1748052 Members
5021 Online
108758 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Restart & Shut down

 
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Restart & Shut down

If I select either Shutdown or Restart from the Windows 2000 Start Menu the server shuts down but instead of showing either 'It is now safe etc' or restarting it sits at a black scrren with the cursor flashing in the top left-hand corner. Powering off/on is the only way to recover. I think this only happened after I applied the Support Pack for Windows 2000.
6 REPLIES 6
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Restart & Shut down

Hi, try this Microsoft iq article Q314503, it might have to do with
The master boot record (MBR), partition tables, boot sector, or NTLDR file is corrupted.
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Restart & Shut down

I have the same problem. However I noticed it upon the install of 2000 onto this server.
The server had novell 5 on it and during the install we format all the drives [except what I believed was the Compaq utilities section.]
Since we did not have a smartstart CD for windows 2000 we just started the install off the windows 2000 CD. I am wondering if this is the problem whiich would then be related to the MBR issues. Can you informa me if the MBR fix worked for you?
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Restart & Shut down

Hi, Although I have not tried the MBR fix from Microsoft but if you download the System configuration utility and the the array configuration utility this way you could start fresh by running the erase utility and recreate the utility and install your os. Recreating a new mbr and hopefully getting rid of this top left hand cursor.
Look up the following URL:
http://www.compaq.com/support/files/server/us/index.html
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Restart & Shut down

so i take it that I will lose my current OS installation in order to fix this problem
Ayman Altounji
Valued Contributor

Re: Restart & Shut down

Hi Folks,

Just to let you know I tried the FIXMBR option in the recovery console, I got a message saying it was non-standard and bravely committed myself.

Sadly win2k did not restart, the only good news is it was a green field install so I've only lost time, but I thought I would let people know!!
Robert W. Smith_1
Occasional Advisor

Re: Restart & Shut down

When I have time, I've been searching for an answer to this problem on my Compaq Proliant 3000 server for better than six months. It occurred after a server upgrade from NT to Win2K and patches to SP4. I did everything all in one sitting, so I really wasn't sure what caused it. Bacically, the server stopped shutting down all the way, I never got to "It is OK to shut turn off the computer now" (or what ever that exact message is). Rather, it just stopped at a blank screen with a blinking "-" in the upper left corner. I literally spent 20 hours over that 6 months searching knowlegebases on Compaq, Microsoft and the internet in general.
Finally, after using some creative key words I came across a Microsoft Knowlege Base article # 306942 (yes, I did say Microsoft-usually last place I look for an answer to anything) that suggested removing Media Player 7X components. I took it one step further and removed it totally, shut down to the "-" screen again, pulled the plug, restarted, and shut down again. It worked!. I almost fell off my chair...the Microsoft artical solved my problem.
I tried the few other ideas I found like replacing the CD driver and others similar. I didn't have the Easy CD creator software installed, so none of that applied. But I had the same problem they were describing.
I'm sure different things will work for different environments, but maybe this is something to try as it is not very invasive...