Boot up problem
 

Computer is a Dell XPS 420 bought in April 2008. This fault has just started where on boot up after showing the usual displays eg. maker's name etc after microsoft screen with the bar with strobing effect the screen goes blank and then nothing happens.

The light showing the hard drive goes very faint showing a little activity. The computer has a mini-view screen on the main case which works ok...but I have to shut down...and try again after a few minutes. Took three attempts to fully boot up this time. Only worked after switching off at the mains

Just doing a full scan but is it a hard disk fault?

In all likelyhood, if it was a hard drive fault, the thing wouldn't boot at all.

Have you done any recent software updates that might have caused this ? Has there been any recent "strange" behaviour that might imply a hardware fault of some sort ?

Have you tried booting off the manufacturers CD ? Does that work ok ?

Thanks for reply. Full scan showed nothing and the disk was defragged beginning of this month. No recent downloads or strange happenings.

Looking at the event viewer it shows a "critical" event with an event id 100 - Boot Performance Monitoring a few days ago. In general it says "Windows has started up: Boot Duration : 113280ms IsDegradation : true Incident Time (UTC) : 18/09/2010 20:45:47

In detail
EventData
BootTsVersion 2
BootStartTime 2010-09-18T20:45:47.827Z
BootEndTime 2010-09-18T20:49:06.086Z
SystemBootInstance 769
UserBootInstance 743
BootTime 113280
MainPathBootTime 29030
BootKernelInitTime 26
BootDriverInitTime 2511
BootDevicesInitTime 3467
BootPrefetchInitTime 39634
BootPrefetchBytes 523894784
BootAutoChkTime 0
BootSmssInitTime 10572
BootCriticalServicesInitTime 546
BootUserProfileProcessingTime 974
BootMachineProfileProcessingTime 30
BootExplorerInitTime 6967
BootNumStartupApps 21
BootPostBootTime 84250
BootIsRebootAfterInstall false
BootRootCauseStepImprovementBits 0
BootRootCauseGradualImprovementBits 0
BootRootCauseStepDegradationBits 9437184
BootRootCauseGradualDegradationBits 9437184
BootIsDegradation true
BootIsStepDegradation true
BootIsGradualDegradation true
BootImprovementDelta 0
BootDegradationDelta 57091
BootIsRootCauseIdentified true

This "critical" event id 100 appears regularly on the log going back to September 2008. There are also logs of another Boot Performance Monitoring Event 101 which is a "warning".
Tried the link to the online Microsoft Technet but no results.

Anyone know what this means??

IIIRC all events in the 1xx range are to do with boot performance monitoring, and are therefore by definition "warnings" rather than anything more sinister.

Might be worth checking doing an error check on the disk.

Does that mean you never switch it off at the mains when you shut down?

If so, the power supply remains running all the time and your fault description could indicate that the auto protection circuit on one of the voltages may be operating, I suggest you switch it off at the mains whenever you shut it down. if that improves the matter then get a new PSU.

Does the PSU get quite hot too ? You might have one of those flammable ones .... :}

And your point is? mixture. Are you suggesting PSUs never fail? Do you even know how they function? Do you know what protection circuits some of them have? The cheaper ones admittedly would probably blow a fuse in the fault condition, but better ones are capable of just shutting down one voltage, or were when I was a service engineer.

Green Granite, I think (and I hesitate to put words into his mouth) that Mixture was mixing up the computer in question with a laptop, and hence this issue:

Exploding Laptop.com - Your Dell is on Fire !

green granite

Are you suggesting PSUs never fail?

No.

Do you even know how they function?

Yes.

Do you know what protection circuits some of them have?

Ah yes, those "protection circuits" that have caused various models to overheat and, on occasion, catch fire.... great protection circuits !

As the old aviation saying goes, GIGO.


Mike-Bracknell

Thank you for the backup Mike.

For the record, I tend to avoid anything Dell like the plague..... so I don't know model numbers, and for some reason the original poster's message read like it was referring to a laptop.

A puzzling fault, given what you've revealed so far ....

I would be thinking along the lines of a problem in the OS files or registry area. Is it XP or Vista? If it's XP, does it boot OK in safe mode?

I have recently had a few XP machines displaying similar behaviour in recent months. It's been "cured" (if one ever dares to claim that) by running a registry cleaner program, and/or a system re-install/repair using the original supplied XP disk. Caution is required if you were to go own this road. It's relatively easy to select the wrong option.

The solving of the problem by removing the power source and then re-connecting is a strange one. Given that the 420 appears to be desktop, it may be significant, or it could be co-incidence. I've seen a few power supplies fail in recent months also.

If it's still coming to life at times, I'd be backing up my more valuable data as a top priority.

Perhaps you have more clues or a fix by now ...?

regards,
FoR

Thanks for the replies

Vista. It is a desktop.

It took three attempts to get going today. Switched off power at the mains after 1st failed attempt but no joy on second so suspect not the problem. After the 2nd attempt disconnected the modem from the PC and success but again that might not the cause.

I was thinking along those lines..not sure of McAfee has one inbuilt.. Further research on going.

BB - you have not responded to FOR's enquiry about booting into Safe mode - have you tried that? I would also suggest running sfc with your Vista disk to confirm your system files are 'normal.

That is on my list to do next along with a recommendation from another site of going into safe mode and running sfc/scannow.

I know it sounds odd, but take out your graphics card and reseat it. At first the boot is in low graphics mode but after the Microsoft screen, it kicks into full graphics mode..... quite often locking up the computer.

NO! Before you do that try Safe Mode which will check the same thing WITHOUT fiddling inside the box.

BOAC - Agreed, but if it does work in Safe Mode - the graphics card may be the problem. Was just pointing this out.

OK pressed F8 went into safe mode OK and ran scannow. That reported some files repaired but other not. Restarted only to get stuck as before. Then when it booted correctly, at the third attempt, turned off the hibernate mode in powercfg. Since then two successful boot ups.

This problem started last week when I left the computer for a while, something I rarely do, and on return it has gone into sleep mode and I couldn't "awake" it. This XPS has a small LED screen in the top of the processor box through which, by adjacent control buttons, you run Windows Sideshow which "allows you view information from your computer regardless of whether it is on, off or sleeping" When the computer was "stuck" this would still work which leads me to think that rather than being locked up the computer had gone into a sleep mode.

Can't explain why it always seems to boot up on the third attempt though. Fingers crossed problem solved.

Have you error checked the disk ?
 

admin tools> computer maintenance etc

Need to do a check at boot.

Also have a look in device manager to make sure ultradma is working ok for the disc (not pio).

I've done extensive tests of the HD which it passed. Changed the boot up from quick to normal and that seemed to cure it but it is back again today.

Can't decide whether this is a software or hardware issue. Seems to be linked to the boot up procedure.