genguy
asked on
Booting troubles
Windows locks up, requiring a hard boot, just before desktop becomes visable.
I recently installed a usb card, this behavour started after that. I have the latest service packs from microsoft. All drivers are up to date. There are no conflicts in device manager. I did a logged boot and discovered that a bunch of fonts were not loading properly. I overwrote many of the fonts from the win98se disk. Did another logged boot, this time everthing fine without any load failed at all. Shut down and rebooted again, windows locked up. Did another logged boot and I'm back to having fonts failing to load. I have scanned for viruses with Norton anti virus that has the latest update. I'm stumped, please help.
I recently installed a usb card, this behavour started after that. I have the latest service packs from microsoft. All drivers are up to date. There are no conflicts in device manager. I did a logged boot and discovered that a bunch of fonts were not loading properly. I overwrote many of the fonts from the win98se disk. Did another logged boot, this time everthing fine without any load failed at all. Shut down and rebooted again, windows locked up. Did another logged boot and I'm back to having fonts failing to load. I have scanned for viruses with Norton anti virus that has the latest update. I'm stumped, please help.
ASKER
If I disable one of the cards drivers in device manager (nec usb 2.0 controller) windows starts o.k. I have tried the card in 3 other slots with no change. This leads me to beIieve it's a driver issue with the new card. I can live without usb 2.0, since the card works fine for usb 1 devices. So for now I am leaving the usb 2.0 disabled. What I can't figure out is what is happening with the fonts?
Any particular font or fonts? are these by chance a font you use alot of?
Did you try removing the USB card completely? windows does some really strange things when it encounters a conflict and maybe this could be causing the font load problem. Of course you may need to either replace the corupted fonts or delete them. (try replacing them first after you remove the card)
Did you try removing the USB card completely? windows does some really strange things when it encounters a conflict and maybe this could be causing the font load problem. Of course you may need to either replace the corupted fonts or delete them. (try replacing them first after you remove the card)
ASKER
The first one is Marlett.ttf then SSerife.fon. I stopped counting at 62. I know that Marlett is used for arrows and pointers in the GUI, but they seem to display fine. I will try removing the card and it's drivers. Then restore the fonts again. While I'm at it, I'll try the card in another computer to see if I can reproduce the problem on that one.
Try using
Start- run sfc from safe mode.
It should restore any corrupted system files.
Also you can use
scanreg /restore
to restore a previous registry by date.
I hope this helps !
Start- run sfc from safe mode.
It should restore any corrupted system files.
Also you can use
scanreg /restore
to restore a previous registry by date.
I hope this helps !
ASKER
o.k. I have removed the card and it's drivers.
I ran reg clean.
I ran scandisk and found a couple of lost chains.
I ran defrag.
I then ran sfc and restored 2 files.
It still locks up 1 out of 5 boots, just as the desktop icons appear.
When it boots normally, bootlog.txt shows only ndis2sup.vxd and sdvxd as failing to load. According to MS this is normal.
When it locks up bootlog.txt shows all of the fonts failing to load. Load failure code 0016, for all of them.
I can't seem to find what this code means anywhere.
I ran reg clean.
I ran scandisk and found a couple of lost chains.
I ran defrag.
I then ran sfc and restored 2 files.
It still locks up 1 out of 5 boots, just as the desktop icons appear.
When it boots normally, bootlog.txt shows only ndis2sup.vxd and sdvxd as failing to load. According to MS this is normal.
When it locks up bootlog.txt shows all of the fonts failing to load. Load failure code 0016, for all of them.
I can't seem to find what this code means anywhere.
There is a font cache that may be corrupted . 'ttfCache' is a hidden file under C:\WINDOWS, delete the file and Windows will rebuild it upon rebooting.
I hope this helps !
I hope this helps !
ASKER
Deleted ttfCache and rebooted, lock up on 3rd boot. No change.
Search for the Monotype Sports font
If you find it then Delete this font
Also if you have TweakUI installed there is an option to repair your fonts folder with it, try it and see what happens
If you find it then Delete this font
Also if you have TweakUI installed there is an option to repair your fonts folder with it, try it and see what happens
ASKER
I didn't find the Monotype Sport font.
I ran all of the repair options in TweakUI.
The lock up has turned into a long (8sec) pause, with the large hourglass displayed.
I also tried disabling all startup programs except system tray. The pause still remained.
