Hanging during boot up problem, anybody help?

[Pei]

I'm getting a problem where about 19 times out of twenty when I reboot or power cycle my machine the system just hangs with no error message - it just doesn't go any further. This is after it has detected the IDE primary/secondary configuration but before it tries to boot windows (it actually happens before the page where is displays IRQ infomration). The twentieth time everything is fine. I have flashed the bios and installed the latest version from my mobo manufacturer. I've also rechecked that all the cables and cards are connected properly.

Asus A7V333 (bios version is now 1018.001)
AMD XP 2100
1gig pc2700 ram
Win2K (when it actually boots).
Primary master: HD
Primary secondary: none
Secondary master: DVD
secondary master: none

I'm wondering if it is a power issue?

Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks

[WhiteHawk]

Im not a techie, but check for overheating.  Maybe by twenty
tries the system is cooled.

[Eagler]

try removing/switching ram modules around - maybe you have a sick one

remove dvd player, just in case

remove hard drive and see if you can get to the screen which tries to identfy it...

trial and error

[Heater]

Does the os loader start to load? if so once you get the system booted goto the boot.ini and edit the endof the line for the boot disk to read /sos, this will help identify what is hanging and where etc...
once done adding the switch to the end of the boot.ini it will then show you every driver that is loaded during the boot cycle. the line where it stops is the one causing the problem

the boot.ini is in the root of the drive and will be a read only file you will need to change the attributes the save the file..

the file will look something like this:
[boot loader]
timeout=10
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /fastdetect
C:\CMDCONS\BOOTSECT.DAT="Microsoft Windows Recovery Console" /cmdcons


you will want to add the /sos to the end of the line that holds you boot disk (in your case is should say something like "windows 2000 pro"

[Tabasco]

A couple things to check:

See what the jumper on the hard drive is set at.  If it's set to Master, try CS (cable select), and vice versa.  You may even try removing the jumper altogether since you have only one HD.

It could also be an IDE ribbon cable problem.  If you upgraded your HD recently, make sure you're using a newer 80-conductor IDE cable as opposed to a 40-conductor that older HD's and CD-ROM drives use.

[Pei]

Found the problem sometime after 2am and it was a silly one (as they often are):
The machine has a hardware mpeg decoder that needs connecting to the vid card with an external cable: once connected no more problems.