Experts on XP shutdown?

[Redon73]

I've had this problem for about a year, and despite several attempts to get it fixed, I've been unable to. It's a freakin mystery.

Anyways, I hope the experts here will be able to tell me what to do. Heres the problem, about a year ago, I can't remember what I was doing, but I shut down the pc as usual. XP shuts down, the screen goes blank, and then the power clicks on and off several times a second. The kb lights flash, and a clicking sound is in time with the flashing. It's really annoying in that I always have to wait for that, and then turn off the power bar under the desk.

I've narrowed the problem, to what I think has to do with the APM NT legacy interface node. It displays as disabled, yet when I try to enable it, I get a code 37 error (unable to initialize). I've tried uninstalling it and reinstalling it. Nothing works, I've heard that something needs to be disabled before I can enable it, but I've tried all kinds of stuff from the MS knowledge base.... nothing works.

Any ideas??? Thx!

[GrandDad]

Welcome to WD Redon73 .

It would help to know what MotherBoard and such you have so we can get a better idea of things .
Thanks

[Redon73]

Welcome to WD Redon73 .

It would help to know what MotherBoard and such you have so we can get a better idea of things .
Thanks

Of course! Sorry about that, I've got:

ECS p4VXAD mobo
1.6 Ghz P4
Win XP (all updates)
512 RAM
Geforce Ti 4200 vid

Do you need more than that? Hmm, I also have a USB hub for peripherals... could that be a prob, I never considered it until just now.

Thanks!

[Redon73]

Any ideas?

[NooNoo]

ECS.... ok We need to know which revision of p4VXAD you have... there are three. 1.x 3.x and the + 1.x
Usually this kind of thing is resolved with a bios update followed by an inplace install of xp.

Do you know which revision motherboard? Do you know which revision of bios you have?

[Redon73]

ECS.... ok We need to know which revision of p4VXAD you have... there are three. 1.x 3.x and the + 1.x
Usually this kind of thing is resolved with a bios update followed by an inplace install of xp.

Do you know which revision motherboard? Do you know which revision of bios you have?

You know, I tried doing a repair installation of XP, but I got an error message, about setup not being able to find a previous version of windows. I have no idea about how to fix that, in fact, it's quite baffling.

Also, I believe it's a 1.x, and as far as I know, I have the latest bios update, which is fairly old....

[aserranojr]

I've had this problem in the past. My PCI modem was the issue. Have you tried remove hardware from the motherboard?

[NooNoo]

You know, I tried doing a repair installation of XP, but I got an error message, about setup not being able to find a previous version of windows. I have no idea about how to fix that, in fact, it's quite baffling.

Also, I believe it's a 1.x, and as far as I know, I have the latest bios update, which is fairly old....

You need to know, when it comes to bios, the wrong version can kill the board.

If it can't find the previous version, it means there is something wrong with the hard drive or the way it is setup.

[Redon73]

You need to know, when it comes to bios, the wrong version can kill the board.

If it can't find the previous version, it means there is something wrong with the hard drive or the way it is setup.

That's interesting, because quite awhile ago when I upgraded my HD, I had to install EZ-BIOS to get it to work. Perhaps that is why the installation can't be found? Any workarounds that you know of?

[NooNoo]

ezbios eeeeek!

There is no way that board would not support a large hard drive... what hard drive is it?

here are uninstallation instructions for the maxblast version.

What was the problem getting the drive to be recognised originally?

[Redon73]

ezbios eeeeek!

There is no way that board would not support a large hard drive... what hard drive is it?

here are uninstallation instructions for the maxblast version.

What was the problem getting the drive to be recognised originally?

The drive is a Western Digital:

WDC WD800BB-00CAA1 80 GB drive

I wish I could remember what the problem was that EZBIOS fixed.... it eludes me now.

[geoscomp]

There are three versions of that board out there..does yours have the onboard promise raid controller?

[Redon73]

There are three versions of that board out there..does yours have the onboard promise raid controller?

Hmmm, without checking I'd sat no. How does that factor in?

I got rid of EZ BIOS..... way too easy. I don't even know why I had it in there in the first place. But it's gone now. Although I haven't checked, perhaps my win xp cd would see a previous version now? If that's the case, i could do a repair install, that would fix it I would imagine?

[NooNoo]

I am not sure that ezbios uninstallation leaves your data in tact... so no, it may not see it to do a repair.

[Redon73]

I am not sure that ezbios uninstallation leaves your data in tact... so no, it may not see it to do a repair.

Hmm, well so far so good. But after a repair install, no fixie. Any other ideas, perhaps the hardware itself?