Can not load / boot...

rS · 10-02-2007, 10:11 AM

ok.. had to move my stuff around... and after a few days I put everything back in my room, opened the case and checked all connections, etc.. started playing and about an hour later the pc reboots on its own!

after trying to get boot and log into windows and it reboots itself again.. I can get in via safe mode, tried to restore to a prev day/time.. no good.

I hear no beeps, sounds, smoke, smells, nothing! everytime I get to the log in username and password it goes to log into desktop and then beeps and reboots.

I have tried several restore points, does the same thing over and over.

I am using xp pro, and I can also tell you that I can get into bios and I checked the temps, >50 degrees c.

any ideas?

Soul · 10-02-2007, 10:52 AM

It sounds like something that is loading at startup is the problem.

The event logs say anything interesting?

run msconfig from safe mode and remove all the startup items and reboot into normal and see what it does.

{DvT}JonahHex · 10-02-2007, 11:09 AM

Is your system overclocked? If so, go into the BIOS and reset everything to the default values. When I O/C mine to a certain point it does exactly what you described.

The BIOS reporting a CPU temp in the neighborhood of 50C usually isn't a prob, but you said >50C. How much greater? If this is, in fact, a significant factor, your system specs would help.

Since you mention the temp, have you checked that all of your fans ... case fans, CPU fan, GPU fan, PSU fans ... are functioning properly? Likewise, are all of the fan intakes/outlets on the case unobstructed by dust, etc? The intakes on the front of the case are especially prone to getting clogged up and often require removing the front of the case in order to see what the situation is and to clean properly. Similarly, if your vid card has a housing enclosing the GPU heatsink/fan, has the heatsink become clogged with dust?

rS · 10-02-2007, 12:22 PM

sorry.. missed typo there.. it is 50c and under. I am fighting a huge cold right now and even now again I type barely being able to see the darn screen.

and no it is not overclocked.

and unfortunetly, after trying to repair and restore about a dozen times total.. the hdd was Formated and tried to intall windows again.. but wife says it gets about half way and gives another error.. she wrote it down.. but I am at work. meaning I can not do Soul's suggestion at this point.

{DvT}JonahHex · 10-02-2007, 12:32 PM

If you have formatted the HDD and XP won't install, you aren't far enough along to be able to implement Soul's suggestion. This is sounding like a hardware prob of some sort.

Obviously, the error msg given during the install of XP will help. It still might be a good idea to reset the BIOS to its default values, even if it "should" already be in its default configuration.

What are the system specs? mobo, cpu, vid card, sound card, power supply, ram, case, etc?

rS · 10-02-2007, 02:36 PM

ok.. I am not sure off the top of my head all the spec's... but in a nutshell:

Asus a7nxx motherboard
XP 3700 single core
ATI 1900 video card
2 gb corsair select ram
320 sata III wd hdd
80 sata wd hdd
not sure what dvd I have.
xfi sound card

I have removed the sound card, I have removed 1 then the other hdd and tried to format/install.. and I have removed the dvd player and used an old cdrw burner.. and in ALL instances I get to about 50% copying of files and when it gets to copying tour(x or w or something).exe it fails. It says the image is not the same and that either the cd is not in the drive or the cd is bad. I can hit esc to skip the file then it keeps doing the same for a whole bunch of .dll files.. k.sys, etc.. for a bunch more .sys files it won't copy.

I tried all of this without the mouse being plugged into the usb, and removed the sound card. again.. switched out and reformatted both hdd seperately.. all atttempts fail the same way, at the same point.

the only thing left is the mb, cpu, video and ramm.

ChemicalWarrior · 10-02-2007, 03:22 PM

Clean your XP disc and retry.

Soul · 10-02-2007, 03:29 PM

This sounds oddly familiar, let me see if I can find what caused this for me. Seems to me it was something with the sata drivers.

{OF}Barney_B · 10-02-2007, 04:52 PM

rS, I had the same sort of problems at the beginning of this year. I was using an Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe and an Athlon XP 2700+, ATi x1600 pro video card, Corsair Select 2Gb Ram (probably the same as what you are using), no SATA but two large IDE hard drives and two DVD drives, and an Audigy2 sound card. I had the same problem/problems that you are describing with XP whining about video card conflicts and what not. I removed the sound card, and 1 each hard and DVD drive. I did as Jonah suggested and reset the bios to its default settings several times and each time it seemed to help just a little more. There's a setting in your bios...something about Resources Controled by Auto ESCD. I reset that and rebooted and "voila" everything started to come together. Apparently, allowing the bios to redetect the hardware was the key. I was able to reload XP and get the system running stable again although I never did reinstall the sound card. This system went into my basement collection of neato computers and still performs a multitude of tasks but by the time I figured out what was up with it, I'd already purchased the parts to build a new system which works great. If you go back into the past posts you might find the thread I created during that dreadful time and get an idea of the things that were going in the dumper for me and all the stuff that was suggested, etc. BTW, the video card did/does have a problem but it is still working to this day, color bars and all during bootup. I'm going to run it into the dirt and when it finally dies, I'm contemplating polluting the environment by donating it to the local landfill so centuries from now some archaeologist will dig it up and have a good laugh at primitive 21st century man. (all you tree-huggers can take a valium, I've never thrown anything away computer related...it was a joke, sheesh!!)

Hope this helps.

{DvT}JonahHex · 10-02-2007, 05:19 PM

Barney's ESCD suggestion is a good one.

If that and Chem's clean the CD suggestion don't work, see if you can borrow someone else's CD. The CD key-code is not hard-coded in the CD...any Windows CD (that is the same version of Windoze as yours) will install the O/S using your CD key-code. IOW, the install program doesn't compare your key-code with something on the specific CD; it just uses a formula to determine whether the key-code you enter follows the formula rules.