What Did I Miss? Computer Freezing from Loading Windows XP

[Stoney]

I just did a new build two nights ago and everything booted fine. I loaded Windows XP Professional w/SP2 with no problem. But here is the thing: At the very beginning as the computer starts up the software hangs at the Phoenix Award page.

No error is given. At the bottom it simply says to press F1 to proceed and Del to enter the BIOS. When I press F1 it loads right up and Windows runs smooth.

Does anyone have any knowledge as to what is happening and how I can rectify this issue? Thanks!

[jlreich]

Replace the CMOS battery. Those things can lay around a warehouse for ages before they get put in a new mobo and get to the consumer.

CR2032. Any department store or drug store will have them for a couple of bucks.

[Stoney]

Thanks for the reply, jlreich. Others have suggested the same thing. I found out that it wasn't the battery but my failure to disable the "HALT" in my CMOS. Duh-me! But I'll still give myself a pass becuase this is my first build since my Pentium 3 days. :)

By the way, thanks for the heads-up on CMOS batteries and the local drug store. I never even thought about that!

[jlreich]

If that's the only thing that went wrong, then you're in good shape. :cool:

Many of us miss simple things like that when we build. It's all part of the fun. :p

[Rick]

As I recall the HALT is designed to HALT on errors..
Halt on all, Halt on Keyboard, and so on

What is the cause of the Halt ?
ps/2 keyboard check when a usb keyboard is plugged in may be one
Autodetect enabled on the drive connector ?

[Stoney]

Rick, very good question and I think it has to do with the way my motherboard's CMOS/BIOS is set up. The reason I am convinced of this is because someone on the Overclockers Forum had the very same issues as me with the same MOBO EPoX 9NPA+Ultra. We were both doing a brand new build, only I was 2 days ahead of him. It was deja' vu when I read his post. I told him how to fix it after I found out.

Here it is: When the computer boots up for some reason the BIOS does not read the floppy drive (we both have floppies; okay, old technology but I still find uses for it :)). It reads it as a checksum error on the very first page, the Phoenix Award one and it is on that page where it warns of the floppy not being detected and thus it halts and you either press F1 to load windows or Delete to enter the BIOS. The strange thing is I could still use the floppy when installing, etc., and the BIOS sees it as enabled when you go to the BIOS! I can't figure it!

Anyway, when you go to the CMOS and disable "Halt on all errors" it is immediately corrected. My system boots up and loads Windows without a problem whatsoever. Simple yet a real hair puller as I am sure you'll understand. At least I avoided what the other guy did and that was to replace and clear the CMOS battery several times. That must of been fun.

By the way, I love this board. It was a dream to mount and set up. Good experience overall.

[mjc]

Ok...possible explanation for the halt error.

Halt on All will stop on a floppy error..such as the floppy not being detected, unless the BIOS is told there isn't one.

Now as to why there was the error in the first place...the board is too fast for the floppy drive. It gets ahead of itself in the detection phase. By the time everything was said and done, the floppy was detected after all, but after it had already generated an error. (At least that is my guess.)

[Stoney]

Ok...possible explanation for the halt error.

Halt on All will stop on a floppy error..such as the floppy not being detected, unless the BIOS is told there isn't one.

Now as to why there was the error in the first place...the board is too fast for the floppy drive. It gets ahead of itself in the detection phase. By the time everything was said and done, the floppy was detected after all, but after it had already generated an error. (At least that is my guess.)

That would seem a plausible answer. Here is one for you, mjc, the person I was mentioning over at Overclockers I found out didn't quite have the same issues. He had the same error, the same stoppage, but when he presses Delete to enter the BIOS his computer restarts every time. He is perplexed to say the least.

[mjc]

I wonder if he is using a wireless or USB keyboard...

You said he has replaced the battery several times...I wonder, does that m-board have a reset jumper? If has he checked to see if it is actually in the correct position (I have seen some pretty strange things happen with it in the wrong position...and sometimes the boards are shipped with it in the 'Clear' position.

[Sylvander]

Are the FDD parameters correctly specified as...
Drive A : 1.44M, 3.5in

Is...
Swap Floppy Drive : Disabled
Boot Up Floppy Seek : Enabled
Onboard FDD Controller : Enabled

For the PnP allocation of resources to the FDD Controller...
Resources Controlled by : Auto
PnP OS Installed : No

My controller has been allocated IRQ=06 & DMA=02.
Has either of these been reserved by the BIOS for some other device?

[jlreich]

I wonder if he is using a wireless or USB keyboard...

You said he has replaced the battery several times...I wonder, does that m-board have a reset jumper? If has he checked to see if it is actually in the correct position (I have seen some pretty strange things happen with it in the wrong position...and sometimes the boards are shipped with it in the 'Clear' position.
Yes I have seen them shipped that way as well.

Is he sure he is resetting the CMOS properly? I mean with the system unplugged from the outlet and UPS if applicable? Some motherboards even recommend to unplug the main power connector from the mobo while resetting.

I would bust it down to bare bones to see if there is a problem device that is causing the error. These kind of problems are why you never just slap all the components together when building a new machine, but rather look for a successful boot after adding one component at a time. Sure it takes more time that way, but it will often identify a problem device before you even think about installing an OS. ;)

[Stoney]

mjc, Sylvander, and jlreich: I passed on your suggestions to my friend. I hope he can find what he needs in what you suggested.

[Stoney]

Some of you have been trying to help out a friend of mine that has been having weird issues with the same motherboard I have. Here is his latest after I gave him your suggestions:
__________________________________________________ _
Quote:

thanks for all the help thus far route, but I'm really at a loss. Origininally I thought it could be a CMOS jumper problem, but I wound up resetting and booting it every possible way with the jumper in both positions. In addition, I too read somewhere the keyboard might be bad so I switched from the PS/2 to a USB and tried and still nothing. Today, as per rseven's suggestion, I stripped it and put it on some cardboard and now the POST sequence is constantly resetting and I never wind up at a floppy disk error screen. So that's where I'm at now, the post sequence runs through the error checking sometimes hanging at seemingly random points (37, 3d etc) which according to the manual are all "reserved." If I can't get this going soon, I'm tempted to either return/rma the mobo.

__________________________________________________ ___________

I'm thinking defective board. What is your take? Any other suggestions before he does an RMA?