XP Hangs on 'Restart'

[Greeny]

This may not be a hardware problem, but has only happened since I put a new HDD in the machine and reinstalled XP.

Computer works fine, but if I use the "Restart" option or if I've installed software which needs the machine to be restarted, it shuts down but then hangs just as it begins to start again (before you even get to the point where you can enter the Bios). I then have to force a shutdown, wait a few seconds and do a fresh start which then works fine.

Any advice appreciated.

Thanks.

[kee-lo_]

Sounds like a device detection problem.
Did this happen with the old drive?

[Greeny]

Kee-Lo - no, it was fine with the old drive.

If I start it from scratch, it's fine, just the Restart option where it has a problem. The work around is to go for the option of "I will restart machine later" and then close down normally and then start again. Not all software installations give this option however.

[tonybeard]

Hey greeny, new hard drives showing lossey or latency need to be educated to place data in a retrievable location. The only way to do this is time consuming but effective. Right click the desktop and disable the screen saver and power on/off options. Then right click on the task bar and click Task Manager and turn off any unneccessary processes. Disable your antivirus/firewall especially but disconnect from the internet. Go to control panels and Perf and maintain and defragment the new disk. This will take about three hours. When finished do it again. this will take one and half hours. Do it again 40 minutes. So on until it defragments in 30 seconds. Restart and watch it fly. You might consider Diskeeper Lite also (Thanks the 'Lo).

[Greeny]

Thanks, TonyBeard - I'll give it a go.