I have just built a new system (MSI K8N Neo Platinum w/ AMD Athalon 64 3000+, 1 GB) and have windows XP w/ service pack 2 intalled. I have a a few nagging problems that I can't seem to fix.
1. The computer rarely will boot the first time and kicks back to the "start normal or safe mode window). It sometimes will go to login on the second try but other times will continue this cycle for 3-4 times before getting to the login screen.

2. I have a USB keyboard and it does not seem to be active until I get to the login screen. This makes it impossible to get to the bios or choose safe mode when that screen appears. I did dig up an old PS2 keyboard that gets me around this problem temporarily...but I want to be able to use the newer keyboard.

3. I have a KVM switch (IOGear GCS632U) that worked fine with my laptop docking station and previous tower PC... but now only works with the laptop and not the new system I built. The keyboard acts like it is connected but pressing a key once yields many characters and backspace removes many characters and then adds/subtracts a character in a loop. Since this occurs at my login screen, I don't know what the charactes are.

Help on any or all of these would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

I would start with first things first. So use your old PS2 keyboard & try to figure out the boot problem first.

I see this as a possible hardware conflict. Go ahead & start in Safe Mode:

go to Start | Run | msconfig

check the boot.ini config (nothing should be checked)
then check the start-up tab: do you see anything unusual there?

also how is the drive partitioned?


Also: check the Device Manager: RT click My Computer then click Manage then Device Manager for any "!"

Also: look in your event viewer: rt. click My Computer then click Manage then Event Viewer.
Open the system as well as the application tabs & look for X errors. Click error line for details. Post back the source & event id especially of errors that seem to coincide with a boot.

OK...

Here is what I found.

>check the boot.ini config (nothing should be checked)
OK here

>then check the start-up tab: do you see anything unusual there?

Here is the list of things found...SNDMon, LMonitor, E_FatI99AA, ccApp, Antiptaxx, soundman, cfgwiz

>also how is the drive partitioned?

There is a single partition of 137 GB (160 GB hard drive but system only allows for 137 GB ...will remedy later)

>Also: check the Device Manager: RT click My Computer then click Manage then Device Manager for any "!"

Nothing here

>Also: look in your event viewer: rt. click My Computer then click Manage then Event Viewer.
Open the system

Error Service control Manager 7026 (list of 13 drivers that did not load...AFD, AmdK8, Fips, IPSec, MRxSmb, Netbios, NetBt, RASAcd, Rdbss, SAVRTPEL, SPBBCDrv, SYMTDI, Tcpip

Error Service control Manager 7001 3 lines with this

>as well as the application tabs & look for X errors. Click error line for details. Post back the source & event id especially of errors that seem to coincide with a boot.

Nothing on application

OK... thats it for now.

SNDMon = Symantec

ccApp = Symantec

cfgwiz = Norton

these are the only start up entries that I recognise.

(these other processes relate to your sound & graphics card but are not essential to start-up)

try un-checking these LMonitor, E_FatI99AA, Antiptaxx, soundman

if that makes no difference also might want to uncheck the Norton entries

(in other words: un-check all entries)

__________________________________

OK... the LMonitor, atiptaxx, and soundman are the three that individually cause the problems. All other ones are fine.

Could these be associated with my video card (Diamond Stealth AGP)?

LMonitor: Utility for MSI motherboards. It informs you about the latest driver updates for your motherboard, by querying the MSI website on the Internet. (unnecessary)

atiptaxx: It's basically just that little ATI icon in the tray at the bottom right. You don't need to have this running unless you like something that it provides. (unnecessary)

soundman: installed with Sound cards made by Realtek. This process merely places an icon on the system tray for easy access to diagnostic features. (unnecessary)

OK... I found this same info and decided to reinstall my ATI software that came in the box. After doing this, everything was fine with the boot up process until I re-enabled the Norton GoBack software...which led to the same problems. I removed this program and now the boot up process seems to work fine even with the Lmonitor, soundman, and atiptaxx still running.

Now a new problem exists... after being on for 15-20 minutes, I hear a pop and the video monitor goes blank and I can't get it back. The computer is still running but no video. If I turn the machine off and restart... it comes back but the same thing happens within a half hour or so. Any idea what this is?

Thanks for the help... I thought I was ready to move on to my second and third issues but this one seems to take priority now.

Fulch

Where is this pop coming from? The Monitor? The Video Card?

Have you checked the device manager?

Also look at the event viewer again.

The Pop came from the tower... so I assume the card. I checked the event viewer and device manager and nothing came up on these. I re-seated the video card and have been working for a while and the problem has not happened again. I will leave it on overnight to see if it is stable.

After re-seating the video card, I had to re-install the drivers. Upon doing this, the boot problem resurfaced with the same errors: source and event ID's as before. I disabled the LMonitor for the MSI live monitor and it seems to be booting OK again. I am not sure I have this fully solved or if it is just intermittant now.

If the machine is still running in the morning, I will try to move on to the USB keyboard problem. My plan is to add the switch the PS2 keyboard out with the USB one and then power up and let XP recognize it. Then I will reboot and see if the keyboard is active from the "get go". Does that sound like the right approach?

Thanks,

Fulch