Windows never loads, reboots over and over...

defender

defender

defender

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URGENT! Windows never loads, reboots over and over...

It's been a while since I've visited these forums, but I gotta problem and could really do with a hand here!

As mentioned, my computer keeps rebooting itself over and over. It brings up the loading Windows XP screen but simply reboots without Windows ever loading. I'm not getting a BSOD, although I managed to get one once while playing around with a stop error.

I have a hunch it may be my hard drive since it usually makes a lot more noise while the computer is booting up than it is now with this problem. I've tried the safe modes, last known configuration, etc but no matter what I do it just reboots the computer.

Unfortunately, I can't find my Windows XP CD so can't do a repair installation right now. I'm gonna see if I can find a spare hard disk to swap to see what difference that makes, although I guess that could complicate things even more.

The funny thing is that the machine was working fine last night but this morning it suddenly decided it didn't like me! I did a bit of searching and came across a couple of forums where they mentions a "security descriptor" problem but that seems to relate to XP Home where as I use XP Professional Edition, so I don't think it's that, although the symptoms are similar.

I'd appreciate any advice I can get!

Cheers!
 
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I had this problem once and after searching around for awhile i found the following solution: Switch off pc and unplug it, once it is unplugged press the power button in and hold it in for 60 seconds. Then plug in and boot up. I have no idea what it does but it worked for me....think its something to do with resetting something on the mobo, or battery, or static....cant remember
 
I had this problem once and after searching around for awhile i found the following solution: Switch off pc and unplug it, once it is unplugged press the power button in and hold it in for 60 seconds. Then plug in and boot up. I have no idea what it does but it worked for me....think its something to do with resetting something on the mobo, or battery, or static....cant remember
Click to expand...

hmmmmmm
 
Hi, have you checked your RAM with memtest or removing one stick if you are using 2 sticks. I had a P4 that did this, and it was the RAM. Everything I went to including safe mode, last known good configuration, none would boot. Deffo try RAM first.

Failing that, try a re-install of windows somehow, like borrowing an XP version if you have a valid and legal win XP key that you can enter into the software to activate it.

Hope this helps

Anthony
 
Well, no luck so far...

I'm pretty sure it's a knackered hard disk, but I'm praying it isn't as I have TONS (and I mean TONS) of data that I can't afford to lose as this is the PC I run my business from!

I've opened the machine up and given everything a good clean, changed the hard disk's IDE cable and did a Windows XP repair installation but it's exactly the same. It simply reboots itself after the Windows XP loading screen.

I'm in the process of downloading a Live Linux ISO (zoneCD do the trick?) to see what I can do with that, and am about to open the machine up again and check the RAM sticks.

Any other suggestions are MUCH appreciated!

Cheers,
Zahid
 
well i would take the drive out and stick it in a second system as a secondary drive and copy / backup your data 1st (providing the data is ok)
 
<maddness> said:
well i would take the drive out and stick it in a second system as a secondary drive and copy / backup your data 1st (providing the data is ok)
Click to expand...

That's the plan, although my other machine died a couple of months ago and I never fixed it. I'm sure I can find a friend though who can help with that though.
 
utherpendragon said:
Try a linux live boot disk, see if it loads can rule out hardware then.
Click to expand...
Okay, just tried a Linux CD and got this message...

Can not continue... no certificate available.
sh: no job control in this shell
sh-3.00#

Any ideas?
 
Okay, I got a Slax Linux CD burned and I was able to boot from it just fine. What's more I can access my hard disk without a problem which is a huge relief! Thanks utherpendragon for letting me know about that option!

I also did some diagnosing and realised that the noise which I mentioned in my original post that I attributed to my hard disk may actually be coming from the motherboard, possible the chipset fan or something around it.

Whereas when the computer was working, it would be really loud and obvious but it now only occurs after leaving the PC off for a while and not every time like before, but regardless I still can't get Windows to load. I've also tested both RAM sticks which are fine.

Right now I'm stumped... I still can't figure out whether it's a hardware or software problem and this is quite urgent now.

Any ideas why my computer would reboot itself before Windows loads? Like I said, there's no BSOD and there's no sign of anything loading, it just reboots at the end of the loading Windows screen.

Thanks in advance!

P.S. If anyone can help me work this out, I'll PayPal you £20 as soon as I've got it fixed!
 
Have you tried running memtest to check the RAM hasn't given up the ghost? Also what sort of noise are you hearing? High pitch noise can often be attributed to capacitors squealing. In which case i would say it was your mobo, but you'd need to try and reinstall windows to make sure thats its not just a AWOL installation.
 
It's not either of the RAM sticks and I no longer feel it's the HDD.

I've uploaded a mp3 recording I made of the noise made when the computer boots up. The "racing car" noise I mentioned kicks in after 2-3 seconds...

http://www.uploading.com/?get=TBRYI9KW

Is MemTest a Windows program? If so, I can't run it since I can't access Windows. I'll have a look to see if Slax has anything that I can test the memory with.

Another thing...

