Just a few days ago, I began having some problems with XP. First of all, turning on the computer means having to do it twice. The first time I start the computer, it freezes at some point before Windows actually starts up. I either end up with a frozen black screen or a frozen boot screen. Monitor is on and everything else has power. The only solution is to do a hard restart and it's fine after that.

The second problem is being unable to restart or standby in XP. It's as if the buttons no longer work and the computer just sits there on desktop as if nothing happened. Shutting down still works.

I first experienced the startup problem a few days ago. I then tried to put the system on standby to test it and it worked. After resuming standby a few seconds later, the computer restarted itself rather than return to the account screen. After that, I've been unable to standby.
I quickly did a scan for spyware and viruses but without result. I then did a system restore to the day before, but that didn't do much either.

Here's to hoping it's not a hardware problem. I may try to reinstall my video drivers to see if it fixes the standby problems. Then again, when video drivers are the case, usually the standby just remains shaded out.

Specs:

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 2.66GHz LGA775 (OCed 3.4GHz)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro
2GB OCZ Platinum XTC Rev-2 Dual-Channel Memory 4-4-4-12
Western Digital 250GB 7200RPM 16MB cache SATA-II
Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM 16MB cache SATA-II
XFX 8800GT XT 512MB PCI-E DX10 640MHz (OCed 685/1650/950)
ThermalTake DuOrb
19" LG L1970HR Flatron Slim 2ms 2000:1 DCR LCD
Creative Soundblaster Live! 5.1 EAX HD
Logitech X-530 5.1 Surround Sound System
Windows XP Home SP2


These settings have worked for almost a month without problems and temperatures are as cool as can be.

EDIT: If you use the "restart now" option for the Windows update service, the computer restarts properly. Msconfig's restart pop-up after applying startup changes works as well.

EDIT: Installed the Forceware 171.17 drivers. They're the newest available drivers with a WHQL signature. I just tested standby and it worked fine. I guess I'll see if everything's fixed or not when I turn the PC on tomorrow.

Everything just got worse.

I was working in Photoshop and upon saving files and exiting the program, the computer suddenly restarted with a split-second view of a BSOD. Then before the boot screen could appear, I got the following message in the DOS prompt:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\Windows\System32\Config\System

I did another hard restart only to find that I am completely unable to get into Windows anymore. That previous error message was replaced with this:

NTLDR is missing
CTRL+ALT+DEL to restart

The only thing I could do was a repair installation of XP. I'm still reinstalling applications and this has been an absolute cluster**** of an evening.

Test your RAM:

http://www.memtest.org/

Also run BIOS defaults until you are stable again.

It took me 7 hours. 7 hours of non-stop sitting on my ass reinstalling applications after the repair install of XP. Not only that, but everything was pretty much broken. Troubleshooting, debugging, losing hair, etc.
It's really been a wonderful evening. I really couldn't have spent 7 hours better than this.

Jeph, a repair install shouldn't touch the BIOS, right? I just want to make sure I don't need to flash it again. What about a software volt mod on the video card? Will that have to be re-done?


BTW the report of this wasted evening is the following:

-PC is back up and working again
-Premiere Pro CS3 licensing is broken and needs fixing
-Gears of War savegames and configs went *poof*


Also, what started all this was a stupid mistake made on behalf of someone who used my computer for a bit. Person X told me while he was looking for DVD covers on a shady site, a porn pop-up attacked and he quickly closed Firefox. I can't really explain how it got through my protection, but it did its job. Then again, I've never felt the need to visit those sites.

Windows should have no affect on the BIOS or any hardware specific settings.

Your symptoms often are signs of failing RAM is why I mentioned MemTest.

I'll try Memtest as soon as I'm finished reinstalling stuff and making sure everything works.

Although the PC turned on fine today, it wasn't able to pass a standby test. I pressed a button on the keyboard to wake it up and everything but the monitor powered up and the system was in a frozen state.

Also, it did freeze once on the motherboard boot logo screen yesterday.

Memtest was successful. Error-free in two passes.


Anyways, everything is reinstalled and running smoothly at this point. nTune is also out of the system as I have begun to suspect it a bit.

Well, haven't run into anymore problems and everything's working great.

Thanks to Angelina