Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Hello all,

Well, stuck for a few ideas now. I have a PC running XP Pro and everytime it gets to the Windows XP Pro screen with the scrolling bar after a few seconds the PC reboots. I've replaced the PSU and the CPU fan with no change, any ideas?

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

First thing I would check is that the heatsink is making good contact with the CPU. I had this exact same problem, and I tried a different video card, RAM, PSU, HDD...basically everything under the sun.

It turned out that when I installed my new heatsinks 2 weeks earlier, I had forgotten to clean off the sticky stuff left behind by the clear protective film on the bottom of the 'sink. I cleaned the 'sinks and CPU's with some Isopropyl Alcohol, re-applied some Arctic Silver and replaced the 'sinks. Problem solved.

Worth a shot if nothing else works. :)

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Already tried that too, and put in a new fan, yet the problem is unchanged.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Have you tried booting to safe mode, sometimes a dodgy driver or service can make the comp reboot. :(

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Yep, just tried 'safe mode', 'command prompt', 'last known...' (it automatically goes shoes these options becuase of it failing to shut down properly) etc all with the same result, gets to the logo screen with the blue scrolling bar underneath, then reboots.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

I had the same problem with mine and it was the RAM do you know anyone who you could borrow some memory from??

Its worth a shot!

Cheers

DJ

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Could try taking it out of this PC.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

If it turns out the RAM is fine, try taking everything out of the case bit by bit, making sure there is no dust in PCI or RAM slots or anywhere that it shouldn't be - dust can make components overheat.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Gone through that now, still no joy :bigcry:

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Have you tried booting from you XP disk, and seeing how far you get, if the PC stays up for a while it may just be your install of XP thats causing the problem, if thats the case then its just a simple reinstall and you'll be up and running again in a couple of hours :)

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

bit of a long shot, but have you tried doing a surface scan of your hard disk? - it may be possible there are a couple of dodgy sectors that are trying to be accessed when the system is allocating the swap file?

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Just been tryinh to do that now, doesn't seem to want to do that at the moment... maybe I'll just through it out of the window instead!!! :D

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

So far then, you've tried cleaning everything, cleaning and re-seating the heatsink and a different PSU. Did you try different RAM?

All that's left to try is a different HDD and video card, and if they don't work then the board could be flakey.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Yeah, it was a different make ram, took it out of this PC, swapped them around & booted ok on this PC and same probs on the other. I'm really begining to think kicking the hell out of it sounds pretty good about now :ninja: :devsmoke:

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Same here, it was faulty RAM that caused exactly the same thing with me.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

I recently had a lot of trouble with one of the companys PC's corrupting files. I started to think it was the hard drive, but after replacing the ram the problem stopped.

For some reason Ram is the most common component to fail where I work. The hard drives just seem to keep going on forever.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Have you tried a repair install from the CD?

If you want to TEST the memory, I can recommend Memtest386, this is a free download (find it on Google, don't remember site) which creates a bootable floppy.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Having a few problems getting the PC to boot from CD, basically it won't. Can get it to boot from a floppy, but it then doesn't pick up the HD :confused:

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

To test the memory go to http://www.memtest86.com and download their tool - create a boot floppy and let it run all the way through, doing all tests - someone I know, most of them passed fine, but some of the last pattern tests failed....

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Thank, will give the test a shot & see what happens

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

if not why not try downloading this boot cd

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

its has lots of diag tools on it including specific ones for different makes of hard drives!!

Cheers

DJ

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

It probably doesn't see the HDD cos it's formatted NTFS.

Does your BIOS support boot from CD? Is it set to boot from CD? If yes to both, try CD in a known good PC (just read CD), if that's ok, you may have a duff CD drive.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Have you made any other hardware changes previous to this happening?

I have had some Major troubles every time I upgrade. Seems to me that XP pro hates component changes and causes Boot failures. First time I noticed it was when I changed the Motherboard. But I have had subsequent failures with new GF FX card, new CPU and a new soundcard (although I suspect that was the down to the fact it seemed VERY loose in the PCI slot ((so I moved it)) )

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

The HD is formatted as NTFS, and it does support booting from CD, but at the moment its just not liking it.

I've not made any hardware changes to this PC for roughly a year, accept for a new PSU bought last month. Things started to go pear shaped about a month ago when it kept randomly shutting down, so I thought it might have been the PSU as it was making some pretty bad nosies prior to shutting down. The new PSU did seem to solve the problem for about a week or so.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

If you boot with a floppy, does the comp stay up for a while or does it reboot like when it's loading widows. If it stays up then that may be an indication that its a software problem not hardware :)

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

eddie: did you change the boot order in the BIOS? Probably a silly question, but you never know...

Also, what size/brand PSU do you have? Not all PSU's are equal. An Antec PSU could give out more power than a cheapo of the same wattage if you see what I mean.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Yeah, changed the boot order. Been able to play about with it today, & the hd might be the problem. Plugged it into this Pc & got the same problem. Tried to reinstall XP using this PC and have been unable to install it. Looks like a new HD is in order.

Re: Fail to boot XP Pro
 

Looks as though it was the HD. Plugged it into this PC and had the same problem, so then formatted it and then attempted to reinstall XP but was unable to do it. Put in another HD I had, installed XP no problem, plugged it into the other PC and booted up fine.

Thanks for all the help and ideas :D