste because of the mess, because can be messy so that's why I just bought a new heatsink because the thermapaste is already preapplied, and I just reinstalled all of this 2 days ago. But now I'm wondering if I should have boughtin some pricey thermapaste and used my standard intel heatsink and maybe the higher grade gease would cool the processor in the board better, and then maybe end my boot freeze problems.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

it sounds like you are applying to much thermal paste,get some artic silver and have a look at the instructions here
http://www.arcticsilver.com/arctic_silver_instructions.htm
i don't think the heat has anything to do with the reboot
in the bios increase your ram voltage by 0.01v and see if it cures or improves the reboot situation


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Well seeing as you explained all that I agree with dia in that I don't think heat is causing the freeze and I doubt applying new thermal paste is going to stop the freezing.

The heatsink you have with the stock thermal pad should be good enough so I would leave that alone for now.

If you installed windows with the intell board in place and are now using the same drive with windows installed and have the asrock mobo installed you are going to have to format and reinstall windows because of driver issues from the other board so due this before we proceed so we can be sure it ain't a driver issue.

I hope I am understanding this correctly so please correcft me if I am wrong


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*Yes, I have preformed a cleaned install with this Asrock board*

Yes, I have preformed a cleaned install with this Asrock board, the format and install went ok, but after install, the boot freezes begain again. But the windows it's self is bare and nothing is installed right now. dai I tried to increase ram voltage in bios, but it was set to the highest level and I couldn't increase it anymore.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

try relaxing the timeing on the ram


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*dai were do I relax the timing on ram, is this in bio's*

dai were do I relax the timing on ram, is this in bio's? And if I may ask what is the name for this exactly in bios, if that is were it's at? Is it called timing ram or does it have a different name? 

Thanks iceman


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

look under advanced chipset or some similar wording depending on the brad of bios
dram timings


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

*Decreased dram timings, and still freezes, no success*

Decreased dram timings, and still freezes, no success. Can get to reboot to windows everytime, but if I shut the pc down and wait a few minutes and then turn the pc back on it freezes on first boot.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

see if you can borrow a power supply to swap in


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

Tried swaping power supplies, put one in from my Dell dimension 3000 but had same problems, after I finily get it booted to windows, can reboot the pc with no freezes but if I turn off and wait and turn back on, on the first boot it freezes with a black screen.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

if you tap f8 when rebooting and choose safe or vga mode does it boot straight up,try it a few times
if you have no prolems then you are underpowered


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

I think I almost have it fixed, you were right dai I am underpowered. I had 2 gigs of memory running on my 400w power supply, so I took out 1 gig I had in out and left it running with 1 gig instead of 2 gigs. It made all the difference in the world, no more boot feezes and runs smoothly. To run my system with the 2 gigs I had, I think I'm going to have to buy a 500w or 550w power supply, to run the 2 gigs smoothly without boot freezes. The one and only problem I have now is, if the pc is shut down for more than an hour, when you go to start it up, it just sits their with a black screen and my bios screen won't come up, but when I press restart, it will startup just fine and then my bios screen will come up and will then boot to xp with no problems.


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## dai (Jul 2, 2004)

see if you can borrow one first to swap in and check
if you have to buy,get one from somewhere with a returns policy


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## iceman5150 (Apr 7, 2006)

Found out my problem, I have 4 dimm slots, and what I've found is that the first 2 slots ddr 1 and ddr 2 are bad but ddr 3 and ddr 4 are still working. So I took all the memory I had in dimms 1 and 2 and out and I am now just using dimms 3 and 4 and my system is running fine now. Just got 2 bad dimm slots, because I took all my memory out and just put a 512 stick in dimm 1 and system freezes and then I tried dimm 2 with the same result. Then I tried dimm 3 and worked fine and then dimm 4 and also worked fine. So I'm running 512 in dimm 3 and running 1024 in dimm 4 for a total of 1.5 gigs so I lost 512 but at lest my system is running well again. I'm diffently not going to buy a new motherboard when this one is running fine again, just has 2 bad dimm slots, luckily it came with 4 instead of 2 or I'd have to buy a new board. But I think I'll hang on to this ASrock (AMI) for now or untill something else goes bad that can't be fix, like the other 2 dimm slots going bad, then I guess I would just have to buy a board for sure, or just do a whole new build. Anyway thanks for the help dai and doby, for helping me narrow the problem down and helping me fined the solution. If I wouldn't have been able to rule and test for all the other problems, I would have never been able to fix the problem. So just want to say thanks.

Iceman:grin:


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## Doby (Jan 17, 2006)

Your welcome and hope to see ya around the forum

Rick


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