Not sure if this should be in here or in the Windows forum...
My new build (a few weeks old now) is basically totally stable - it never crashes or blue screens. However, 3 times now something has upset it and the problem goes as follows:
Something crashes requiring a restart. This time it was SupCom not installing properly due to my crummy old DVD-ROM. First time it was a dodgy overclocking utility.
Upon restart I get the "Windows didn't load properly last time" screen and I get the usual choice of safe mode or regular boot, etc, etc.
Choose one of the boot options (doesn't matter which) and instead of Windows loading it just resets back to the start, goes through the POST sequence and I get the "Windows didn't load properly last time" screen again
It's then stuck in this loop and Windows will never load again.
I have to run the Windows setup CD to perform a repair installation. BUT, it's not that easy. It will say my system isn't ACPI compatible, so I have to hold down F7 during the setup for it to load in a default driver. Windows then repairs. The trouble is now it doesn't recognize the IDE drives properly and I lose some other bits and pieces. To get around this I have to run the repair installation again - and the second time it recognizes my system properly and loads in all the correct IDE stuff.
This is a major pain in the neck and takes a long time. I can only assume that when something upsets Windows it actually nukes the boot sector of the hard drive and so gets confused during the setup. Then once it's repaired the first time, and corrected the problem, the next repair finds the system info OK and loads in the correct bits.
I don't know what the issue is tho. Windows? Hard Disk? Motherboard? Drivers? I'm not overclocking anything. Windows XP Pro. Latest nVidia chipset/mobo drivers. BIOS defaults. I'm a pretty experienced PC troubleshooter but I don't know where to start with this one!
Any advice much appreciated.
My new build (a few weeks old now) is basically totally stable - it never crashes or blue screens. However, 3 times now something has upset it and the problem goes as follows:
Something crashes requiring a restart. This time it was SupCom not installing properly due to my crummy old DVD-ROM. First time it was a dodgy overclocking utility.
Upon restart I get the "Windows didn't load properly last time" screen and I get the usual choice of safe mode or regular boot, etc, etc.
Choose one of the boot options (doesn't matter which) and instead of Windows loading it just resets back to the start, goes through the POST sequence and I get the "Windows didn't load properly last time" screen again
It's then stuck in this loop and Windows will never load again.I have to run the Windows setup CD to perform a repair installation. BUT, it's not that easy. It will say my system isn't ACPI compatible, so I have to hold down F7 during the setup for it to load in a default driver. Windows then repairs. The trouble is now it doesn't recognize the IDE drives properly and I lose some other bits and pieces. To get around this I have to run the repair installation again - and the second time it recognizes my system properly and loads in all the correct IDE stuff.
This is a major pain in the neck and takes a long time. I can only assume that when something upsets Windows it actually nukes the boot sector of the hard drive and so gets confused during the setup. Then once it's repaired the first time, and corrected the problem, the next repair finds the system info OK and loads in the correct bits.
I don't know what the issue is tho. Windows? Hard Disk? Motherboard? Drivers? I'm not overclocking anything. Windows XP Pro. Latest nVidia chipset/mobo drivers. BIOS defaults. I'm a pretty experienced PC troubleshooter but I don't know where to start with this one!
Any advice much appreciated.
