restart won't complete with XP Pro

[gfdgary]

Some time in the past few months something happened that prevents XP Pro from completing a restart (as in installing software or an upgrade and XP asks "do you want to restart now...?). What I end up doing is pressing my restart button (not the PowerON button) to complete the restart. It freezes at the reboot point, the point where it goes through POST and lists RAM, HD's, etc. My monitor light blinks and goes Amber signifying a Sleep/Standby mode of the PC. I also lost the SLEEP/STANDBY function from within XP - this and the restart used to work fine. I did a re-install of XP but that didn't help. Go figure.

Short of reformatting, which I really do not want to do, I am at a loss. My system is hand built few years old Athlon 700, 320 RAM, ATI Xpert 2000 AGP video, AMI BIOS, 2 HD's-40GB and 6.8GB Maxtors, CD-RW and CD 32x. Can't use System Restore because this problem goes back past restore points. Win2K Pro ran fine prior to XP Pro, and XP ran fine with both of these problems non existent in the beginning. I'm guessing some piece of software went south on me but doing a reinstall did nothing. So maybe a left over dll or ? is causing this fluke. BIOS settings? Fdisk? Nuke the hard drive? I don't get it. Help!

[GaryRouth]

Well, since you have such a fine first name, I'll see if I can help.

Since you are entering Standby instead of Restarting, it might be a little problem that XP has with some keyboards. If you have the habit of using the arrow keys to focus on the Restart button, try using your mouse instead. Really. I kid you not. This is documented in the MS Knowledge Base article Q312921.

Another shutdown issue involves USB mice. If you have one, and you have the "Selective Suspend" option for your USB mouse turned on, go to MS Knowledge Base article Q317673.

One other shutdown issue involves PACE InterLok anti-piracy software, which ends up using the same IRQ as the floppy disk controller. Not good. There's a fix posted in the article Q314101.

There are probably a great many other possibilities . . .if Service Pack 1 was out yet, that might have a real good chance of solving your problem.

Mice can cause all sorts of odd behavior, and it's easy to try a different one (just borrow, don't buy) for troubleshooting. Same for keyboards.

And one last thing: does that Athlon live on a Via Kt133/686b mainboard with a SoundBlaster Live! installed? (though I doubt this is the source of your problem)

Well, hopefully one of those will get you going again
...Gary

[gfdgary]

Gary - I do have a USB Microsoft mouse (wheel optical) and a Microsoft Internet keyboard. I use my mouse to initiate the shutdown sequence or Windows does it during a software or upgrade restore which only requires a return or mouse click. I have an FIC MB and cheapo soundblaster card, not the Live!
I greatly appreciate your ideas and will hook up my PS2 wheel mouse and snag another keyboard from the closet. Excellent ideas!
I did a reformat and reinstall of XP Pro (on a blank hard drive) this weekend out of pure frustration. Did nothing to solve this problem but did clean up my system. I usually give this thing an enema at least once a year but since running Win 2K and now XP the thing just runs too smoothly to thing about reformats. I give credit to Microsoft on Win 2K and XP for the outstanding reliability in an OS.
Thanks again,
Gary