Laptop turns off before booting

[thalantyr]

Hi,

I'm really sorry if this sort of question gets asked a lot and I have searched the internet and forum to try and find the answer but to no avail!

My laptop, running Windows XP home edition refuses to boot. I changed a few network settings for my internet and after restarting it, it kept turning off before windows loads. I tried last known good configuration and safe mode and debugger mode and even putting the windows CD in to repair any files but it always turns off after about 40 seconds (and when the loading windows XP screen appears).
My only clue to what's wrong is that at one point after clicking debugger it said the file '<windows root>/system32/ntoskrnl.exe was missing or corrupt. It hasn't said anything about that since though.

If anyone has any advice as to how I can manage to boot it I would be so grateful.

Thanks very much

James

 

[thalantyr]

Hey again,

I managed to get my laptop to turn on again just by leaving it for half an hour (which made me think it might be a fan/hardware problem?). Everything was fine then and it ran for a full 12 hours yesterday then today after about an hour of being on it randomly turned off again.
This is really annoying for me as I don't have a clue what the problem is or where to find it out and I'm always on the edge just in case it's randomly going to switch off again!!
Is there any way I diagnose exactly what the problem is??


Thanks for any reply

 

[Six6siX]

It appears to be a very intermittent problem - with no direct link with the amout of time the laptop has been on then?

What about power - is the laptop always mains powered when this happens?

Is the XP disk you have a manufacturer recovery disk or a proper XP installation CD and have you tried a total reinstall as opposed to repairing files? Also, have you installed any new programs lately?

edit: check out some of these links

http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000646.htm

http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/14722/14722.html

 

[WJA96]

Are you getting any bluescreens?

I had/have(?) a similar problem that I am absolutely convinced is caused by a Windows update.

I can run DOS and Linux OS and applications no problem, but the moment I get to the AGP line in the Windows startup process, the machine reboots itself.

I formatted the HDD using Linux as the Windows reformat left part of the HDD untouched, then re-installed windows from the recovery CD. All was well until I turned on automatic updates and then, after the latest updates were applied, it constantly rebooted and bluescreened.

I've reformatted (with Linux) and re-installed the OS again, and left automatic updates turned off and so far (5 days) no further issues.