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Xp restarts during boot

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After slowing down and, freezing occasionally, windows xp now continuosly restarts during boot up at the “loading windows xp” screen. Now when it restarts I get a screen that says “windows did not start last time…” and boot up options. I get the same result in trying in safe mode. Thought it might be power supply, replaced it. Same result. Swapped hard drives. New one boots up..but windows doesn’t see my cddrive. Bios confirms the cddrive is installed but windows doesn’t see it. My main concern would be the initial hard drive that is restarting on boot. It would be nice not to have to reformat. Alot of info gone. I would beg for any help I could get. Thanks, Ridge

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Try starting in the last known good configuration. This is some time able to get you going again.

Wayne

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Check your motherboard
Next to the CPU check the capacitors.
If they are flat on top they are good, if raised
one or more the capacitors are bad.
You will have to replace the motherboard.

The data on the harddrive should still be on the hard drive if you have not reformatted it.

You can get the data from the hard drive by making it a slave drive in another PC with Win XP on it.

Good Luck

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Caps seem to be good…don’t have another xp machine to use the original hd as a slave. Thanks for trying though…I appreciate all I can get.

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While it may not the problem in your case, no harm in checking the following out.

I had a similar frequent rebooting problem a while ago in my old pc using windows me.

After much wasted efforts, problem was traced to cpu getting overheated due its cooling fan being clogged with dust. Cleaned it and it became ok. Now a days I open and clean atleast once in 6 months after that incident.

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One of the first things I checked was dust in the case, and then power supply. Intermittent problems seem to lead to power supply most of the time. Thanx for the help though.

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Although difficult to pinpoint precisely, your problem could be caused by several things.

What it is not is bad capacitors. Also most likely not a driver issue since it also fails to start in safe mode.

You most likely have one of the following problems:

1) Faulty RAM. If you have more than one stick, try booting with each stick separately.

2) Corrupt registry. If this is the case, should show a black screen after splash screen and immediately reboot. Try disabling restart on error in boot menu (F8, same as going to safe mode) so you can see error message.

3) Bad sector on hard disk.

4) Faulty video adapter. Not very likely, but still a possibility.

If you are getting an error message, post back with contents.

Also need to know if an XP install on new hard drive was successful.

We can help you recover your data files, if necessary.

Dalton

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Give me some more info (post comment to question) if you have any.

A corrupt registry can usually be repaired, especially if you have the use of another PC with XP installed.

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This is one feature of Windows XP that detects a hardware or software problem.
Start wuth the video driver,then you should check the device manbgeer

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Check your IDE cables. Since windows doesn’t see the cdrom is it on the same IDE as the HDD??? Now a days CDrom ususally on IDE1 and HDD on IDE0 both strapped to be master. You can also connect old HDD on IDE1(master) and boot off new drive IDE0 (master) then copy needed data from the old drive to new drive.

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Swapped out IDE cables. same result. Primary IDE has HD, sec IDE has cddrive. I will try to use the troubled Hd as a slave in a different xp system. Then pull off the info. If it doesnt work then i’ll (gulp) reformat.

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just my two cents
here we had that happen to some old computer install with xp we update the bios and that fix it.

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Here is how I fixed a similar problem, which turned out to be a corrupt registry:
Boot off XP install CD, use the repair installation feature. This keeps all data and apps intact and if necessary then re-install SP2 after the repair completes. If after attempting a repair, the system still will not boot, or if it will not boot off the XP cd then it is a hardware problem. I agree with the memory test, but would also attempt booting without any attached hardware other than the harddrive and the graphics adapter to see if any of the attached devices might be the culprit. If it boots without anything attached (use safe mode during this test only, so it doesn’t try to re-activate itself) attach your devices one at a time, shutting down between each attachment to see if any of the devices attached is causing the problem. This issue can be a tough one, but with patience and a practical approach you can determine the utltimate problem child. If it is the motherboard or CPU nothing you try will fix the problem. This is known as the Sherlock Holmes method: When all others have been eliminated as the cause, then whatever remains must be the problem. If you know the bios are updated (and can actually BE updated with a bios boot floppy) as sometimes booting from a device other than the harddrive will also assist in pinpointing the problem. If you boot from a floppy and it still hangs, it points to another issue other than the harddrive and software.

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I boot up from windows xp cd, and repaired. Actually got it to start, although took a long time. ran scandisk and chkdsk /r. Bad hard drive. Got most of the info off before it totally took a dump on me. Thank you to all who helped. You guys are great.

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If this was an upgrade to XP and the drive is FAT format try booting a win98 cd. Scandisk will run and may fix an error with a corrupted FAT. Exit setup and see if the computer will then boot. Worked for me just this week.

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Hi Ridge,
In reading the replies to your boot problem, I was actually surprised that no one has mentioned this little trick that I learned way back when? You can in fact make a boot diskette for Windows XP. Some of us that have newer computers without a diskette drive can make a boot CD which accomplishes the same thing. Regardless, this is something to try especially if all else fails. My solution may just be the answer to your computer problem.

There are three (3) files normally found on your c:\directory. If these files are missing or become corrupted it will have a similar affect to repeat the boot process that you?re experiencing because these files are instructions that set up the boot process.

