Troubleshooting Windows Startup Issues on My First PC - Need Help!

[Holocene]

I recently put together my first PC. I didn’t really know much about it, but I was able to install Windows Vista after powering it up for the first time.

Right now I’m having major problems. If I go through a normal shutdown procedure, Windows will NOT load correctly on the next startup. After the POST, an error message pops up and says “Windows did not shut down correctly”, and then it automatically restarts Windows after a period of time. Even then, it sometimes fails to load AGAIN.

Does anyone know where I should start as far as diagnosing this issue? This is getting very annoying!

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

[OmCheeto]

I recently put together my first PC. I didn’t really know much about it, but I was able to install Windows Vista after powering it up for the first time.

Right now I’m having major problems. If I go through a normal shutdown procedure, Windows will NOT load correctly on the next startup. After the POST, an error message pops up and says “Windows did not shut down correctly”, and then it automatically restarts Windows after a period of time. Even then, it sometimes fails to load AGAIN.

Does anyone know where I should start as far as diagnosing this issue? This is getting very annoying!

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

You may find your answer here:

http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/gettingstarted

Annoyances.org is the most complete collection of information assembled for and by actual users of Microsoft Windows.

After 11 years of annoyances, I now own a mac.

 

[hamamo]

for the first time i recommended windows xp not vista
because of the known compatibility issue of windows vista with some known hardwares

 

[Apotheosis]

for the first time i recommended windows xp not vista
because of the known compatibility issue of windows vista with some known hardwares

XP is at the moment - By far the better OS. Vista does need a fairly decent speck to run & a high speck machine to run fast, everything appears slower on Vista, & it takes up, I think, an unnecessarily large amount of HD space. I recently had difficulties with installing an OS on an older machine I had serviced. I partitioned the HD as I always do, I made two 20GB partitions, on a small 40GB drive. I finally managed to install Win 2000 Prof SP4 (Which is still surprisingly up to date & runs quick, being based on similar code to XP) - ;after trying XP, Vista & ME. Win 2000 went on fine. Using this OS I was able to determine that the DVD RW was playing up, I swapped it out for another & was then able to install Vista Ultimate Edition on the second partition; Vista would only load through Win 2000. The second partition, after updates & a few programs installed only has around 4GB free space left. 20GB is about the minimum to install Vista. I Over clocked the CPU & graphics, & both OS's run fine & stable.

Are you trying to install a 32 bit or 64 bit OS? The 64 bit versions are even more fussy.

I would have a go with Win XP Home. If money is tight try a Linux installation.

What speck is your machine Holocene? Maybe we can isolate the problem from there?

 

[binzing]

Yeah, try Ubuntu, you can either download and .iso or order a CD which actually comes quite fast. After this week, I am considering making my comp a dual boot with my Ubuntu CD. But I got AVG Antivirus and that seems to help, Norton was outdated and was posessing my computer I hypothesize, just goes to show how good free software is.

 

[Holocene]

My machine should be more than adequately equipped to run Vista.

Intel Quad Core 6600
4GB RAM
400GB HDD

You may be correct that Vista wasn't the best choice, but I do believe this is a problem that can be corrected without taking drastic measures such as switching operating systems.

In any event, I'm still lost on this, and any further information, or simply ideas to try, would be greatly appreciated.

 

[B. Elliott]

My machine should be more than adequately equipped to run Vista.

Intel Quad Core 6600
4GB RAM
400GB HDD

You may be correct that Vista wasn't the best choice, but I do believe this is a problem that can be corrected without taking drastic measures such as switching operating systems.

In any event, I'm still lost on this, and any further information, or simply ideas to try, would be greatly appreciated.

Make sure that it's not an issue with hibernation... I've had countless problems with it.

As much as I hate to jump to conclusions, Vista can be a bit fussy with RAM. Check the RAM settings in your BIOS. I've run into errors such as that when the frequency or timings are off. If it was me, i'd start pulling memory first. Do you have four ram sticks installed? If so, remove two of them and see if it will shutdown properly. If there's only two, try setting your ram speed to 333MHz (667MHz rated) with timings of 5-5-5-15-2T. Verify the correct RAM voltage by checking the manufacturers website.

 

[vincentm]

I recently put together my first PC. I didn’t really know much about it, but I was able to install Windows Vista after powering it up for the first time.

Right now I’m having major problems. If I go through a normal shutdown procedure, Windows will NOT load correctly on the next startup. After the POST, an error message pops up and says “Windows did not shut down correctly”, and then it automatically restarts Windows after a period of time. Even then, it sometimes fails to load AGAIN.

Does anyone know where I should start as far as diagnosing this issue? This is getting very annoying!

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Usually this message results in an improper shutdown method, usually with the Pc being powered off manual through the power button as opposed to using the start Menu>turn off computer>shutdown method.