Re: New XP box will only boot in safe mode?

On Jan 31, 7:01 am, Ross Bale <RossB...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
We are having similar issues here with two Optiplex GX745's except with ours,
the Graphics Card Drivers come up with an error saying that they are not
compatible with the current version of Windows (Dell Supplied drivers, latest
version) and drops the VGA resolution to 640*480 4 bit colour.

Dell suggested the Symantec fix, although one of the PC's wasn't even
running Symantec at the time (we run Corporate Edition here to).

They also gave me the link to Symantec's website, which suggests that an
update should/could be downloaded along with changing the startup settings.

http://service1.symantec.com/SUPPORT/ent-security.nsf/0/7e7878d68df6b...

Regards,

Ross.



"dean.carrefour" wrote:
Thanks a bunch, that worked for the machine I was having trouble with. Has
DELL been informed about this? What about Symantec? It does leave us a
little more vulnerable to not have virus protection until after windows has
loaded, by that time, all of the viruses will have loaded also. It would be
nice to have a fix/patch that doesn't interfere with the SATA's.

Thanks again.

Dean

"mwfische...@xxxxxxxxx" wrote:

To address this issue with Symantec Corporate and the new Dell Optiplex
745 BIOS issue:

Boot to Safe Mode
Open Symantec Client, Click Configure
Change Startup option to "Symantec Anti Virus Start" This forces the
Symantec Client to start AFTER windows completes it's boot.

Reboot PC

Thanks!

dean.carrefour wrote:
Good to know. Keep us posted as soon as you get more information. We run
Symantec Corporate here, so that fits the pattern.

"mwfische...@xxxxxxxxx" wrote:

dean.carrefour wrote:
I wanted to post another update. As you know, I have a personal Optiplex 745
for my personal workstation (faster processor, DVD Burner, more RAM, etc.
than the other two machines) that I haven't had any problems with. I ordered
it several months ago. I ordered two new 745s a month or so ago and had
problems with both. The BIOS update from dell fixed one, but the other one
had to have the HD and DVDROM replaced to fix it. Now, the other machine
that the BIOS update 'fixed' is doing the same thing. I need to call Dell to
see if there is some other fix. I REALLY don't want to have to blow that
machine away and reinstall everything on the new drive they would send me, it
takes so much time to get all of the software setup...

"mwfische...@xxxxxxxxx" wrote:

dean.carrefour wrote:
That tinyurl link didn't work for me. We have Symantec Corporate, so I might
want to try that, or at least investigate it a little further.

I don't have a fix yet, but I wanted to provide a little more information
for everyone here having this problem.

On both of the machines here that I've had problems with, I get the boot
loader screen after the post phase, then the boot loader screen disappears
and stays blank, where normally the logon screen would appear. Sounds like
yours isn't showing the boot loader screen even (black background, windowsXP
logo with the little blue status indicator), so thats a little different.

I have another OptiPlex 745, my personal work machine, the one I'm on now,
that I ordered back in October I believe. It is similar to the two problem
machines, but it is the 2.13Ghz duocore where they are the 1.8? Ghz (I don't
remember the exact speeds, mine is one level above theirs). I also have an
upgraded video card (for my 24" widescreen) and I have the DVD burner instead
of the DVD-ROM. And I have 2GB of RAM where they only have 1GB. I also have
an additional CDROM drive. I haven't had a single issue with mine, and I
haven't done the bios upgrade, think mine is a 1.? version of the bios, so I
wonder which of these differences could be causing the problem?

I think it is the specific models of SATA drives (HD and DVDROM). The
replacements (refurbs) they sent me looked identical, but I believe they were
different model numbers, at least on the DVDROM.

Lets keep this thread active if any of us come up with more information.

I have seen the same issue, with 4 identical Optiplex 745's. We did
not contact Dell at first because our fix APPEARED to work. We removed
the Dell Utility partition and redirected boot to the primary. This
cleared the issue for about 2 weeks, but now on a single 745 it is
back. Again, if anybody has a real "fix" for this, please post.

Apparantly Dell has found their incompatibility with Symantec
Corporate. There is an adjustment to the way Symantec Corporate starts
up that has to change to work with this particular Dell BIOS. It is
Symantec's Issue, not Dell's. I will post whatever I can as soon as I
get the information. I am working on the phone with another tech right
now.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

We purchased a Dell Optiplex 745 back on December 1st 2006. We
started having issues of the blue screen death and contacted Dell
regarding this problem. They shipped us a replacement computer and we
loaded it up and had the same problem. At no time did Dell ever tell
us about the Symantec issue. We have been on the phone with them
constantly since December until finally I got someone who logged onto
the computer to troubleshoot the problem. He was perplexed as to the
problem since he had shut off all of our "third party software" and
then turned them on one by one and the computer booted fine after each
one including Symantec. Then after a couple of shut downs and
restarts right back to the original problem. He finally went to
Dell's "Optiplex 745 gurus" and they told him about the fix on
Symantec's website. Well, we downloaded the fix and the computer
booted fine repeatedly. That was Friday, January 26th. Well, Monday
morning turned on the computer and no boot.

So, I called Dell back. They wanted to come out and put in a new hard
drive. We let them. Of course, that works just fine without our
software additions, but since Symantec has been the issue we weren't
satisfied with that and put the old hard drive back in and removed the
Symantec client portion (we run Symantec from a server) and the update
and now the machine works fine. Our problem is that the fix on
Symantec's website does not FIX the problem and the workaround that
they list does not fix it either. We do not want to use a different
antivirus software as having our computers run different programs
makes administration and maintenance a nightmare.

Anyway, today we will be dealing with Symantec to resolve the issue.
If we get any results I will post them. However, I am dissapointed in
Dell that they do not tell their technicians about the "known
problems" so that we didn't waste over a month of time and money
troubleshooting this.

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: New XP box will only boot in safe mode?
    ... compatible with the current version of Windows (Dell Supplied drivers, ... running Symantec at the time. ... Symantec Client to start AFTER windows completes it's boot. ... had to have the HD and DVDROM replaced to fix it. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
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  • Re: New XP box will only boot in safe mode?
    ... The BIOS update from dell fixed one, ... had to have the HD and DVDROM replaced to fix it. ... On both of the machines here that I've had problems with, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: New XP box will only boot in safe mode?
    ... DELL been informed about this? ... Change Startup option to "Symantec Anti Virus Start" This forces the ... Symantec Client to start AFTER windows completes it's boot. ... The BIOS update from dell fixed one, ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
  • Re: New XP box will only boot in safe mode?
    ... compatible with the current version of Windows (Dell Supplied drivers, ... Dell suggested the Symantec fix, although one of the PC's wasn't even ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.help_and_support)
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