Irritating Boot

[Samiam]

WinME (Clean Install), BiostarM7MKE mb, AMD Athlon 950 CPU, 256Mb RAM, 61.4Gb hd, 56K dialup connection.
About every 6 or 8th boot, my system "hangs" and all I get is a black screen (no icons) with greyed out tool bar with only Start on it, but hourglass never goes away so I can't shut down/restart normally. Usually I can Reset and the machine boots ok, but not always-sometimes takes as many as 3 tries, but usually only 1. No conflicts shown in Dev. Mgr. System normally operates pretty smoothly, although not as fast (surfing) lately. Snappy operation of all apps (several graphic programs). Mostly an irritation since I so far have always been able to boot eventually. Frequent ScanDisk and DeFrag. NSW 2001 finds no problems.

[maxximilian]

Sporadic problems like this tend to be difficult to diagnose. At first glance at such things I sometimes gravitate toward a piece of hardware failing or BIOS. This is because if there was a windows/software conflict, it would happen alot more, if not always, and there would likely be an error message. Without more to go on, all I could say at this point is to perhaps swap out your RAM with known good sticks and run for awhile. See if there is a change.

Sorry...I know it isn't much, but I will look around and see what else I turn up. Maybe someone will happen by with something more concrete than this.

[Theoran]

What programs do you have loading at bootup?

[Samiam]

Opened this before I thought. I'll check and post later. Sorry :confused:

[Samiam]

Sorry for the protracted response time; non-computer problems. Loading at startup in the background (Ctl-Alt-Del)I have...
[list=1] Explorer
Atrack
Eventmgr
MBM5
Monwow
Csinsm32
PoProxy
Osa
Msmsgs
Em_exec
Navapw32
Armon32
Systray
Nprotect
CsInject
Img Icon[/list=a]

By clicking Start/Run/Msconfig I have the following checked:
[list=1] Msmsgs
Scan Registry
Task Monitor
PCHealth
System Tray
Load Power Profile
Initialize 8X8
Access Ramp Monitor
EM_Exec
eventmgr.exe
NPROTECT
NAV DefAlert
Norton Auto-Protect
Norton eMail Protect
MBM 5
Load Power Profile
Scheduling Agent
*State Mgr
Still Image Monitor
Script Blocking
NProtect
CSINJECT.EXE
SymTray-Norton System Works
Epson Background Monitor
Description of shortcut(5 entries, which are related to my Iomega Zip Drive)
Office Startup
Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
CleanSweep Smart Sweep-Internet Sweep
Load=[/list=a]
There are other redundant unchecked entries; to the best of my poor eyesight, the above are very nearly typed exactly as they appear in the Startup Tab menu. Your patience and help are appreciated. (all the above were from a successful boot)

-== Edited by Theoran to make it easier to read. ==-

[ 25 January 2002: Message edited by: Theoran ]

[Samiam]

More (?) clues: On an unsuccessful boot (no icons on desktop), when I Ctl-Alt-Del, the list shows only Explorer, Csinject, Nprotect, Statemgr, and <unknown>. The next successful boot, I opened the Bootlog.txt (and saved it to a file, if it will be of any help-and if you accept files here), and there are several lines that show loading, loaded, enumerating <unknown> and then later removing them. Near the end of the list, it appears as if parts of my soundblaster is being removed. Any help?

[Samiam]

Update:Replaced my 3DFX 5 5500 64Mb video card with an ATI 7500 64Mb. So far at least, have had successful boots, but card seems to be a tad slower (but smoother). At least the ATI is compatible (?) with Win2K and XP should I decide to change OS.

[Theoran]

Samiam,

You have got alot of stuff loading at startup. I would personally get rid of some of them. All of the entries in bold are safe to uncheck IMO.
[list=1] Msmsgs
Scan Registry
Task Monitor
PCHealth -> This is a "scheduler" and unchecking this does not turn off PC Health
System Tray
Load Power Profile
Initialize 8X8
Access Ramp Monitor -> Used to monitor your progress on the internet hang-ups, connection speeds, internet congestion, and traffic flow. It prevents some games from running also. To disable the Access Ramp Monitor (1) Open Windows Explorer (2) Open the Program Files folder (3) Open the MindSpring folder (4) Open the AccessRamp folder (5) Double-click on the ARMCfg32.exe file (6) Uncheck Enable Dialup Monitor and click OK (7) Restart the computer and try again. Not required
EM_Exec -> Logitech Mouseware driver. Needed to support some additional functionality of Logitech mice & trackballs
eventmgr.exe
NPROTECT
NAV DefAlert
Norton Auto-Protect
Norton eMail Protect
MBM 5 -> Motherboard Monitor 5 is only needed if you overclock your system and want to keep a check on system temperatures, voltages, etc.
Load Power Profile
Scheduling Agent
*State Mgr
Still Image Monitor -> If your scanner does not have a button to initiate scanning you kill stimon. Even if it does have a button, you can still manually launch the scanning application.
Script Blocking
NProtect
CSINJECT.EXE
SymTray-Norton System Works
Epson Background Monitor
Description of shortcut(5 entries, which are related to my Iomega Zip Drive)
Office Startup
Adobe Gamma Loader.exe
CleanSweep Smart Sweep-Internet Sweep
Load=[/list=a]
There are other redundant unchecked entries; to the best of my poor eyesight, the above are very nearly typed exactly as they appear in the Startup Tab menu. Your patience and help are appreciated. (all the above were from a successful boot)

[Samiam]

Sorry for yet another delay-visited the grandkids in OK City. Although I haven't experienced the boot problem since replacing the video card, I unchecked the highlighted startup entries which gave me the following indications: The icon for my zip drive is no longer Iomega, but is an icon for a removable drive; the double-click button on my mouse doesn't work; I didn't disable MBM 5--even though I'm not overclocking, being able to monitor the temps is reassuring since I'm told that Slot A processors have a habit of "frying", and I have it configured not to start with Windows. I'm tempted to reinstall the 3DFX video card to see if the problem comes back, since that card seems to be a smidgen faster than the ATI card and I have no need for the option of being able to use two monitors simultaneously at the present and don't plan to go to either Win2K or XP any time soon. This brings another question to mind, which I'll post under a different thread. I really appreciate all the help, and will leave this thread open for the time being, just in case, but it seems the boot problem has been solved.

[Samiam]

I forgot to add, I upgraded to NSW 2002, but did it after the boot problem seemed to be solved.

[Samiam]

Still no boot problems. One further comment, and this thread can be closed at your discretion. I re-configured MSN Messenger to NOT run in the background OR start when Windows starts, which resulted in my machine again running smooth as silk. Thanks for all the help I've received here--without it, I'd never have gotten my system back to it's present "happy" state. You guys are terrific!

[Theoran]

Samiam,

Always glad to help a fellow MidSouther. :)