Gurm-paulcs-Rags-Chucky Cheese, and all other Win2k DemiGods

[giskard]

I've searched and searched till i've searched a hole in the ground and i still can't find a solution to this one...

I recently did a clean ACPI install of Win2k on my machine and everything works well, except when i shutdown i get black screen with a flashing cursor on the top left corner.

In 'power options', there is no APM tab, so i can't fiddle around with that. I,ve tried installing NT APM/Legacy Support - no change. I've tried a couple of registry hacks - no change. I've tried facing the east and wiggling my nose - no change:-)

I'm about out of ideas. Any suggestions guys?

Cheers,
Giskard.

System

PIII 500E @ 720mhz
Soyo SY-6BA+ IV Motherboard (lastest bios)
128mb PC133 Apacer SDRAM
16mb Matrox G400 D/
SB Live Value (liveware 3)
13.5gig WD Expert hdd on ATA66 channel
Windows 2000 build 2195

[DosFreak]

Turn off ACPI and all power management in your bios.

[giskard]

Just tried it. Windows went into a continuous boot cycle. It would reset after the first (black & white) 'starting windows' screen appeared. :-(

Back to the old drawing board...

Giskard.

[paulcs]

I'm no Windows 2000 expert, and I'm not quite sure if what I'm about to tell you is kosher with W2K. So you should wait until Gurm or Rags or PaulS gets here and either verifies this or provides direction to the contrary.

I've had shut down errors with two machines, and in both cases I was using Windows 98. In one case I know it fixed my problem. In the second case, I'm very hopeful, as the error hasn't repeated yet.

In the first case, with a BX board, when I shut down, I'd get a blue screen with a vcache error. If a hit the keyboard, it would change to a black screen with thin white vertical "pinstripes" running up and down the display. In the second case, and this was with a VIA board, I'd get a black screen with a flashing cursor, just like you.

In both case, I tweaked the vcache settings in my system.ini file.

Enter "sysedit" into Start>Run.

Find the system.ini window. In Windows 98, there's an entry: [vcache]

There is not any information underneath it. Under [vcache], you would enter specific information determined by your *system* ram.

For 128 MB RAM, it would look like this:

[vcache]
MinFileCache=32768
MaxFileCache=32768
ChunkSize=512


For 256 MB RAM, it should look like this:

[vcache]
MinFileCache=65536
MaxFileCache=65536
ChunkSize=512


For 384 MB RAM, like this:

[vcache]
MinFileCache=98304
MaxFileCache=98304
ChunkSize=512


Now, as I said, I'm not as familiar with Windows 2000. I just looked in the system.ini file, and there is a lot less information there, so I'm not sure if this is appropriate or downright dangerous.

In any case, you'd want to back up your system.ini file before you start manipulating it.

Paul
paulcs@flashcom.net



[This message has been edited by paulcs (edited 29 April 2000).]

[giskard]

Greetings Paul,

I tried what you suggested. It certainly didn't harm the system, but it didn't fix the problem either.

Bum, bum, bummer...

Giskard.

[DosFreak]

When you turn off ACPI you have to switch the kernel from ACPI to standard.
1. Go into Device manager.
2. Expand COMPUTER
3. Update Driver and pick the appropriate one. Standard PC is used for computers with only 1 processor. Uniprocessor is used for dual processor mobos with only 1 processor in use.

[giskard]

Greetings Mr D.

I did the 'ACPI install' of Win2k on my machine because i was experiencing all sorts of system instabilities when it was in 'Standard PC' mode - System hangs, that sort of thing.

Question: If i make the changes that you have outlined, will i be able to go back to ACPI, without doing a re-install, if i find that it becomes unstable again?

Giskard.

[Rags]

Hi giskard,

ACPI and shutting down can be a hit and miss thing, which depends on your motherboard and it's bios. If you get problems with ACPI, the first thing you should do is contact your motherboard mfr. and see if they have a more ACPI friendly bios, or any know fixes. If this turns up nothing, you are going to have to do things the hard way. This means you are going to have to switch ACPI off in your bios and do a fresh install of win2k. If your system is unstable with the standard pc hal, you most likely have irq conflicts, so then you will need to start arranging cards in your slots and forcing irq's in your bios through the pci plug and play features. Another thing to make sure of before you go through all of this is to make sure that you have Plug and Play aware OS set to yes when using ACPI.

Rags

[Gurm]

One addition - I note that you say you have "Liveware 3". PLEASE tell me you mean "Liveware 2000", and that you haven't installed the Windows NT Liveware3? If so, that is the root of ALL of your problems.

If not, then try what Rags said.

- Gurm

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Listen up, you primitive screwheads! See this? This is my BOOMSTICK! Etc. etc.

[giskard]

Hi guys,

Thanks for the suggestions.

Rags, i think you're right about the IRQ conflicts. My USB ports and NIC were sharing the same IRQ's and Win2K didn't seem too interested in letting me change them manually.

Gurm, i'm definitely using liveware for Windows 2000.

I guess that means tham my hard drive gets another date with fdisk :-) bummer...

Cheers,

Giskard

[YoKoMo [1]]

Just a hunch, but he did say he was having troubles before, "I did the 'ACPI install' of Win2k on my machine because i was experiencing all sorts of system instabilities when it was in 'Standard PC' mode - System hangs, that sort of thing."
I would try clocking the processor back to defaults and see if the problem clears up, if it does, then it's the overclock. Always go for the basics first.

[giskard]

Dropping the machine back to standard clock speeds is always the first thing i try if i encounter 'issues' with the system.

In this case, overclocking does not seem to be the root of the problem.

Cheers,
Giskard.

[YoKoMo [1]]

Not to say anything bad about Soyo boards cause people seem to like them, but I had the exact same board as you and had major problems with it in 98 as well as 2000. I exchanged it for a P3B-F and all my problems went away. I am not telling you to buy a new mobo, just an observation.

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PIII 650E at 805Mhz, Waiting for G800, til then Voodoo3 3000, Asus P3B-F (ain't none better!), 384MB PC133 Memory, 2 Seagate 18GB Cheeeeetazzzz.

[giskard]

Thanks for the input. We have about half a dozen P3B-F's at work. They all run very well. No complaints at all.

The Soyo board was a bit of an experiment and thus far it has been a great board (other than the shutdown issues and the odd bios glitch). What were your 'major problems' with this board? Similar to mine or stability/reliability dramas?

Giskard.

[YoKoMo [1]]

Oh geez! where to start. Never could get AGP 2X, oc'd or not, stability was questionable. No support (emailed 3 times to no response not even a leave us alone and contact your supplier), ATA-66 issues with WD and Quantum HDD's (I can understand WD since I know many people who have had problems with WD drives and ATA-66 operation). I think if I can remember correctly the the AGP slot wasn't lined up correctly with the rest of the MB, slightly off center and I couldn't fit the AGP card in it correctly with bending the mounting bracket. It was just a nightmare, Hence the return to all SCSI and ASUS boards and not a lick of trouble since. I also didn't notice ATA-66 making much of a difference when I would record music which is what my machine does, SCSI does a way better job at it.

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PIII 650E at 805Mhz, Waiting for G800, til then Voodoo3 3000, Asus P3B-F (ain't none better!), 384MB PC133 Memory, 2 Seagate 18GB Cheeeeetazzzz.