Vista Freezes on BOOT @ Green Bars

I have a DELL XPS 400 with Vista Ultimate 32 bit OS. It came loaded with XP but I installed Vista a year ago with no issues at all. Over the last 6 months it's had booting issues where it will freeze on the BOOT screen during the "Green Bars". I also notice that during this proccess my keyboard and mouse (USB) flicker off (The numlock light goes off and the mouse LED turn off) and it hangs. When it actually boots up correctly the Numlock and mouse light turn off for a second but then they come back on and it completes the boot.

There is no consistent pattern. Sometimes it will boot fine 3 times in a row and then hangs and I'll have to re-boot between 3-10 times to get it to work again. It boots fine in SAFE mode and also if I turn OFF the USB Controller in the BIOS, but then my keyboard and mouse don't work I have updated the BIOS and the only thing I can think of is the USB COntroller. Very, very frustrating. I've lived with it for a long time but I really need to find a fix if possible. Any replies would be greatly appreciated!

try updating your drivers for your keyboard and mouse.

in device manager do you have any devices with yellow exclamation marks by them?

Here's an chunk of what happens during startup. It's abbreviated to highlight as many user level checkpoints as I could find - but leaves out the technical jargon as much as possible (from this post: Boot Sequence - Troubleshooting - Vox )

Ntoskrnl.exe (2 phase initialization process)
Phase 0
***Omitted this stuff to save space
Phase 1
Windows Splash Screen
ERROR -
BSOD
Black Screen
Blank
Cursor
Mouse works
Causes:
Bug in a device driver
Corruption in the registry hive (NOT the SYSTEM hive)
FIX = Last Known Good Configuration (LKG)
If it works, compare Control section of registry (pg 1113 of Windows Internals v5). Ignore changes in the ENUM keys

Click to expand...

As you can see, most issues relate to the registry or a device driver.

Last Known Good Configuration is the easiest thing to attempt, so try that from the Safe Mode menu.

It's significant that you can turn off the USB controller and everything works. That points to either the USB controller drivers, or the drivers for your attached devices (or to a malfunctioning device).

So, the question is... "What do you have attached to the USB ports on your system?"
Another question is "Do all the USB devices work OK in Safe Mode?"
Check in Device Manager to see what devices are installed underneath the Universal Serial Bus controller section (you can disregard the entries that mention "Host controller" or "Root hub").

Normally you can update the USB drivers by updating the motherboard/chipset drivers for your motherboard (usually available at Dell Support). I suspect that your USB controller is good, and that there's either a hardware issue with your USB connections or that you have a malfunctioning device.

Finally, as an aside, I've had issues with the USB ports on my Vista system. I believe that they stemmed from a broken front USB connector. But now, I cannot use the USB functions on the motherboard at all. I suspect that the broken connector shorted out my USB controller and damaged it. The gist of this is that if damage has occurred, it may not be repairable (although a USB add-on card could be a workaround).

Thanks for the replies! I don't have any "!" in my Device Manager and nothing out of the ordinary listed in the USB Controllers. It's actually booted fine about the last 10 times Also my USB keyboard is just a Logitech Classic 200 and there is no software provided by Logitech. I might just try another keyboard and see if that has any effect. I will figure this out...maybe.

hello Guys..

i have almost the same problem with the OP
my laptop will boot fine in safe mode
but in normat boot it hangs on loading screen ( green progressbar )
and then when i tried to boot from "last known configuration that work"
it finished the green progressbar loading but after that all i can see is black screen and sometimes like a grills or any color on the LCD and the touchpad and keyboard are not working ( i think its hung also )

is there anyone knows the solution/advice for this problem..?

i really need your help guys.. thanks..

btw: i didnt try to disable to usb controller on the bios yet.. maybe tommorow i will try..