Hi all,

I seem to have a major SHIII problem. My system recently started to hang on boot, right before the log in screen. After recovering XP with the usual mehtods, it would be OK for a week or so and then lock up again. So I reformatted, reinstalled XP from scratch and started reinstalling my software.

Today when I installed SHIII, my system would no longer boot. Black screen right before login. So, using system restore, I reverted to an image made right before SHIII was installed. All was good again. So I reinstalled SHIII, and my system died again. I have now tried this 3 times and every time SHIII causes black screen upon startup. i.e. It kills my Windows XP Pro installation.

I might add that such events began to emerge following my recent purchase of a DVD writer.

Any ideas?

I've got an idea, probably something starting with "S"...

We're not supposed to talk about it though...

Try sending an email to the support staff at http://www.star-force.com/ describing the problem. They may help you.

Alternatively, there are other options to take, but we're not supposed to talk about them either... Just look a few posts below this one.

(The locked one. )

ZX81,
Did you install all the system drivers or did you let windows do that?

I also presume that you do not have your system overclocked. If so, this is most likely the issue.

I would ensure that you have all the latest drivers for all of your hardware.

Motherboard drivers...
http://www.soltek.com.tw/soltek/download/download_all.php?isbn_st=SL-K8TPro-939

Hi Guys,

Thanks so much for the responses and the helpful advice.

I have to say that I personally thought that my problems were owing to a certain copy protection that Eclipse alluded to. I was totally and completely off track. In fact it appears not to have anything to do with either SHIII or copy protection at all.

I have been getting random black screens at startup that occurred shortly after installing a DVD burner. After giving up trying to fix it, I reformatted my Hdd, installed XP which booted up just fine. However, after installing SHIII subsequent rebooting caused a black screen on startup. I repeated this process three times and every time with the same result. It seemed logical to me that SHIII was the culprit.

As it turns out, reverting back to a pre-SHIII restore point and then rebooting with a clean XP also causes a black screen at boot on most occasions. I should have checked this more rigorously before posting!

I am pretty sure I found the answer yesterday: I have a Digital Camera that I connect to my USB port when downloading pics. When the camera is disconnected I leave the USB cable attached to the PC. Never been a problem before. However, I have always been using XP SP1 until around the time this problem occurred: At the same time I upgraded my DVD burner I also upgraded to SP2. Turns out that with SP2 installed and my camera disconnected the computer hangs waiting eternally for a response from the other end of the USB cable. Unplugging the cable = problem solved.

Do I feel stupid or what? So I apologize for wasting your time and I apologize to SF and the makers of SHIII for trying to make 2 + 2 =5. Now I have to go apologize to my wee lass for wasting the whole weekend trying to fix my computer.

At least I have a nice new clean XP install!