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PC Caught in a Loop at Boot

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by ckmate05

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Have a Dell Dimension 340. 2.4 GHz processor, 1GB RAM, 40 GB HDD, running Win2K with SP4. From a cold boot it displays the Dell startup screen, shifts to starting Windows screen, goes to Windows Logo screen then loops back and starts over. HDD was wiped and a clean install of Win2k was put on the machine. Flashed BIOS with latest and greatest from Dell. Have run a utility program on it and found that Registry Hive files C:\winnt\system32\config\system and C:\winnt\system32\config\software were corrupt. When repaired the machine boots properly for a few days then I turn it off let it sit for a few days turn it on and problem recurrs. Problem seems to happen after automatic updates have been installed and machine reboots. Auto updates now set to download but not install. problem still there. Do not know which update may be cause of if it may be bad controller, HDD, power supply, etc. Any assistance would be appreciated.

14 replies

by icb's corner

In this case Event Viewer logs can be useful. Test the memory with extended POST first, do a chkdsk, pay attention to cpu temperature. Could be mb also because of some electrolytic capacitors that could work badly.

by flynnj

Check power connections on motherboard & hard drive. Is memory properly seated in slots. Check voltages from PSU on load and off load.

by w2ktechman

I had a similar problem (but worse) a few years ago. I got a nwe western digital drive and every week I had to rebuild the system. Errors varied from "no file system found" to BSOD and more.
I replaced the drive with another brand and the problem went away. This was easier to determine since it started with replacing a part, but if you have another hdd laying around, it might be worth a try

by ckmate05

For ICB,
Event viewer shows no unusual activity, no warnings, no failures. CPU temp is ok, had not considered capacitors at this point could be though. Memory on extended POST tests ok.

For flynnj@...
Power connections are solid, voltages measure good but possibility exists that they fluctuate when it heats up. Memory is properly seated.

For W2KTechman
Have considered the possibility of an erratic HDD but drive seems to check out ok.

All of you have been of help so far. Am still working on it. Will post here if I or another finds solution.

by kuryous1

I'm sure you checked for viruses...especially the sasser virus...Causes computers to reboot. And your copy of W2k is authentic. This would be a last resort. Try another HDD like the ones above.

by ckmate05

For Kuryous1,
Disk was wiped with a four pass 0's/1's overwrite. Authentic Win2K installed. Flashed Bios with Dell Bios Flash pgm. I'm thinking that either the MB is faulty or the HDD is. Will try a new HDD in the AM. Thanks. Will post here with result.

by hal 9000

Have you tried running a test utility on your HDD? If it's going bad this will be a common problem and recently I've seen quite a few M'Boards with bad IDE Controllers on them so they do exactly the same thing.

You'll need to know the drive maker and download their testing utility to test the drive. If it comes back as OK then just proceed as normal but if it comes up with an error remove the drive and try in in another machine to remove the possibility of the IDE controller being the problem.

Failing that you can always use the Ultimate Boot CD to do some diagnostics as it's a Live CD all you need do is boot from the CD and run the tests.

http://tinyurl.com/3jnpy

by ckmate05

Thanks for the assistance. I appreciate the responses because all of them were helpful in some way. The solution to the problem was to replace the HDD. I would really like to know why the drive acted that way but in the intrest of moving on I'll take the fix . Thanks again.

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