XP reboots when booting up

Ok, I have a problem and I have not done any new hardware additions to my computer nor have I installed anything. I made a search for "system reboots" and didn't find anything that was like mine.
The problem is that one day my computer was booting up(the animated logo part), then the screen goes black(as it always does before you actually get into Windows), but then instead of the screen turning to the regular blue color, saying "Windows is starting up, Checking Network...,etc" and asking for login, it stayed black and then restarted.
When it restarts it says "Windows has been shutdown" thing with the choice of Safe Modes, Last Know config, and Normal. In the Normal and the Last Good Config modes, Windows gets to the animated logo part, goes black as usual, then instead of going into Windows(blue screen with login window) it stays black and then reboots the system.
When I try the Safe Modes, the system starts listing the files it loads from the "System\" folder. When it gets to "amdagp.sys ", it stops, stay like that for 10-15 seconds, and then restarts.
And so, the loop repeats.

Same error happened twice before, maybe half a year ago, and about a year ago. I reinstalled the OS. Since the problem came back again, I decided to ask here.

I have
AMD Athlon 1.7
512 MB RAM
Nvidia GeForce 4 MX440

 

Welcome sasha, Apparently that's a common problem. Take a look at some of these Google hits on that problem.

And more.

Perhaps try the "Unplug it overnight" remedy. I didn't dig into those very deeply so perhaps there's more.

Good hunting.

 

I have been having the basic same problem. Windows XP pro.. SP1.. goes to boot, and I get a flash of a BSoD, then it goes to reboot, getting the failure to start messages.

I then try to boot into safe mode, but the same thing happens. It doesnt seem to hang on any drivers though...

I tried to use recovery console, but i forgot the admin password. I cant even get the darn thing to boot long enough to turn off the reboot on restart.

any help?

 

Hi neonhomer,

Suggest you start your own thread. Each problem is different and that will avoid confusion.

 

More info on the problem:

I ran the "Disable Reboot on System Failure" option to get a blue screen of death, and i got this STOP log:


--------------------------------------------------------
STOP:c0000218{Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive(file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or its log or alternate.
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable.

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memery dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assitance.
--------------------------------------------------------

Before I used the Disable Reboot option, I thought that it might be a corrupt driver file, so I expanded the \I386\driver.cab files into my System32\drivers\ folder. Since that didn't help I ran the blue screen option and got this log.

My father(he's a network/system admin at his company, he usually has to install OSs on PCs and troubleshoot them) told me to run CHKDSK from the WinXP CD, and that's what I'm doing now. He also said that a registry file error usually means that the system is dead, and that the only sollution is to reinstall.

 

Ok, I made a search on MS website for c0000218, and found an article on what I can do. I will try that now. I will let you know what happens when I'm done.

If anybody needs to know, here's the link to the article:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307545

 

sasha, That MS procedure is a snake pit for most people. If you are able to get through it successfully, it will deliver you a crippled system at best.

Your father is correct, isn't he always, you need to reinstall the OS to get total relief. There are two ways to go about that - you can do a parallel install or a clean install. The parallel install will allow you to keep all of your personal data files while the clean install will wipe everything out.

Choose based on your available backups and the value of your data.

I also would recommend that you run the manufacturers diagnostics on that hard drive since the track record is pointing to a possible drive problem.

Instructions for a parallel install:

http://www.windowsreinstall.com/winxphome/installxpcdparallell/index.htm

Good luck.

 

Microsoft agrees completely with surferdude2.

So it's really designed to get you running just long enough to recover your data and then reload the OS.

And the other caution they mention while it speaks of OEM systems is an all too frequent happening with pure M$ XP systems as well. If it goes wrong, you are dead.