My XP Pro desktop hangs at MB screen

[SHRED]

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/7706170@N03/10247668736/

I got a couple of blue screens over the last couple weeks which I attributed to a fairly full hard drive. Now it hangs on the opening screen with no keyboard access.

Wednesday I planned on backing up to an external HD and reformat/reinstall of XP. That's changed obviously.

Any utility cd I can burn on my other desktop and boot to to try and deal with this?

Any other ideas?

[gvstn]

1. Hanging on MB screen is unusual for desktops.

I've seen that, particularly on Toshiba laptops, when the motherboard has trouble recognizing an IDE device such as the DVDROM.

I think that I would disconnect the data cable from both the HD and the DVDROM and see if it goes further and gives a message about no boot device or "insert system disc". Alternatively, it could be related to using a USB keyboard. If it has PS/2 ports you could try digging up a PS/2 keyboard and trying that.

Unplugging from AC and removing the coin-shaped battery for a minute or two and then putting back together would set BIOS to defaults which may get you keyboard access again.

Those would be my first couple of troubleshooting steps.

[SHRED]

2. I will try these and report back

Thanks

[gvstn]

3. I don't know if you have access to a PS/2 keyboard

But I should have mentioned that keyboards are not hot-swappable. If you do have a PS/2 keyboard to try you have to plug it in and then reboot the computer for it to be recognized.

[SHRED]

4. Here's what happened

No access to PS2 btw. Anyway I detached disc drives... same screen hang...I removed BIOS battery it tested at 2.9V btw... waited a few minutes... put battery back... rebooted same screen hang ... only difference was that my Zalman cpu fan kicks into high gear and stays there wide open.

Just tried another usb keyboard with same results

I put the XP disc in. It won't boot to it.

[SHRED]

5. Here's how I see this going forward

I remove my hard discs... via my friends usb hard drive reader and my other desktop I save data from the drives on to the 2TB usb external that is due for delivery on Wed. From there I don't know. I am leaning towards a Mac since I do multi media a lot. Now one problem. .. since the external will be formatted for XP is there any way for a Mac to read it?

[gvstn]

9. I'm not familiar with MACs

It says here that OSx can read NTFS formatted drives but can't write to them. https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4151004?start=0&tstart=0

I would say format the external to FAT32 but that is limited to 32gb. I believe there is a utility to format to an extended FAT filetype that can get beyond that limitation but don't have any experience with it. This is one: http://tokiwa.qee.jp/EN/Fat32Formatter/index.html

The other thing on your original problem is have you tried connecting the keyboard into a different USB slot. If you are using front USB try the rear slots. Also if you have any other USB devices attached remove them. That it is freezing on the gigabyte screen still says it is having trouble recognizing a piece of hardware. The memory test is a good idea too, since the OS was acting unstable. You could try it with just one module of memory at a time in the slot closest to the center of the board to rule out a bad module. If no luck after trying two different modules then try those two modules, one at a time in the next slot to rule out the original slot was bad.

You are basically just trying to get it to go past the gigabyte screen to some sort of error message.

[SHRED]

11. Thanks for info

I tried ask usb ports. Need to get hold of a PS/2keyboard.

[PoliticAverse]

6. Make a CD (or USB drive) with memtest86+ on it and let it run for a few hours...

http://www.memtest.org/

BTW: Have you vacuumed the dust out of the power supply vents and elsewhere in the PC recently?

Are all fans operating normally?

[SHRED]

7. all fans go

Won't boot to cd.

[PoliticAverse]

8. Can you get into the BIOS and check the settings ? n/t

[SHRED]

10. nope

[PoliticAverse]

12. Remove power from the PC. Reseat the memory boards. Remove everything

from the mother board you don't need (unplug the disk drive, remove any add in cards you have
you don't specifically need [usually anything other than the video card], unplug the CD drive, hard disk,
disconnect the keyboard, reseat any video card you have. Then reapply power and see what happens.