xp boot failure (sometimes)

[bwood]

i've recently installed xp home sp2 and over the past month, three or four times my system hangs after post. the xp page comes up, the progress bar moves for five seconds or so then stops. it usually happens right aftes the lights on keyboard flashes. any ideas where i can look for what is failing to load. i've done the system restore to no avail. also msconfig diagnostic startup (is how i am online now).

thanks.

[EzyStvy]

Very random things like this are tuff to solve. You could spend days trying different “things” but won’t know for days if you fixed it or not since it happens so infrequently.

[rjfvillarosa]

I had a very similar problem with one of my machines after installing SP2, If I were you and you have the chance, back up all of your files to another hard drive and do a format and fresh install of XP putting SP2 on before any other programs. I did this after hours of what you are doing, trying to solve an intermitant problem and now my machine runs brilliant.

[bwood]

i'll give it a shot, i guess. sounds kind of intimidating "back up all your files". i've got the slave drive installed already but i'm not too familiar with the backup process (getting my old files into the newly installed programs in case paths change).

when i did the original xp install, sp2 came on the disk so it was installed along with xp, not as an update.

thanks.

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by bwood when i did the original xp install, sp2 came on the disk so it was installed along with xp, not as an update. thanks.

Are you sure that is SP2? XP doesn't come bundled with SP2, SP1 yes but not 2

[Statica]

XP SP2 disks have been available for a while.

Regarding the issue, have you checked your event logs to see if there are any errors listed?

[bwood]

that was part of my original post-where can i look to see what isn't loading.
all i know to do is the system restore and msconfig...

yesterday i had problems, today it booted up first time.

thanks