boot up problems

[OhWill]

hi guys. i have a pretty annoying problem with my system. first off, my system is a 1.33GHz tbird on an epox 8k7a mobo with 512MB of crucial pc2100 ram. my problems occurs during boot up. the system would boot up up o the part where the windows splash appears and disappears. when it disappears, sometimes (not all the time) it would restart itself. and on the restart it would show the boot up menu where it selects safe mode on default. when i select normal boot instead of safe mode it boots up fine with some settings lost. does anyone have this problem of know how to fix it. thanx for any help.

 

[SpecialEd]

hmm.. I don't think you problem is with you hardware. Are you running Win2k or 98? Win2k has a Windows repair program if you boot from the CD. If not.. one simple solution is to back up your data and reformat/reinstall windows...

 

[OhWill]

i'm running win98se. my last resort if i can't solve it is reformat. but i have too many application installed for me to wanna do it. it'll take me about a afternoon to do everything. but if that's what it'll take. i tried some of the patches for windows such as the two second delay in shut down. could it be some bios settings such as the ram timing. any suggestions.

 

[SpecialEd]

I believe BIOS is only a factor up until your OS starts to boot up. All BIOS does is find the OS and then Windows takes over from there. Unless you are having trouble before the operating sytem tries to boot, I don't think its your BIOS. But is doesn't hurt to check you BIOS for anything that might look funny.
How powerful is you power supply? Do you find you computer randomly restarting while in programs?

 

[OhWill]

i got an emermax 450W as my powerplant. the system does not restart while i'm running windows. although it does change the start button sometimes. the start button would get all weird looking like the graphics on it is all screwed up. i'm starting to think there's a bug in the system that causes both the restarts and the weird start button at times. what do you think

 

[Parser]

I can't help you with your main problem there but I can tell you that the start button getting messed up is most likely due to your monitor. I used to have a HP M70 monitor that would do that all the time and I was still using that monitor with this rig after I just built it. As soon as I switched to my 900NF the problem has gone away.
About your other problem well I've had many boot problems that have now seemed to work themselves out. My suggestion would be to first install win 98 on top of itself and see if that helps. Windows will keep your registry intact so that you won't have to reinstall everything.

Hope this helps

 

[OhWill]

i'll try reinstalling win98 on top of my system this afternoon. i was actually considering formatting my c drive for a fresh install. what would reinstalling it do. also, the monitor i'm using is the 900nf. did you have to do anything to get the start button to appear right.

 

[Parser]

Actually no I meant I had the problem with my M70 and it went away with the 900NF. I guess in that case it must be some kind of software problem as my 900NF works flawlessly without the start button ever getting deformed.
Reinstalling windows will just fix up any windows files that may have been corrupted. A fresh format and install will be sure to fix the problem but I always like to try the least involved solution to a problem first. It has helped me in the past.

Good luck

 

[OhWill]

i'll try installing windows on top of my sys now. i really don't want to format and redo everything either. hopefully it'll work. i'll post an update either tonight or tomorrow. thanx.