Member Avatar for Erich

Hi everyone. This is my first post.

I have a problem with Windows 2000, sp4. When it starts up, sometimes it proceeds ok and then stops at a blue screen. I do not mean a bsod, just a blank blue screen - no text, no error messages, nothing - just blue (not even a mouse pointer). This seems to be completely random. At times, I would have to stop and restart the machine 5 times before the normal blue screen with the mouse pointer and Windows logon dialog box showup. It seems to me that explorer.exe is not starting, but I am not sure. Does anyone have any ideas what might be causing this?

I am wondering if it might be a system instability issue as I did try to overclock my system, but becasue it was unstable, I had to reset it back to the normal CPU speed. Could this have caused this problem (even thougth, now the CPU is set back to its original speed)? Would somethiong like overclocking, affect the CPU, memory or mb, to such an extant that even with my setting the CPU back to its default setting, it is causing this to occur?

Thanks for any help with this.

P.S. I also am noticing that I am now getting a lot of crakling, popping, and distorting sounds when I play an audio cd (but not if I am playing an mp3 file directly from my computer). Are these issues related?

Cheers.
Erich

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by Member #33065

Dani AI

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Brief expert follow-up (references: , ).

The combination of a completely blank blue screen (no pointer, no text) and CD-only audio artifacts suggests problems that occur very early in boot: hardware initialization, BIOS/firmware state left by overclocking, or low-level driver/IDE issues — not just a normal Explorer hang. is correct that overclocking can produce instability and data corruption, but a full reinstall is a last resort; use the checklist below to isolate hardware vs. software first.

  • Back up important files before making changes.
  • Reset BIOS to factory/optimized defaults and, if needed, clear CMOS (jumper or remove battery) to ensure no lingering overclock settings.
  • Run a memory test (memtest86+) for several passes; intermittent RAM errors often produce random hangs.
  • Test the hard disk with the vendor’s diagnostics and run chkdsk /r from recovery/boot to rule out filesystem corruption.
  • Boot with advanced options (F8): try Safe Mode, Enable VGA Mode and Enable Boot Logging (check C:\ntbtlog.txt) to see which driver fails early. Review Event Viewer (System log) for entries that precede the hang.
  • If the desktop is missing but the system is responsive, look for explorer/Winlogon problems (check the Winlogon/Shell registry value) and perform a clean boot / disable non-Microsoft services/startups.
  • For CD audio crackle: check the IDE/ATAPI controller settings and confirm DMA is enabled for the optical drive, try ripping the CD and playing the file, and test with a different disc/drive to separate drive/mechanical issues from driver/OS problems.
  • If all hardware checks pass and logs point to corrupted system files, consider a repair install (or as last resort a full reinstall) after a full backup.

If instability continues after restoring BIOS defaults and passing RAM/HDD tests, suspect damaged motherboard/voltage regulation from overclocking and prioritize hardware replacement or RMA.

Member Avatar for Member #33065

System instabilities can wreak all sorts of havoc in a system. I used to play around with overclocking a lot in my gaming days. (No time for that now that I have a real job and fiance) One thing I always did after overclocking to instability was to completely reload the OS. There are a couple articles that you could google for to find out what the affects of overclocking can have on data corruption. My suggestion to you would be to reinstall the OS from scratch and see if that fixes the issue. My guess is you hosed something in the system when you overclocked.

-- Andy

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