You can locate two (2) of these files: ntdetect.com and ntldr in safe mode at this location folder in XP on your hard drive: c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386. Now copy them to your c:\directory. (Please note the ntldr file has no extension). The third file is called your boot.ini file and it too should be found in your c:\directory and once again if it too should be missing or corrupted create one using notepad in safe mode and save it to your c:\directory as well.

The following boot.ini an example to use:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Now reboot your computer and hopefully your problem should be solved.

To create a boot diskette simply format a blank diskette in drive A. You do not have to put any additional files on this diskette or set it up with any system information. Just copy the files to the diskette and you?re done. Now you have these files on a diskette to copy to your c:\directory to fix future boot problems…

Good luck,
jOE at compuaid34112@comcast.net

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Hi Ridge,
In reading the replies to your boot problem, I was actually surprised that no one has mentioned this little trick that I learned way back when? You can in fact make a boot diskette for Windows XP. Some of us that have newer computers without a diskette drive can make a boot CD which accomplishes the same thing. Regardless, this is something to try especially if all else fails. To me it sounds like you had other problems that may have corrupted your boot files so my solution may just be the answer to your computer problem.

There are three (3) files normally found in your c:\directory. If these files become corrupted it will have a similar repeat of the boot process like you?re experiencing. These files are instructions that setup the boot process.

You can locate two (2) of these files: ntdetect.com and ntldr in safe mode at this location folder in XP: c:\windows\servicepackfiles\i386. Now copy them to your c:\directory. (Please note the ntldr file has no extension). The third (3) file is called your boot.ini file and it too should be found in your c:\directory and once again if it should be missing or corrupted create one by using notepad in safe mode and save it to your c:\directory as well. The following boot.ini file is a good example:

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS=”Microsoft Windows XP Professional” /fastdetect /NoExecute=OptIn

Now reboot your computer and hopefully your problem should be solved.

To create a boot diskette simply format a blank diskette in drive A. You do not have to put any additional files on this diskette just copy the above mentioned ones to the diskette and you?re done.

Now keep this disk in your bag of tricks close to your computer. You never know when you may need to use it again.

Good luck,
jOE at compuaid34112@comcast.net

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If you have the XP cd then when you get to the options for install, select the “Repair” option. This should repair Windows AND save all your files. Did this with a woman with a Compaq laptop with the same problem. Seemed to work ok. If you have an OEM machine (HP,Advent etc)or one with a GHOST or Hdd based recovery, then this solution won’t work. You need the XP cd. Let me know what happens.

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Sounds like you have a minor hardware or driver problem that is being made worse by the auto reboot. First things is to turn off the auto reboot and then to track down the hardware / driver problem. You may need to open in safe mode to make this change as you need to have the system running before the change can be made.

Windows XP start up adjustment – auto reboot

Default is to auto reboot if a problem is found, this should be turned off.

Open ‘Control Panel’ then ‘System’ then the ‘Advanced’ tab, and in the
section ‘Startup and Recovery’ select “settings, in the middle of the
window in ‘System Failure’ deselect (remove the tick) in the box beside
‘Automatically restart – select ‘OK’, then select ‘OK’ and continue to
close the windows using ‘OK’, or ‘Save’

A similar process is applicable to most Windows operating systems.

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Ridge,

I have the same problem also and I am still trying to figured out what causes this but I might off base with this one but you know who in windows 2000 you will get a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death)if you have a device failure. Well in window XP I thing this is the same problem. Event though you changed out the power supply and swaped the hard drive. Try looking at your network card and PCI devices if any; test them one on one with other starting XP up and see what happens…..Thats the best I can give you for now if I will asked my tech friends about your issue and see what they suggest also good luck

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Had exact same problem a while back and it turned out to be a memory problem.

Change a stick and it might just work.

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i guess it is an unknown virus i tried in this issue several times but it is not corrected excpet for formating the system partition
i tried the recovery console but useless also

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OK with the new HDD installed you say that Windows doesn’t see the CD ROM are you trying to load Windows off the CD?

If this is the case you’ll probably need to go into BIOS and change the Boot Sequence to first boot off the CD then HDD then Floppy or whatever else is available. The first Boot Device has to be the CD ROM even if it is a DVD ROM/Burner or whatever then the HDD the rest are unimportant but may need to be allocated so the computer will start.

If you can get Windows Loaded this way you should be able to recover your data with the old HDD used and set to either Cable Select or Slave. Either way on an IDE 8 wire cable the slave drive has to be on the connector closest to the M’Board and the master on the one on the end of the cable. If you only have one device on the secondary IDE Lead it really can be anywhere but it really should be on the end if it is set to Master this should allow you to Load Windows but do not put in the other drive until you have Windows up and running. Then you can shut down install the Slave Drive and copy the data off it onto the other HDD.

Remember that this is you original source drive so never modify it until you are absolutely sure that every bit of data is saved and this includes your address book your Favorites List and all stored E-Mail as well as the obvious Folders like My Documents and any accounting programs that you may have installed.

If this doesn’t help post back and I’ll see what I can come up with.

Col

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