Strange reboot behavior

[ram1009]

My computers run 24/7/365. I reboot as often as I think necessary. Yesterday, upon clicking the "restart" button a succession of "end program" boxes with the little timeout bar began appearing. Now, I realize this happens occasionally for (usually) one program but this time (and every time since) I've has 13 boxes appear. Some of them are for items in the system tray but not all. Also, after the initial detection BIOS screen I get a black screen with a blinking cursor in the extreme upper left corner. The only way I've been able to proceed past this point is to "reset" and press F8 which on this computer gets you to a BIOS screen where you can select your boot drive. I select my HDD and the Win XP splash screen soon appears and then the desktop. I've tried using system restore and flashing the BIOS to currency but no joy. I also ran Malwarebytes. Any suggestions?

 

[ram1009]

If you thought the problem was weird, the solution is even weirder. I updated my ATI driver and the "end program" boxes stopped appearing on the first reboot. The black BIOS screen was because I has a disk in my DVD burner and the system was trying to boot from it. The lesson learned (at least for me) is never buy another ATI GPU. I've known for years that their drivers were unreliable but I hoped they might have improved. WRONG!! It's pure luck I solved this.

 

[soundguruman]

Use system restore to set it back to an even earlier date.

 

[ram1009]

Use system restore to set it back to an even earlier date.

Re-read my post. I already did.

 

[ram1009]

Well, I'm afraid my problem has returned. Seems even more strange now after having disapeared briefly when updating my video driver. Again, suggestions are welcome.

 

[aford10]

It sounds like your boot problem may be with the boot files. You can fix that by doing a windows repair, or by using the repair console to run the following commands:
fixboot
fixmbr <-- If you have partitions on the hard drive, don't run this command
chkdsk /r

If you didn't already, make sure to run the Malwarebytes scan in safe mode with networking.

Download ccleaner, and run the registry tool. You may need to run it several times to repair all issues.
www.piriform.com/ccleaner

 

[ram1009]

It sounds like your boot problem may be with the boot files. You can fix that by doing a windows repair, or by using the repair console to run the following commands:
fixboot
fixmbr <-- If you have partitions on the hard drive, don't run this command
chkdsk /r

If you didn't already, make sure to run the Malwarebytes scan in safe mode with networking.

Download ccleaner, and run the registry tool. You may need to run it several times to repair all issues.
www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Sorry, I should have been more specific. My boot problem was caused by a disk I inadvertantly left in a drive. The system was trying to boot from it. The problem I'm having now is the "end program" boxes appearing sequentially when restarting or shutting down. This is the problem that disappeared briefly when I updated my ATI driver. As for your suggestion to run Malwarebytes in safe mode, I've never been able to figure out how to get this BIOS to show me the proper menu. F8 doesn't work and my manual doesn't tell me. It's an ASUS M4A785TD-V EVO.

 

[aford10]

That's odd. F8 should get you into safe mode. You may be missing the window of opportunity. Try tapping F8 repeatedly as soon as you press the power button.

If it's not F8, other common ones are F1, F2, F11, F9 and ESC.

 

[ram1009]

It sounds like your boot problem may be with the boot files. You can fix that by doing a windows repair, or by using the repair console to run the following commands:
fixboot
fixmbr <-- If you have partitions on the hard drive, don't run this command
chkdsk /r

If you didn't already, make sure to run the Malwarebytes scan in safe mode with networking.

Download ccleaner, and run the registry tool. You may need to run it several times to repair all issues.
www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Wow!! I just ran CCLEANER and it wants to delete over 4GB of files and change a couple hundred registry keys. That's a little scary. Are you sure this is OK?

 

[aford10]

It's a pretty conservative, and very trustworthy program. However, you can backup your registry before going ahead with the cleaner.

 

[ram1009]

I let CCLEANER fix the registry keys first and the problem didn't appear on the first restart so I'm happy for now. Thanks.

 

[aford10]

Sounds good. You're welcome.

 

[ram1009]

Well, it's back. I just restarted and had to close 15 boxes. This time there were no registry issues for CCLEANER to fix. This is frustrating.