Won't get past Windows boot

[Nanci252]

Hi
I'm working on an IBM NetVista 8315KHU , WinXP, New 256 DDR SDRAM, New 80mmCaseFan , other parts are as per original specs.

Orig. problem began as an "out of blue" worked fine til bedtime, tomorrow after work - no boot.
No household power issues or anything weird.
Opened, cleaned, examined - only obvious was case fan had fallen off wall of case, rubber screws(2 of 4) had aged and broken, other 2 held it on. It had a single 3-pin, 3 wire tiny connector to mobo at uninstall.

Purchased at Radio shack a new 80mm, but this one had a "single wire" tiny connector (that I attached to mobo)...and two spare molex 4-pin (one male, one female)...I attached the male to a spare molex off power supply marked code P2. Looked up connector diagram and made sure that yellow - yellow, red-red, black-black were in order.
Tried boot again.
Nothing. IBM bios screen, then Windows black logon screen then all black monitor. No DOS printed matter of any kind, no alerts, warnings, or messages.

Researched multiple forums (incl.Daniweb), and suggestions were made that original issue may have been faulty memory.
This IBM had had only one stick (128mb) - I filled both open sockets w/ 2 entirely new 128's (per machine /make/model). He had always commented that it seemed slow, so that didn't seem entirely outta the question.

I am beginning to think I'm in over my head, when I work on a machine and get too worried or scared or confused to find the correct connections, troubleshooting, etc. and I am working on this machine for my husband - while he's on "borrowed time" using the older teen daughter's for the broken moment. It's a time-element until she gets too bust waiting for me to fix his, and takes hers back upstairs.

This machine has had regular care and maintenance, and is single-owner (us). I am three yrs. into self-taught and have worked on about 65 machines - but mainly virus removals, and upgrading hard drives, OS installs, cleanings, etc. as well as learning each time.

Electrical and peripherals are still in my learning curve., but scare me because I have a pacemaker in me besides electric needing adequate cautions. I have a sturdy understanding of PC's - but have MUCH to still learn. I follow the most commonly advised troubleshooting methods - from mobo/power /input tests without any other hardware attached, to the read everything I can "before" I go "in" to find out the "why"....going by symptoms Googled.

Can anyone assist with any new suggestions I can try, before I touch, mis-wire or forget something and toast his whole PC out of commission ??
Thank you.
Nanci

[Chaky]

Hi Nanci.

I guess you don't belong to the "what does this button do?" category, so I'm gonna talk more abbreviations with you.

My first suspicions are (although I don't have much experience with IBM machines) that the problem you are experiencing is most likely to be a "safety switch" in your BIOS or Windows. Safety switch regarding the fallen fan. You say that it was connected by 3 pin wire, that tells me that it has RPM monitor (which is redundant for chassis fan), while the molex fan doesn't. I imagine that your problem started with the fallen fan (that obviously stopped or got jammed), and now the BIOS isn't getting any feedback. (0 RPMs). This you can check in BIOS ("Advanced power management" or something).

2nd thing to try is to boot in safe mode (f8), but first choose "enable boot logging". After the system freezes, restart to safe mode and find "ntbtlog.txt" file in your windows dir. There you would find what's causing the stall. 90% chance it would be the last entry.
In such scenario, my guess would be the ACPI.sys. That is the Achilles heel with XP. Thing is, there is a setting in BIOS called "ACPI/API" that can be enabled/disabled (also in "Advanced power management" section). You must not change it after the XP installation is complete. Once the XP is installed it will only work with that setting as it was when the installation took place, doesn't matter if it was enabled or disabled. Changing it would cause windows to be unable to boot even to safe mode.

[Nanci252]

Thanks, Chaky.
I will give these options an immediate try. As of writing last night, I had set the unit aside until I had some further insight. I don't believe in puttering until it's so thoroughly messed up it's unrecoverable !! LOL Your direction is appreciated.
And yep......Way Past "what does this do" part of learning !! lol
Nan

[Nanci252]

Thanks, Chaky.
I will give these options an immediate try. As of writing last night, I had set the unit aside until I had some further insight. I don't believe in puttering until it's so thoroughly messed up it's unrecoverable !! LOL Your direction is appreciated.
And yep......Way Past "what does this do" part of learning !! lol
Nan

Chaky,

We're in a working stable state now. I found the one memory stick was just a smidge outta socket. Pushed firmer. It clipped well into place. Upon boot - she went straight to all the original screens and came up apparently unharmed by anything going on around 'er !!

he has been back on his own computer now for over 32 hrs. and all is well.
Thank you very much for all your help.
Nan

[Chaky]

Glad to hear.