Major problem

Golbeze · Oct 14, 2006, 11:20 PM

Alright, I've tried to figure this out for a while now, and am about to pull my hair out. The problem is this; sometimes when starting up my computer, it will sort of "freeze" at the login screen. I can move the mouse around, but I can't click on any icons. Sometimes it will freeze at the part the login screen says "Windows is starting up"> Sometimes it'll freeze AS I'm logging in. All times I'll be able to move the mouse around, but again, nothing else. And recently it's been doing it more frequently. Another thing is when it happens the system stops reading the hard drive, and I can't figure out why it would. I've tried both uninstalling and reinstalling the nforce 410 IDE drivers, but it does it whether the drivers are installed or not. I've done the same with the PCI System Management Drivers as well. Please help, I'm at the end of my rope, and as for my computer specs, they're in my sig.

**Vikingod** · Oct 14, 2006, 11:46 PM

My guess is that that OS isn't the problem, the hard drive is. Other than trying out another drive if you have one, maybe find a program that can test the integrity of the drive, other than maybe the windows disk check, to see if your problem is there. Either that, or maybe some driver is failing to load. Do you get the same problem when you log in under safe mode?

Golbeze · Oct 15, 2006, 12:04 AM

I've yet to have it happen under safe mode. In fact, I've yet to have it happen when restarting after uninstalling graphics drivers, either. I'll use a program from my hard drive manufacturer to check it to make sure it's in good condition.

>GSXR<mrbusa · Oct 15, 2006, 12:09 AM

have you manually configured your bios for voltages, spd timings of your ram, onboard devices, etc.

are all your drivers up to date?
is your bios the latest available?
when is the last time you cleaned your system and defragged your drives?
are you reinstalling your drivers over the top of your old install or uninstalling correctly and installing from scratch? i know that is not completely possible with chipset drivers but you can with sound, gpu, mouse, keyboard, etc.
have you stopped all the unnecessary services and startup items on your system?
are you overclocking any hardware?

these type of symptoms can have many different culprits.

BlueMak · Oct 15, 2006, 12:10 AM

It sounds as either a driver issue or some program in the background taking control.
Have you installed anything recently?
Just in case run an antivirus if you can, and install older version of the drivers.

Calinerti · Oct 15, 2006, 12:22 AM

Try using msconfig to disable all apps which start with windows. If it doesnt happen in safe mode this is a reasonable place to begin if you havent messed about with the bios. If it restarts when they are all disabled then you can begin to zero in on the problem. I was lucky here just a few weeks ago when i found that when i re-enabled AVG it caused the problem. (Lucky because it was first on the list!).

Golbeze · Oct 15, 2006, 12:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by >GSXR<mrbusa

have you manually configured your bios for voltages, spd timings of your ram, onboard devices, etc.

are all your drivers up to date?
is your bios the latest available?
when is the last time you cleaned your system and defragged your drives?
are you reinstalling your drivers over the top of your old install or uninstalling correctly and installing from scratch? i know that is not completely possible with chipset drivers but you can with sound, gpu, mouse, keyboard, etc.
have you stopped all the unnecessary services and startup items on your system?
are you overclocking any hardware?

these type of symptoms can have many different culprits.

BIOS is latest available, voltages and RAM SPD timings set to Auto, not overclocking, have latest drivers, and always uninstall drivers and use Driver Cleaner before installing new drivers. Perform cleanup and maintenance regularly, including virus checking, defrag, and disk check. Unnecessary processes have been disabled, and I'm not overclocking a thing. I just used a program from Seagate to analyze my hard drive, and it came out clean. I've also tried reinstalling Windows several times in the past, though now I think about it it seems to have started after getting my Geforce 7600GT. Maybe an incompatibility with my motherboard and graphics card?

kn00tcn · Oct 16, 2006, 02:17 PM

i've gotten it sometimes too

pretty sure it's a driver/program issue

infact one broken install of catalyst was doing that... like a 1-2min sitting there.. but then windows loads fine

H3X4D3C1M4L · Oct 17, 2006, 11:44 AM

Do you have access to a PCI controller card that you could plug your drive into? That would eliminate the motherboard as being the problem but you could also do that by booting off a DVD or flash drive and trying things out in there (the DVD drive would have to be external to completely eliminate the IDE controller as a possibility).

The other possibility is that the motherboard has changed the PCI-e frequency which would mess with your SATA controller/IDE controller and cause havoc such as this.

Golbeze · Oct 17, 2006, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by H3X4D3C1M4L

Do you have access to a PCI controller card that you could plug your drive into? That would eliminate the motherboard as being the problem but you could also do that by booting off a DVD or flash drive and trying things out in there (the DVD drive would have to be external to completely eliminate the IDE controller as a possibility).

The other possibility is that the motherboard has changed the PCI-e frequency which would mess with your SATA controller/IDE controller and cause havoc such as this.

Unfortunately I don't have a PCI controller card to connect my HDD to. It's a Seagate SATA150 hard drive. Also I checked the BIOS, and the PCI-e frquency is locked at 100MHz. I did do some cleaning and uninstalled a couple programs as a test and it's yet to freeze again, so I'll see how it goes.

H3X4D3C1M4L · Oct 18, 2006, 09:05 AM

Well if software affects the freezing rate it usually rules out hardware being the primary issue