Boot process stops at PCI scanning

[Knut arne Vedaa]

I'm troubleshooting an old PII 300 MHz. It's been working for years, but all of a sudden it started to hang during the boot process. One day it was fine, the next day it would start up, scan for and find the IDE drives, blank the screen, and then stop.

I've tried pulling away all cards except graphics, but to no help. Any ideas where I should continue troubleshooting?


Knut Arne Vedaa

[airgun25]

well your dealing with an old board . can you get in the bios ? If you can check to see if you can see if any IDE drives are being detected. if not most likely going to have to replace the board . hope this helps

[Sylvander]

So you get to about step 8 or 9 ok, but fails on step 10?
Where do you think it's failing?

A typical and successful startup sequence
1. http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/index.htm
2. Yes: The system power supply is functioning
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/power1.htm
3. Yes: Something is being written to the screen during boot up [This may be only a flashing cursor]
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/video1.htm
4. The video BIOS message is displayed on the screen for a few seconds and then clears from the screen, or more messages display under it
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/vbios1.htm
5. Yes: The system BIOS startup screen is appearing
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/bios1.htm
6. The memory test completes successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/ram1.htm
7. The BIOS accesses the floppy drives and the boot continues
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seek1.htm
8. The system is able to autodetect IDE devices successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/auto1.htm
9. The system is not Plug and Play compatible, has no Plug and Play devices, or has PnP devices but identifies them properly
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/pnp1.htm
10. Boot sequence is A: before C: (floppy disk first)
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seqAC.htm
11. The floppy disk makes a noise and the light comes on
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1.htm
12. The floppy disk light goes off and the hard disk light comes on as it starts booting
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1hdd.htm
13. The hard disk boot process will continue here, if you want to follow it.
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1.htm
14. The system continues booting from the hard disk and the message "Starting MS-DOS" or "Starting Windows 95" is displayed
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1os.htm
15. Operating System Loaded From Hard Disk. The system has found a boot sector on the hard disk and is now starting the load of the operating system. The hard disk is working. You have successfully completed the hardware part of the boot process. Any problems encountered after this point should be diagnosed by looking for a more specific problem with a component, or under the section that contains run-time error messages.

Does it boot from a floppy?

[Knut arne Vedaa]

It did hang after 8 and did not get through 9.

Explanation: The system is hanging during a part of the boot process where plug and play devices are identified.

However, I removed the battery and put it back on, and voila, POST completes. But then the question: why did that help? And what could possibly have caused the problem in the first place?

However, the problems are not over yet. Now I'm getting a "disk read error" and it won't boot from the hard disk. Boots fine from floppy. The hard disk is identified correctly by BIOS.

(When POST is completed, post-POST problems arise. :) )

[Sylvander]

"why did that help?"
One possibility:
It caused your BIOS to redetect all the connected [PnP] PCI hardware, make new non-conflicting resource allocations, and "Force Update the ESCD". The resources recorded in the ESCD are given to all the various items of hardware at each startup from now on until you force update once more .

"Now I'm getting a "disk read error""
See if the error is among these http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/sys/booterr.htm
I found "Fixed Disk Read Failure", try that.

Try running the HDD manufacturers diagnostics on a floppy to test the HDD.

In the BIOS Setup:
Are all the drives set to "Auto"?
And are both the IDE controllers enabled?

Are the jumpers ok?
Connections all good? Cables good?

Download a copy of my diagnostic flowcharts from here
www.erniek.eclipse.co.uk/downloads/sylvanderdiags.zip
and print them to leaf through.
Begin on the [b]STARTUP chart.
You should end up on the HARD DISK DRIVE chart.

[Knut arne Vedaa]

Aha! That makes sense. A message said "Updating ESCD..." just before or after "Verifying DMI...".

For the disk error, when Fdisk found the disk and identified it as an NTFS partition, I remembered what I was about to do before the boot problem appeared. (About a week ago.) I was trying to install Windows 2000! And so it turns out that the message "A disk read error has occured, press ctrl-alt-delete to restart" is actually displayed by the Windows boot loader. Somehow the installation must have failed and messed up both the BIOS and the boot sectors.

I have seen your flow diagrams, they are great.

[Sylvander]

See this http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000474.htm
Did it stop at verifying dmi pool data?
If not then that's ok.
Is the BIOS auto-detecting and configuring the drive parameters ok?
What error is it reporting now?

[Damen]

So you get to about step 8 or 9 ok, but fails on step 10?
Where do you think it's failing?

A typical and successful startup sequence
1. http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/index.htm
2. Yes: The system power supply is functioning
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/power1.htm
3. Yes: Something is being written to the screen during boot up [This may be only a flashing cursor]
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/video1.htm
4. The video BIOS message is displayed on the screen for a few seconds and then clears from the screen, or more messages display under it
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/vbios1.htm
5. Yes: The system BIOS startup screen is appearing
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/bios1.htm
6. The memory test completes successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/ram1.htm
7. The BIOS accesses the floppy drives and the boot continues
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seek1.htm
8. The system is able to autodetect IDE devices successfully
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/auto1.htm
9. The system is not Plug and Play compatible, has no Plug and Play devices, or has PnP devices but identifies them properly
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/pnp1.htm
10. Boot sequence is A: before C: (floppy disk first)
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/seqAC.htm
11. The floppy disk makes a noise and the light comes on
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1.htm
12. The floppy disk light goes off and the hard disk light comes on as it starts booting
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/fd1hdd.htm
13. The hard disk boot process will continue here, if you want to follow it.
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1.htm
14. The system continues booting from the hard disk and the message "Starting MS-DOS" or "Starting Windows 95" is displayed
http://www.pcguide.com/ts/x/boot/walk/hd1os.htm
15. Operating System Loaded From Hard Disk. The system has found a boot sector on the hard disk and is now starting the load of the operating system. The hard disk is working. You have successfully completed the hardware part of the boot process. Any problems encountered after this point should be diagnosed by looking for a more specific problem with a component, or under the section that contains run-time error messages.

Does it boot from a floppy?i had no problems with mine but installed some uv wiring sleeve in my case an now i get to step 6 an it stops, no curser n cant get into bios either. No drive recognition from hd, dvd floppy or rom.heres my specs.
msi k7n2 delta
2024mhz memory
nvidea 570 ultra
maxtor 200gig hd
xp home
amd athlon xp 2600
audigy gamer

[Sylvander]

Did the RAM test complete successfully or not?

[Damen]

yes, I have did some checks on the system an decided to do a clean boot an found that if i have everything conected except the hd (not conected to the
IDE1) but with power, cd-rom and dvd rom are reconized hd spins and i can get into bios but if i plug hd back into ide1 it does nothing?

any ideas?

[Damen]

oh, also tried another hd, same thing.

[Sylvander]

I think you should begin a new thread on this problem.