XP first restart hangs with red power LED, next start works

[jonsimms]

One year old Compaq persario with decent spec (memory/HDD etc) running XP Home. The system has suddenly decided it needs two goes at starting every time. First start attempt after shutdown/restart always results in the power LED (normally green) displaying red and no activity from the unit. Power button is applied to switch off and restart and the second start attempt works fine. Any ideas anyone, cos it's driving me nuts now!

Additional history: had some spyware/malware problems recently which spybot and ad-aware seem to have handled - this timing coincides with the red LED events....

 

[micker377]

May be a defective power switch. Open case (computer off) and remove the &quot;power switch&quot; connector from mobo pins. Try shorting the pins (carefully) with a small screw driver to see if this works on first try. A spare momentary contact switch would be better, but who has one of those when you need one? <grin>
If this doesn't help, run sfc /scannow from Start - run. You will need to have your Windows CD handy. Actually, if you're not familiar with your mobo, you may want to run scannow first.