Windows XP fails to load

[Jayumi]

Hello all, I recently bought an ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe mobo, Pentium 4 3.0C CPU, and 1024mb of Kingston PC2700 DDR ram. I installed all that into a new case... moving my my hdd, sound card, 56k modem, DVD-ROM drive, CD-RW drive, 3 1/2" floppy drive, and zip drive over from my old rig.

Now the problem is... about 1 out of 10 times, windows xp professional will fail to boot. After the mobo logo screen, it simply goes to a black screen, and will not respond to ctrl+alt+del or anything else... I have to hold the power button down for it to shut off so I can try to boot again.

Anyway, I've done a clean install of windows... reformatted my entire hdd. I've got all the latest updates for windows, including service pack 1. I've got all the latest drivers for my bios, graphics card, and sound card. I've installed all the drivers from my motherboard disc, which includes the SiS Mini IDE Driver, SiS AGP Driver, SoundMAX audio driver, and the Marvell Gigabit LAN Driver.

I think that tomorrow I will reformat again with barebones hardware... cpu, dvd-rom drive, gfx card, mouse, and keyboard. and before i install ANYTHING, i'll see if it still does it... if not, i'm thinking it's the motheboard?

When I recieved the mobo, a pin on the primary ide plug was bent, and I bent it back into place. I don't think that's a problem, becuase I tried plugging the hdd into the secondary IDE plug, and I got the same result...

Temperatures are fine. CPU runs at around 30-35C idle at 3.52ghz, mobo is even cooler.

Below is a detailed list of my hardware. Thanks so much for reading all that! I'm so stressed over this... Any help would be much appreciated.

- Motherboard: ASUS P4S800D-E Deluxe
- Processor: Pentium 4 3.0C
- RAM: 1024mb Kingston Hyper-X PC2700 DDR
- GFX Card: nVidia GeForce FX 5900 Ultra
- Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
- HDD: Western Digital WD1200JB
- DVD-ROM: NEC DV-5800A
- CD-RW: Sony CRX160E
- Modem: Actiontec V.90 PCI
- Floppy: It's a floppy...
- Zip Drive is not hooked up

[ski]

Make sure all connections are secure, all cards and the RAM are fully inserted, and use only Default settings in BIOS.

If ok, then install just one stick of RAM at a time, and also install it in different slots.
You may also want to test the RAM with Memtest-86.

[Jayumi]

OK... I've narrowed the problem down to the USB. Whenever I have my USB deviced plugged in, Windows will fail to boot randomly... when I have nothing plugged into the USB ports, it boots up fine. I contacted ASUS with the problem, and they told me to enable Legacy USB support inthe BIOS, which I did; however, that didn't solve the problem. They then told me it might be a grounding problem, so I took the motherboard out of the case, put it on top of the box that it came in, and booted it up that way. Again, this did not solve the problem (unless my CPU heatsink screws are causing it...).

Under the device manager, it says that drivers for the Universal Serial Bus Controller is not installed... I'm not sure if this could be the problem or not. As for my mouse and keyboard hardware, I have a Logitech Elite Keyboard (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=1,CONTENTID=5013), and a Logitech MX700 Cordless Mouse (http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/products/details/US/EN,CRID=3,CONTENTID=4999).

I'm just glad I narrowed it down to the USB... I just hope I can get this solved.

[ski]

If the MB has USB 2.0 architecture, then is SP-1 installed for Win XP?

[Jayumi]

I solved the problem... All I did was disable the Legacy USB support in the BIOS.

*sigh of relief*

Anyway, thanks all.

[jabarnutcase]

Jayumi...Even though I was not involved in this thread, thanks for posting back.
Your experience can be helpful to other members so it's always nice to see that. ;)

Unfortunately, a lot of people don't let us know the outcome.

[ski]

and they told me to enable Legacy USB support inthe BIOS, which I did
Hmmm....
I wonder why the problem existed even when Legacy USB was originally disabled in BIOS?

[jabarnutcase]

Hehe...had to look back a little to find that quote....Good question ski!!! :confused: :p

Hope this doesn't turn out to be one of those..."Well, I thought the problem was solved, but guess what???!" :eek: :rolleyes:

[Jayumi]

It was not disabled, it was set to "auto" =/

[ski]

Thanks for the clarification.