Fail to boot XP Pro

eddie00001 · 13-03-2004, 14:07

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?

Semi On · 13-03-2004, 14:14

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.

eddie00001 · 13-03-2004, 14:17

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

Shaun · 13-03-2004, 14:24

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

eddie00001 · 13-03-2004, 14:30

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.

The_real_dj · 13-03-2004, 14:31

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

eddie00001 · 13-03-2004, 14:45

Could try taking it out of this PC.

Semi On · 13-03-2004, 14:54

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.

eddie00001 · 13-03-2004, 15:17

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semi On

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.

Gone through that now, still no joy

Shaun · 13-03-2004, 15:21

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

13-03-2004, 15:24

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?

eddie00001 · 13-03-2004, 15:24

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!!!

Semi On · 13-03-2004, 15:26

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.

eddie00001 · 13-03-2004, 15:35

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

imback · 13-03-2004, 16:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by The_real_dj

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

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