Windows Stalls At Splash Screen

[thebaronjocelin]

I am having a repetitive and extremely frustrating problem with Windows, lately. I recently reformatted my HDD and reinstalled Windows (XP Home, OEM), because I was having difficulties getting into Windows. It would manage to get to the splash screen, and the loading bar would scan across about halfway, stall for about ten seconds, then start moving again, and eventually it would stall again, then move again, and then so on and so forth. Windows would never boot. I am familiar with this meaning driver trouble, but all my drivers were updated after the reformat.

Anyways, I reformatted again. It worked... just dandy for a little while, and I spent about six hours using it to play Team Fortress 2 with no problems or hitches. Then, I turned it off again, and in the morning when I booted it the same effin' problem happened again. It seems no installation ever manages to last longer than two days without crashing in the same DAMN way. I could REALLY use some help.

 

[thebaronjocelin]

Another weird little thing - if I go into the boot menu and select Last Known Good Configuration (which, I'm sure, would be Normal Mode), all of a sudden it works. I'm afraid of what might happen when I shut down and reboot again, though.

 

[Fragrant Coit]

You might want to run some tests on your Hardware...

Run the Hard Drive Diagnostic for your HDD https://www.techspot.com/vb/topic7602.html

If it fails, time for a new drive, if it passes, check your RAM http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

Let us know how U go

 

[jbonetwo]

I get this occasionally. removing all usb devices (cept mouse) and lan cables seems to resolve it for me.

 

[thebaronjocelin]

@jbonetwo
I'm familiar with the USB method, and it used to resolve the issue; this stall, however, seems to be of a different character. It seems to be trying to load a driver that rolls over, grunts, and goes back to sleep, so to speak.

@Fragrant Coit
Ran the Seagate Diagnostic for my 7200.10 (ST3320620AS). It failed both Short and Long tests. I am currently corresponding with Seagate about the issue. Thank you for your help.