Pegasus \(MVP\)
April 16th 07, 12:21 PM
"The Seabat" > wrote in message
...
> Howdy:
>
> I have a neighbors Dell Dimension 2400 running Windows XP Sp2 that
> is stalling right after the Dell BIOS flash screen displays. It goes
> to a black screen with the cursor flashing in the upper left hand
> corner. It stays this way for up to 12 minutes and then will boot
> into Windows with no problem. She is experiencing no problems with
> the system after it boots. There are no indications of anything
> wrong in Device Manager.
>
> When I tried to enter setup (F2 key) it does the same thing before
> entering the BIOS display. While in the BIOS is reset everything to
> default and still no joy.
>
> She says that it does not always take that long, but always there is
> a wait of some kind. Any one have any ideas on what is causing this
> and how to fix it? Is it hardware or software related? Thanks.
>
> The Seabat
> GoogleGroups filtered with extreme prejudice.
Sounds like the machine has a serious problem locating the
active partition. You can prove/disprove it like so:
- Boot into Windows.
- Format a floppy disk on this PC.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of the WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Click Start / run / cmd {OK}
- Type this command:
type c:\boot.ini > a:\boot.ini {Enter}
- Boot the machine with this floppy. You may need to
adjust the BIOS to make it boot from the floppy disk.
If the PC boots quickly then the machine has a problem
finding the active partition.
...
> Howdy:
>
> I have a neighbors Dell Dimension 2400 running Windows XP Sp2 that
> is stalling right after the Dell BIOS flash screen displays. It goes
> to a black screen with the cursor flashing in the upper left hand
> corner. It stays this way for up to 12 minutes and then will boot
> into Windows with no problem. She is experiencing no problems with
> the system after it boots. There are no indications of anything
> wrong in Device Manager.
>
> When I tried to enter setup (F2 key) it does the same thing before
> entering the BIOS display. While in the BIOS is reset everything to
> default and still no joy.
>
> She says that it does not always take that long, but always there is
> a wait of some kind. Any one have any ideas on what is causing this
> and how to fix it? Is it hardware or software related? Thanks.
>
> The Seabat
> GoogleGroups filtered with extreme prejudice.
Sounds like the machine has a serious problem locating the
active partition. You can prove/disprove it like so:
- Boot into Windows.
- Format a floppy disk on this PC.
- Copy these files from the \i386 folder of the WinXP CD to A:\
ntldr
ntdetect.com
- Click Start / run / cmd {OK}
- Type this command:
type c:\boot.ini > a:\boot.ini {Enter}
- Boot the machine with this floppy. You may need to
adjust the BIOS to make it boot from the floppy disk.
If the PC boots quickly then the machine has a problem
finding the active partition.