Help anyone? - black screen hangs and ADSL modem prob

Just wondering if anyone can help me here. I'm setting out on a
detective mission to fix a really annoying problem. The basic
annoyance is a tendency to go into a black screen hang on boot up
under certain conditions, which makes the PC unusable for long
periods.

Black screen occurs at boot-up if:
You try to restart (so now I don't!)
You switch PC on within a period (less than about one hour, but
sometimes longer) of having switched off (eg, after powering off to
escape a hang)

A subsidiary problem is that the PC starts but USB devices (powered
USB hub, joystick, ADSL modem) are not recognised. This is a problem
if PC has crashed, been powered down and then powered up. I find I can
suffer a crash and get the PC back up (after an hour or so) but not my
USB devices, which typically don't decide to work until the next day
after the PC has been switched off.

Where do I start to look for the solution to this problem? Drivers?
USB problems? Hardware fault? (overheating - hence the waiting period
before I can boot up successfully)

TIA

Antony

Some system information:
Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600)
1.80 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
32 kilobyte primary memory cache
256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Board: MS-6382
Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 07/15/2002
DVD-16X OEM316B [CD-ROM drive]
HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8320B [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]
WDC WD1200BB-00CAA1 [Hard drive] (118.46 GB) -- drive 0, s/n
WD-WMA8C1692052, rev 17.07W17, SMART Status: Healthy
Alcatel Speedtouch 330 ADSL modem

On Sun, 02 Nov 2003 10:09:53 -0800, Antony wrote:

> Just wondering if anyone can help me here. I'm setting out on a detective
> mission to fix a really annoying problem. The basic annoyance is a
> tendency to go into a black screen hang on boot up under certain
> conditions, which makes the PC unusable for long periods.
>
> Black screen occurs at boot-up if:
> You try to restart (so now I don't!)
> You switch PC on within a period (less than about one hour, but sometimes
> longer) of having switched off (eg, after powering off to escape a hang)
>
> A subsidiary problem is that the PC starts but USB devices (powered USB
> hub, joystick, ADSL modem) are not recognised. This is a problem if PC has
> crashed, been powered down and then powered up. I find I can suffer a
> crash and get the PC back up (after an hour or so) but not my USB devices,
> which typically don't decide to work until the next day after the PC has
> been switched off.
>
> Where do I start to look for the solution to this problem? Drivers? USB
> problems? Hardware fault? (overheating - hence the waiting period before I
> can boot up successfully)
>
> TIA
>
> Antony
>
> Some system information:
> Windows XP Home Edition Service Pack 1 (build 2600) 1.80 gigahertz AMD
> Athlon XP
> 32 kilobyte primary memory cache
> 256 kilobyte secondary memory cache
> Board: MS-6382
> Bus Clock: 133 megahertz
> BIOS: Award Software International, Inc. 6.00 PG 07/15/2002 DVD-16X
> OEM316B [CD-ROM drive]
> HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8320B [CD-ROM drive] 3.5" format removeable media
> [Floppy drive] WDC WD1200BB-00CAA1 [Hard drive] (118.46 GB) -- drive 0,
> s/n WD-WMA8C1692052, rev 17.07W17, SMART Status: Healthy Alcatel
> Speedtouch 330 ADSL modem


This is not really the NG to place this problem, but if that was my
PC I would be suspecting a power unit problem.

graham

PSU rating ?

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