If there is nothing left to try, I think I will scrap the idea of trying to fix it.
I'll reformat and reload windows.
I ran all of the repair options in TweakUI.
The lock up has turned into a long (8sec) pause, with the large hourglass displayed.
I also tried disabling all startup programs except system tray. The pause still remained.
If there is nothing left to try, I think I will scrap the idea of trying to fix it.
I'll reformat and reload windows.
I still thinking that the problem is something about your fonts getting corupted, but why??
How many fonts do you have in your font folder? I have read somewhere that if you have too many that it can cause slowdowns and other problems, I was thinking it said something like more then 500 fonts ??? I just checked my Font folder and I have 1183 fonts listed and I am not noticing any problems (knock on wood)
Maybe you can try moving some of them from the font folder to another folder to see if the reduced number will help any.
How many fonts do you have in your font folder? I have read somewhere that if you have too many that it can cause slowdowns and other problems, I was thinking it said something like more then 500 fonts ??? I just checked my Font folder and I have 1183 fonts listed and I am not noticing any problems (knock on wood)
Maybe you can try moving some of them from the font folder to another folder to see if the reduced number will help any.
Read this MS article about the bootlog.txt errors
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q127970&FR=1&LNG=ENG&SA=PER&
Font Failures
After you first start Windows, the Bootlog.txt file may list many font load failures. This behavior is typical. When Font Manager searches the hard disk for fonts, it may find fonts in several folders. After Font Manager finds fonts, it records the information so that future attempts to locate a font proceed more quickly.
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q127970&FR=1&LNG=ENG&SA=PER&
Font Failures
After you first start Windows, the Bootlog.txt file may list many font load failures. This behavior is typical. When Font Manager searches the hard disk for fonts, it may find fonts in several folders. After Font Manager finds fonts, it records the information so that future attempts to locate a font proceed more quickly.
ASKER
At first I thought the font files were corrupted, but it turns out that they are fine. I am sure because I checked them against the originals on the disk, number of bytes and build dates match. They are only failing to load, and only when the lockup occurs.
I am going to go through the drivers one more time to ensure everything is o.k. there. So many things got changed since I was thinking an old driver was conflicting with the new card, and set about updating chipset drivers etc. Now I have no baseline to return to. Next time I will back up the reg and other info first. Things are always clearer in hindsight.
I have 221 in windows/fonts, and 43 in windows/fonts/corel.
I found this while searching for info:
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q134861&
Back in win95 it was 1000. Don't know if this changed in win98.
The drive in this machine has not been formatted for 2 1/2 years, so I'm guessing that
it might be getting weak spots.
It would be nice to track down the cause of this problem though.
I am going to go through the drivers one more time to ensure everything is o.k. there. So many things got changed since I was thinking an old driver was conflicting with the new card, and set about updating chipset drivers etc. Now I have no baseline to return to. Next time I will back up the reg and other info first. Things are always clearer in hindsight.
I have 221 in windows/fonts, and 43 in windows/fonts/corel.
I found this while searching for info:
http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;Q134861&
Back in win95 it was 1000. Don't know if this changed in win98.
The drive in this machine has not been formatted for 2 1/2 years, so I'm guessing that
it might be getting weak spots.
It would be nice to track down the cause of this problem though.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
genguy :
I would recommend that you download a diagnostic disk from your harddrive manufacturer's url. This will tell you right off where you are at and if
you can recover from it. It may be under warranty, the hard drives are usually covered for three years and you can make out the RMA on their site
also. Depending on the manufacturer of the hard drive, you can download diagnostic utilities from their sites to check the drives.
www.seagate.com
www.maxtor.com
http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html
www.ibm.com
http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm
www.fujitsu.com
Get rid of all the programs runing in the background !!
DO a start- run - msconfig- startup tab. Leave just systray and maybe explorer -
disable everything else and see if it still happens after a Reboot,
Enable the programs one at a time until you find the culprit !
I hope this helps !
I would recommend that you download a diagnostic disk from your harddrive manufacturer's url. This will tell you right off where you are at and if
you can recover from it. It may be under warranty, the hard drives are usually covered for three years and you can make out the RMA on their site
also. Depending on the manufacturer of the hard drive, you can download diagnostic utilities from their sites to check the drives.
www.seagate.com
www.maxtor.com
http://www.wdc.com/service/ftp/drives.html
www.ibm.com
http://www.storage.ibm.com/techsup/hddtech/welcome.htm
www.fujitsu.com
Get rid of all the programs runing in the background !!
