I made no config changes before this, but Windows Update did download and install an update that did not sound harmful, but I can't remember what it was. I have booted into Safe Mode, run msconfig and disabled all startup items, but it still hangs at the splash screen. Any further advice before trying to repair gratefully received. Asus A7V333 mobo, AMD Athlon 1.4GHz Thunderbird CPU, 768 MB RAM, 75GB Western Digital Raptor via PCI, 200GB Maxtor Diamond Plus, 40GB Maxtor, Creative DVD-Rom, Plextor PX-712A, Creative Audigy Platinu

Being able to boot into Safe Mode is good - try F8 when booting, then try booting with logging enabled. This may create a bootlog file, I think it is C:\bootlog.txt. Could be a device driver issue. When in Safe Mode, try disabling devices (not uninstall), such as the sound card, then see if Windows will boot normally, since Safe Mode does not load device drivers. Rule #1 Good computers don't go down. Rule #2 There is no such thing as a good computer.

ADDENDUM - you can also disable the XP splash screen to see which files are loading. Edit c:\boot.ini and add /sos after the /fastdetect in the XP line. Rule #1 Good computers don't go down. Rule #2 There is no such thing as a good computer.

I disabled the splash screen and got: Microsoft (R) Windows (R) v5.1 (Build 2600: Service Pack 2) 1 System Processor [768MB Memory] and that's it, it just stays there. I set it to log booting but after rebooting, letting it hang and then rebooting into safe mode again I cannot find bootlog.txt, neither as Administrator or my usual login. Cheers, Jude. Asus A7V333 mobo, AMD Athlon 1.4GHz Thunderbird CPU, 768 MB RAM, 75GB Western Digital Raptor via PCI, 200GB Maxtor Diamond Plus, 40GB Maxtor, Creative DVD-Rom, Plextor PX-712A, Creative Audigy Platinum

Tried System Restore back to a date that all was good ?? Newspaper--Sept.3,2004(A.P.) Microsoft issues warning on Spyware: The basics of the article is to detect and remove Spyware from your computer before installing SP2. ...Spyware could cause computers to freeze up upon installation of the update...

Sorry - boot file MAY be created if boot process goes far enough - will be \windows\ntbtlog.txt This file is even created during Safe Mode booting. Here is an example of a normal boot log file, of course, many driver files will not have been loaded in Safe Mode, and when they are, they may be different ones than in this example. Service Pack 1 7 11 2005 11:39:15.375 Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\ntoskrnl.exe Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\hal.dll Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\KDCOM.DLL Loaded driver \WINDOWS\system32\BOOTVID.dll Loaded driver ACPI.sys Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\WMILIB.SYS Loaded driver pci.sys Loaded driver isapnp.sys Loaded driver pciide.sys Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\PCIIDEX.SYS Loaded driver MountMgr.sys Loaded driver ftdisk.sys Loaded driver dmload.sys Loaded driver dmio.sys Loaded driver PartMgr.sys Loaded driver VolSnap.sys Loaded driver atapi.sys Loaded driver disk.sys Loaded driver \WINDOWS\System32\DRIVERS\CLASSPNP.SYS Loaded driver sr.sys Loaded driver KSecDD.sys Loaded driver Ntfs.sys Loaded driver NDIS.sys Loaded driver Mup.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\idisw2km.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\kbstuff5.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\kbdclass.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\mouclass.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\processr.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\ialmnt5.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\b57xp32.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\usbuhci.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\usbehci.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\smwdm.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\aeaudio.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\parport.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\serial.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\serenum.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\imapi.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\cdrom.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\redbook.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\audstub.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\rasl2tp.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\ndistapi.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\ndiswan.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\raspppoe.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\raspptp.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\msgpc.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\psched.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\ptilink.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\raspti.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\rdpdr.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\termdd.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\swenum.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\update.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\NDProxy.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\usbhub.sys Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\lbrtfdc.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Fdc.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Flpydisk.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\i2omgmt.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Changer.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Cdaudio.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Fs_Rec.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Null.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Beep.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\i8042prt.SYS Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\kbdhid.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\vga.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\mnmdd.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\RDPCDD.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Msfs.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Npfs.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\rasacd.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\ipsec.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\tcpip.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\mvstdi5x.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\wanarp.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\netbt.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\netbios.sys Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\PCIDump.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\rdbss.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Fips.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\CCDevice.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\hidusb.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\mouhid.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\point32.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\kbdhid.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\Cdfs.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\afd.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\ndisuio.sys Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\afd.sys Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\rdbss.sys Did not load driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\mrxsmb.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\mrxdav.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\Drivers\ParVdm.SYS Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\DRIVERS\srv.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\System32\drivers\NiceLog.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\wdmaud.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\sysaudio.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\splitter.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\aec.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\swmidi.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\DMusic.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\kmixer.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\drmkaud.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\naiavf5x.sys Loaded driver \SystemRoot\system32\drivers\kmixer.sys Rule #1 Good computers don't go down. Rule #2 There is no such thing as a good computer.

Funny, we're troubleshooting the same thing here at my job! I'd recommend adding the following options to the BOOT.INI line: /noguiboot /sos /bootlog These turn off the graphical screen, display each driver as it loads, and save a bootlog to %WINDOWS\ntbtlog.txt Hopefully it will freeze consisently after one driver (in my case, it's after "agpCPQ.sys")... The next line in a "successful" bootlog reveals the troublesome driver. Good luck, and keep us posted!