I've been doing some more testing, and I did manage to get into safe mode but because I had run a repair installation of Windows XP it wanted to finalise the installation which it couldn't from safe mode so there was nothing I could do apart from restart the computer. I also found that if chose the debugging mode I would get a BSOD with a stop error (0x0000007F). Not sure if that helps?

Cheers!
 
K... listening to that sound clip... sounds very much like when my old laptop fan started to die, so most definately a fan sound IMO. Have you checked your fans to see that they are all running? The only other component that would make a sound that obvious would be a hard drive, but it does not sound like one to me. Plus the 1-2 second silence before the noise starts is like my old fan dying, it only starts at full speed which takes 1-2 seconds to get going fully.

Memtest is available from here: http://www.memtest86.com/ and you can either copy it to a floppy, or burn it to .ISO CD. Then change BIOS to start from floppy/CD and it will run from there on next boot. It does not require windows which is why its such a handy diag tool.
 
Sounds like the chipset fan,unhook its connector (if it has one) with the side off pc to confirm.You can do same with other fans except cpu to find out.
I got this off other site
The Abit active NB (Northbridge) fans are developing a notorious reputation for failure. Mine started acting up after 6 months, very noisy, sometimes dropping to 300RPM or stopping completely. Fortunately some WD40 on the bearings has remedied the problem for the moment. But if problems persist, I recommend replacement w/ a real NB fan (e.g., Zalman(silent) or Thermalright NB-1 or NB-1C) since an Abit replacement fan will only fail again.
http://www.sharkyforums.com/showthread.php?t=279735

On the reboot issue,had that with a mates recently.Was sp2 included on xp cd? did you have sp2 installed before?.A bios update sorted it out eventually,maybe give that a shot.
Unfortunately these random reboots are hard to troubleshoot but it sounds like something at the hardware level possibly motherboard.You might try reseating/cleaning cpu hsf and any spare parts like psu,gfx card,mem if you have them.Best of luck
 
Thanks for the replies...

I've spent the entire day trying to work this out! So far, I've managed to hook up a spare hard disk as the master and installed Windows XP on it. It seems I can boot from the new disk without any problems, and I CAN access the old disk which I set as the slave disk (THANK GOD!!) so I don't have to worry about losing my files!

Having said that, I'm still intent of fixing this problem as I want to continue using the original hard disk assuming it's not damaged. Now that I've managed to boot successfully from a new hard disk at least I know I don't have any dodgy hardware (well, apart from the northbridge fan which is a seperate issue and not a priority right now). However, two repair installations of Windows XP didn't help and I really don't want to have to go to formatting the hard disk unless I really have to.

Hmmmm, I'm wondering... if the computer works absolutely fine booting from another hard disk, then does that mean that my original hard disk is dodgy or the Windows installation is corrrupt somehow? If I can access the hard disk and write to it then it wouldn't be a physical problem would it, unless it only affected areas with data related to the boot-up? But if it was a Windows issue then a re-installation should have fixed it?

Because time is of the essence now I want to solve this as quick as possible. Based on what I've said, what do you guys think is the next step in diagnosing this problem?

Thanks again!
 
Download Speedfan http://www.almico.com/sfdownload.php, once installed and running click the S.M.A.R.T tab, choose your hard drive with the fault then click on 'perform an in-depth online analysis of this hard disk'. This should show the condition of your drive, if its poor or fatal even then you know its a knackered hard drive, if all good then it may well just be a corrupt Windows install.

All though not conclusive this should give a good idea which is at fault. Oh and get that fan sorted ASAP lol :)
 
I'd stop fairying around, TBH.

Backup all of your data, then run the manufacturer's diagnostic software on it - run the Quick/Basic test, then Advanced/Thorough.

If all is well, format the harddrive, reinstall XP and be thankful you managed to grab your data from the drive.

You'd probably spend more time messing around trying to get XP to bootup, than it would to install XP and software in 90 minutes.
 
Ok, here's the latest update...

I downloaded Western Digital's hard drive diagnostic software and did both the quick and the advanced test on my disk and everything seems absolutely fine. Strangely enough, my "spare" hard disk didn't pass even the quick test so I won't be using that as a backup disk for sure!

I also run MemTest which came out fine, and did an online hard disk check with SpeedFan and everything's fine there too... so it looks like my hard disk is just fine? So it must be some corrupt Windows files I guess. If it was due to another piece of hardware being faulty then I wouldn't be able to boot from the spare hard disk.

I also noticed that when I tried to load Windows in safe mode it rebooted just after trying to load the agp440.sys file, so I've tried using the XP CD to load the recovery console and disabling the agp440 service, but that didn't work either. I've tried a difference graphics card too, and I've also tried updating the BIOS software which has not made a difference.

Any other ideas guy? I'm gonna keep at this for another hour or so, if I can't crack it I'll have no other choice but to reformat and install a fresh copy of Windows. I REALLY don't want to do that because of all the software applications I have set up and the tons of backing up I'll have to do beforehand!

Thanks!
 
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