re-boot says wrong shut down

[desertblue]

I shut down correctly, start / shut down or start / restart either way I get the screen with "fail safe" at the top it always has "boot normaly" selected. In either re-boot mode the system must do it 2 times before it goes on into winodws. The mother board is a Soyo KT-600 Dragon. I have used a driver detection programs to see if a driver is bad, all appear OK all programs work. The anti-virus and spyware programs are all updated. I have run the drive error checking program on all three of the physical drives installed, this runs only on re-boot not while in windows. I have cleaned the boot drive C from unused files (system tools). The compouter management shows all drives to be "healthy". I use a cable modem for high speed, Cox. The browser is IE7, cannot use IE8 because it renders HP flat bed scanner inoperative. The browser and Corel Paint Shop Photo ver 12 hang up at times but appear to work OK.

Any ideas??

 

[goombawaho]

1. Run a CHKDSK on all drives - boot drive first.

2. Run an SFC /SCANNOW

3. Install MalwareByte's Anti-Malware and run a full scan to check for little nasties.

 

[linney]

You could also try setting the Bios to the Safe Default setting, and also check for any Bios update that might be available?

When did this problem begin happening. Does it Shutdown and reboot normally if you do the Shutdown from within Safe Mode?

310353 - How to Perform a Clean Boot in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;310353&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

316434 - HOW TO: Perform Advanced Clean-Boot Troubleshooting in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;316434&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

310560 - How to Troubleshoot By Using the Msconfig Utility in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310560

 

[desertblue]

Thanks for your response. a new BIOS is not available, however I did try the safe setting, no help. Shutting down from safe mode does not change anything, tried that early on. The computer started doing this last August, at first only occasionaly, now every time it is shut down normaly. I teach computers in the retirement village in which I live, one of the topics two weeks ago was using MSCONFIG for a clean boot, I tried it on my own computer first, no help.
In prepareing for my class on the clean boot I used your first two links you reference above, however the third one looks a little different I will try that.

This Soyo board is 6 years old and has been used about 9 hours every day since new, some people say I should get a life, it could be getting tired!!!

Thanks again for your help

 

[desertblue]

Reply #2: I did run check disk, the one you access by clicking tools from the properties option in windows explorer. This check disk wont run on the boot drive while in windows, only on restart. My disk 0 is large so it takes a while for it to run the five steps involved. I will check into sfc/scnnow and MalwareByte's Anti-Malware .

Thanks again

 

[goombawaho]

Did you run the manufacturer's hard drive utility on the drives or "a utility"?

You may want to check the boot drive first with it's utility.

 

[desertblue]

I am afraid that I have no idea what you are talking about "a utility" One of the utilitys. scannow, may have taken care of the problem, at least for one re-boot. It did cost a bit though, no problem.

Thanks again for your help

 

[linney]

Fingers crossed on SFC /Scannow, let us know if it looks like a permanent fix.

 

[goombawaho]

I read your first post wrong thinking that you had tried to run a diagnostic utility vs. a Windows CHKDSK.

I'm talking about checking the hard drive (especially the boot hard drive) with the manufacturer's hard drive utility. If you download and burn the Ultimate Boot CD (

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/)

it has almost all the major hard drive brands tools on there under Hard Drive Tools >> Diagnostic Tools.

I would disconnect all the drives except the boot drive and then run its utility (long scan if an option) and see if the drive has any physical defects or problems.

You can't fix software issues if a hardware issue is underlying. The reason I say to disconnect all but the boot drive is to A) make identification easier when testing the boot drive and B) rule out interference when booting up by the other drives IF they had a problem.