Hello everyone,

Recently I fried a hard drive, rendering it completely unformatable-
After replacing it, and formatting with XP Pro, everything was running fine.

Today, when I get home from work, during start up... it hangs at the first XP logo for much longer than usual.. I left it running for 5 minutes just to be sure... With a 2.2ghz Athlon... 5 mins is a bit long, so I suspected an error.
After a soft re-boot, it asks me if I want to start in safemode, or use the last settings that worked. After chosing "Last settings that worked" it does the exact same thing. I now suspect a hardware issue, or driver conflict.
Starting in safemode, as soon as it boots in safemode, XP notifies me that "Your new hardware is installed and ready to use." ... what new hardware? Anyway, in hopes of the problem fixing itself, I restarted... But no prevail. Same Iusse.
Starting in safemode, i check all the drivers for conflicts, but can find none.
Please help me out, as to what I could check.. driver wise? dxdiag?
Current Rig: 2.2 athlon xp 2700, ASUS A7N8X mobo, Radeon 9700 Pro, Soundblaster Live! 5.1 sound - XP Service pack1, running current drivers for mobo, display, and sound.

should this be in hardware? ; ;

just tried system restore..
restored twice, once to back nearly a week ago when i formatted..
when windows started, it just hung at the desktop and explorer.exe never loaded.
couldnt cntrl alt delete...
when i soft restarted... i got the *EXACT* same problem.... loadup hanging at the XP logo..

PLEASE someone help me out!! is this driver issues? conflicts? IRQ channel conflicts??!~

8(

In Safe Mode can you get to the Event Viewer to check for errors?

Rt. click "My Computer" > "Manage" > "Event Viewer"

checked that.. nothing to report since windows never got thru the booting process...

anyway, i got impatient and formatted..
and i think i've discovered the problem..

either one of two things (which is apparently fixed now)

using the Nforce drivers from nVidia... after installing, they ask if u want to use thier IDE SW drivers.. not knowing what they were, and unable to connect to the internet (since i use on-board LAN) i reluctantly hit yes..
after checking some places on google. turns out that lots of people are disatisfied with how nVidia treats thier IDE drivers..

so. restarting after installing those drivers, did the exact same thing as before.

so, booted in safemode, rolled back the driver, restarted again.. and it went thru to load. reinstalled the Nforce drivers.. and said no to the IDE cables..

upon further reading, it also mentioned its not reccomended to install these drivers without directX9 installed.. which, i havnt gotten around to... i usually get mobodrivers > dx9 > video drivers > sound drivers > windows update.. whenever i format.

anyway, all is solved.. except one mystery.
now, when trying to install sound drivers for my soundblaster live.. it reports there is no card detected.
have i fried it? is it loose? >.<
im using onboard sound, so i suppose i could use it instead of the card. is there any vast difference between using onboard sound vs a seperate IDE card? more clock cycles deticated to sound?
thanks jeff

Good to hear that you worked it out

Most of it anyway

Your detailed questions are beyond me, but I only reply to add this link:

EVEREST Home Edition

"EVEREST Home Edition is a freeware system information, system diagnostics and benchmarking solution for home PC users, based on the award-winning EVEREST Technology. It offers the world's most accurate system information and diagnostics capabilities, including online features, memory benchmarks, hardware monitoring, and low-level hardware information."

Maybe it can enlighten you on your sound card.