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Windows - or Windows doesn't start correctly
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PC starts but gives a screen full of lines instead of the desktop |
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PC starts but hangs up
before starting Windows
- If after starting the PC it hangs up without even counting the memory - this is likely to be a conflict between the BIOS on the Motherboard, and the BIOS of the graphics card (If not this, then you could have a faulty processor).
Example: A Pentium 2 motherboard has a AGP graphics card slot but you can use a PCI graphics card in many cases. However a PCI S3 Virge card may have a BIOS which is not compatible with an Pentium 2 AGP motherboard.
Solution to this problem - Buy an AGP graphics card, take out the PCI graphics card, and place the AGP card into the AGP slot. On the next boot up, the memory should count up and the system will start and complete Windows startup.
Another cause is badly fitted memory or faulty memory. See No Memory
PC Hangs up – After counting memory
After counting memory the PC should go on to detect drives. If the PC stops before reporting details of the Hard Drive, shut down the PC, then check the cables (Data and Power) to the drive, giving them an extra push in to the drive and make sure they are firmly on the Motherboard pins – restart the PC.
If the PC still fails to detect the drive, then:
If the BIOS CMOS Setup (Standard Features)* does not show any details of the hard drive, then it is possible that the drive has failed. You can confirm this be placing the drive in another system to see if that system recognises it.
If the BIOS CMOS Setup (Standard Features)* shows the drive details correctly, it may need removing, placing in a different PC as a Slave, so that Scandisk/Norton Disk Doctor or some other Disk Management software can be run on it to check for and repair any errors.
* You can get in to the setup on most PCs by pressing the Delete key on the keyboard when requested to do so, just after the PC powers up (you will see something like ‘Press Delete for Setup’ at the bottom of the screen). On some PCs the key is different (eg F1, Spacebar..etc). On some PCs/Laptops like older Compaqs, you will need a separate diskette to get in to the setup.
PC
starts but hangs up on trying to finish loading Windows
Possible
Solutions:
·
Safe Mode
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Scandisk
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Repairing the Registry
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Using Windows ‘System Restore’.
Firstly,
- Turn the PC off and re-start it
Just after startup and before the Windows screen appears, press and hold the keyboard Ctrl key (Win98/WinME).
A menu appears:
·
Safe
Mode. You can select this to start Windows in Safe
Mode (says Safe Mode in all 4 corner of desktop screen), Once windows has completed loading Safe
Mode. Select Start, Shutdown, Restart.
(If the mouse is not operational in Safe Mode, then on the keyboard: Ctrl + Esc
and use down/up arrow keys to select Shutdown, then Restart.). In most cases the re-start after Safe Mode
operation will clear temporary faults unless.
- Scandisk. If after restarting from Safe Mode, Windows does not load or goes back to Safe Mode, then it could be that you have some device conflict or a device driver that is corrupted/incorrect type/missing. The only solution to this is to locate the driver at fault and reload a good driver. However before going into this read the other options below.
Try restarting and use the Ctrl key again. This time choose ‘Command Prompt. Next type: Scandisk at the prompt. Ensure at the end of the initial stage of this that a Surface Scan is carried out. After completion of this restart, let the PC go in to Windows.
If after restarting and going into Windows, you still get Safe Mode or Windows does not start correctly, then try the next option (below).
· Repaing the Registry. If the Windows Registry is corrupted then you can repait it BEFORE attempting to load. Again reboot and use the Ctrl key. Choose the Command Prompt option. At the prompt type: scanreg / fix The Registry Repair program will check and repair any errors it finds. After this restart the PC. If it still will not load correctly then use the next option below:
· System Restore ( Windows Millennium ). This version of Windows has a system restoration utlity. Run this choosing a time when you last knew the system to be running correctly.
If you have carried out all the above without success, then it is likely that Windows is totally corrupt or you have bad/corrupt/missing device drivers.
Bad/corrupt/missing device drivers
In Safe Mode you will only have minimum drivers. This excludes the video adapter (so you will not have full colours shown). It will not bring in CDRom drivers (so you will not see the CDRom drive in My Computer) …. and so on. It is difficult therefore to find any faulty or missing device driver. The best thing is to re-setup all your devices from the original diskettes or CDRom disks.
Reinstalling Windows
If everything above has failed, then re-install Windows using your Windows CDRom disk.
Windows goes into Safe Mode
If Windows does not correctly and goes into Safe Mode, do the following:
Click Start button, Shut Down, Shut Down or Shut Down and Restart.
1. Restart Windows or let it restart, then see if the problem has corrected itself – e.g. Windows loads normally.
Or if not
2. Then it could be that you have some device conflict or a device driver that is corrupted/incorrect type/missing.
a. Check your devices for conflicts, use: Start, Settings, Control Panel, System, Device Manager tab.
b. In Device Manager, if a device has a conflict then, it's section is opened (all sections should be closed - showing a + sign, whereas a section with conflicting devices in it, will be opened - (shows a minus sign (-) )and the device(s) in that section have a yellow marker over them ).
c. If you section is open and the a device shows a yellow sticker on it, then there is a conflict, or if a device is showing the incorrect driver, then in either case you need to remove and reinstall the correct driver.
d.
If you are
using Windows98, or Windows ME, you should be able to remove the device driver
and then let the system re-install it, this time with no conflicts, but just in
case make sure you have your device driver CD at the ready.
e. Click on the adapter item, then remove it (Remove button), .click OK or Close to close the Window. Shut down the PC and re-start it.
f.
After restart
the PC should pick up the correct driver (or ask for it), but after it is re-setup,
there should be no more conflict and Windows should be in normal mode not Safe
Mode.
PC
starts but gives a screen full of lines instead of the desktop
In most cases this is likely to be a screen setting that your graphics card cannot perform, such as a screen size of 1024 X 768. Again restart the PC and in Safe Mode, right click the Desktop, click Properties, Settings and adjust the screen size. Restart the PC and it will finally arrive at the Desktop without being in Safe Mode.
