Windoze won't boot if connected to t'internet

[bobb]

A fairly recent installation was working just fine for a while, then it would take multiple attempts to get the damn thing to boot in the morning. It was taking up to 20 goes! It would just hang and not do anything.

Eventually it does boot, but can be unstable and crash. Usually after a few more goes I'm in and it seems ok.

The problem got slightly better after I installed an update - it usually only takes 3 or 4 attempts before it would boot!

Frustrated and trying anything I could think of - I unplugged the the ethernet cable and tried that. Guess what? It boots first time every time! But it will still crash fairly regularly and it's a pain in the arse getting on my hands and knees every time I want to use the damn thing. Ubuntu won't boot either if plugged in.

What's going on?

Using BT's sucky home hub. Another 'puter on the same hub has no problems at all.

[bobajobrob]

Try setting the IP configuration manually rather than using DHCP?

[Phil]

At what stage of booting does it crash? Is the taskbar there yet?

[bobb]

At what stage of booting does it crash? Is the taskbar there yet?

No, it gets to the sort of moving horizontal blue bar loading bit and stays there. Forever!

[Phil]

Probably not a DHCP problem then - I think that's done a lot later on into the boot.  It might be a problem with your ethernet card driver. 

It could also be a variant of Blaster though - have you done a full virus scan?
Edit: Just spotted you're having Ubuntu problems too, so it's not a virus.  Can you run a verbose bootup of Ubuntu and see where it hangs?

[bobajobrob]

Probably not a DHCP problem then - I think that's done a lot later on into the boot.

The moving blue bar is late on in the boot, just before the login screen appears. I believe that is the time the ethernet is enabled and DHCP is done.

If it's a windows driver problem then that doesn't explain the problem with Ubuntu.

[tonycollinet]

Could it be a hardware conflict (eg irq) on the network card?

[bobb]

Now the sodding thing won't boot regardless of what's plugged in and what isn't  I think Windoze is shagged.

Time to reinstall for the nth time....

[delthebike]

Now the sodding thing won't boot regardless of what's plugged in and what isn't  I think Windoze is shagged.

Time to reinstall for the nth time....

Is Ubuntu shagged as well? Dual drives or single drive?
HDD failing? Check the BIOS screen and make sure the drive/s are there and reported correctly.
Take drive from other PC and boot that on the borked PC, any difference? 

[bobb]

Th Ubuntu installation is of the "Within Windoze" type - so if Windoze is b0rked, so is bunty.

I have my suspicions about the drive - I had one exactly the same fail not long ago....

[delthebike]

I have my suspicions about the drive - I had one exactly the same fail not long ago....

I had a pair fail within two months. They were a matching pair bought two months apart. They did what you've reported and then their BIOS failed and weren't detected by the PC BIOS.
Copy what you want to save now while you still can and order a new drive.

[bobb]

Indeed - these were a pair. One got shagged a while ago and now possibly the other is on the way out. Everything is backed up!

[mercury]

Might be one of these things:

• Ethernet network card not seated properly
• Bad Ethernet network card, try another one
• Bad hard drive, try running Ubuntu from CD, check the hard drive with the badblocks command
• Bad capacitors on the motherboard. Look at the tops of the big capacitors on the motherboard. Are they flat and shiny? Or pushed up and leaking brown stuff?