Windows 2000 stops responding at the Hardware Profile/Configuration Menu when you restart the computer just before midnight (890579)

SYMPTOMS

When you have more than one hardware profile configured in Microsoft Windows 2000, you may intermittently experience the following symptom. Windows stops responding at the Hardware Profile/Configuration Menu when you restart the computer just before midnight. For example, if you restart the computer at 23:59, Windows may stop responding at the Hardware Profile/Configuration Menu.

When this problem occurs, the number of seconds that appears next to Seconds until highlighted choice will be started automatically on the Hardware Profile/Configuration Menu may be a large number. For example, the number may be several thousand seconds.

CAUSE

This problem may occur if the following conditions are true:

The Select the first profile listed if I don't select a profile in option is selected.

Note To view this option, follow these steps:
1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
2. Click the Hardware tab, and then click Hardware Profiles.
The computer is restarting when the date changes from one day to the next day.

For example, this problem occurs if the following conditions are true:

The profile is automatically selected by Windows in 300 seconds.
The computer's date changes to the next day while the Hardware Profile/Configuration Menu is available during Windows startup.

This problem occurs when the computer's date changes to the next day because the elapsed time value that Windows uses to determine the default hardware profile changes to zero. Because this time-out condition is never satisfied, Windows waits indefinitely at the Hardware Profile/Configuration Menu.

RESOLUTION

Hotfix information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

Prerequisites

No prerequisites are required to install this hotfix.

Restart requirement

You must restart your computer after you apply this hotfix.

Hotfix replacement information

This hotfix does not replace any other hotfixes.

File information

The English version of this hotfix has the file attributes (or later file attributes) that are listed in the following table. The dates and times for these files are listed in coordinated universal time (UTC). When you view the file information, it is converted to local time. To find the difference between UTC and local time, use the Time Zone tab in the Date and Time tool in Control Panel.

Date         Time   Version           Size    File name
--------------------------------------------------------------
29-Dec-2004  07:03                    215,456  Ntldr

MORE INFORMATION

For more information about how hotfix packages are named, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

816915 New file naming schema for Microsoft Windows software update packages

For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

824684 Description of the standard terminology that is used to describe Microsoft software updates