DO a start- run - msconfig- startup tab. Leave just systray and maybe explorer -
disable everything else and see if it still happens after a Reboot,
Enable the programs one at a time until you find the culprit !
I hope this helps !
ASKER
Rayt333:
I have had problems with installing overtop of win98 before, but your right, if I'm going to reload everything anyway, I have nothing to loose and it's worth a try.
SysExpert:
I have the Seagate software somewhere and will run that. I did a thorough scandisk, and defrag didn't show any problems. I tried disabling everything in msconfig/startup
and the problem still occured.
I have reviewed bootlog.txt from the last time it locked up, and compared it to one from a good boot. I have found that just before the fonts load, the display is initiallized and an ATI driver is started. In the failed boot, the display is initialized but the driver is not listed. I will try to focus on setting up the display and video card drivers again.
I have had problems with installing overtop of win98 before, but your right, if I'm going to reload everything anyway, I have nothing to loose and it's worth a try.
SysExpert:
I have the Seagate software somewhere and will run that. I did a thorough scandisk, and defrag didn't show any problems. I tried disabling everything in msconfig/startup
and the problem still occured.
I have reviewed bootlog.txt from the last time it locked up, and compared it to one from a good boot. I have found that just before the fonts load, the display is initiallized and an ATI driver is started. In the failed boot, the display is initialized but the driver is not listed. I will try to focus on setting up the display and video card drivers again.
You are using an ATI video card? have you checked for updated drivers?
I like ATI cards but I have found these cards can also be the hardest to get working or keep working with some motherboards. They seem to be worst on MB's using a VIA chipset.
Here is some links that may help you:
VIA: http://www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm
Drivers: http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
http://www.ati.com/support/faq/compatibility.html
I like ATI cards but I have found these cards can also be the hardest to get working or keep working with some motherboards. They seem to be worst on MB's using a VIA chipset.
Here is some links that may help you:
VIA: http://www.viahardware.com/download/index.shtm
Drivers: http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
http://www.ati.com/support/faq/compatibility.html
ASKER
All of the drivers and software are the latest versions or patches.
It's an All in Wonder Rage 128 on I440bx.
I think I found the problem though.
After re-installing the mouse driver (MS intellipoint) the problem seems to have disappeared.
I will try it for a couple of days to confirm that this was the problem.
It's an All in Wonder Rage 128 on I440bx.
I think I found the problem though.
After re-installing the mouse driver (MS intellipoint) the problem seems to have disappeared.
I will try it for a couple of days to confirm that this was the problem.
You just mentioned a common problem area "MS intellipoint"
I have had several MS mice and I found the software to be very troublesome, right now I have 2 MS intellimouse Opical and both work just fine when installed as generic PS2 mice. The software is not installed because of the problems in the early versions of it, some claim the later versions do not cause as many problems but I go with the "if it ain't broke then don't fix it" and I leave the software off.
I have had several MS mice and I found the software to be very troublesome, right now I have 2 MS intellimouse Opical and both work just fine when installed as generic PS2 mice. The software is not installed because of the problems in the early versions of it, some claim the later versions do not cause as many problems but I go with the "if it ain't broke then don't fix it" and I leave the software off.
ASKER
That's what I've been doing too. I load only the driver and leave off the software.
Seems to work fine, and who needs mouse trails anyway?
It fooled me, the lockup is still occuring. I'll continue to try deleting and re-installing drivers.
Seems to work fine, and who needs mouse trails anyway?
It fooled me, the lockup is still occuring. I'll continue to try deleting and re-installing drivers.
ASKER
I tried running the hard drive diagnostics and it didn't turn up any problems. I carefully went through every driver again, this time completely removing and replacing each one. I retrieved another virus update and tried that. I gave up, formatted the drive, and started from scratch.
All though we didn't find the cause, I will accept the comment for reloading windows, since it cured the problem in the end. Thanks for the excellent advice, I learned allot along the way.
All though we didn't find the cause, I will accept the comment for reloading windows, since it cured the problem in the end. Thanks for the excellent advice, I learned allot along the way.
If that helps, then do you have any other free slot to try the card in? some slots share resources with other slots and onboard devices and you may have just selected the wrong one.