Win XP keeps rebooting

My Desktop PC cannot boot properly. I am sending this desperately from my notebook.

During cold booting, a message says "NTLDR Missing, Press Ctrl-Alt-Del ". I did that and it boots OK, the desktop screen with my program icons appear normally, after the Windows XP splash logo. Then things go bad. Sometimes, the screen freezes. Then it may start to reboot by itself and the cycle repeats or loops through endlessly. At other times, the screen just freezes with no reboot.

As I have unchecked the Automatic Restart box (under Control Panel, System, Startup & Recovery), I expected to see a Blue Screen of Death with diagnostic info. but no, it just reboots by itself (or freezes)

I have booted into Safe Mode, ran anti-virus software: SmitFraudFix, SDFix, RegFix, XSoft, SpyBot, AdAware 2008, AVG 2008. I think I am clear of malware, virus, trojans.

I have a fan blowing at the PC to prevent overheating, and I am in an airconditioned room.

I am on a Win XP SP2 system, with AMD Athlon 64 x 2 Dual Core 4200 CPU, NVIDIA GeForce 7300 LE, 8gb RAM, two hard drives - one partitioned as C and F, the other one as G, CD Drive (D), DVD drive (E), Floppy Drive (B). BIOS is American Megatrends Inc Ver 80013, MSI Motherboard MS 7260. Dual monitors - Samsung 19" and 17 ".

 

Hi hotjava. Your problem seems to be related to hardware. You say you have 8GB RAM. Are you running Win XP 64 Bit ? Try running memcheck on memory stick. Also the NTLDR message may mean that your boot hard disk is going south. Run chkdsk /r on it.

Also try swapping power supply.

 

HotJava, your problem is the AMD processor. You have to boot into safe mode and delete a line in the WIN/sys32 directory. Go to the HP website and look for more information. There are several threads on this BBS about this problem. Do not worry, you will be able to fix it! Now relax

 

Here is a link:

http://www.windowsbbs.com/windows-x...ntinual-reboot-after-installing-sp3-more.html

 

SP3? But he is using SP2

The AMD issue is only on OEM machines in which OS has been mastered for Intel but installed on AMD.

 

Sorry, I dont follow your advice. Which line in WIN/Sys32 do I delete?
Incidentally, I am not using a HP desktop.

 

One of the previous writers claimed that your problem did not arise from installing SP3, so I do not think my fix is relevant to your situation. If it does have something to do with SP3 write again and I will post the fix here which was sent to me by HP.

 

There you have it. No mention of SP3.

 

I am using Win XP 128 bit. I've just run an extended test on my RAM chips using Windows Memory Diagnostic. Everything normal there.

I doubt the glitch is due to my hard disk or Power Supply Unit. This is because when I'm in Safe Mode, everything is extremely stable. Not one freeze, not a single reboot under Safe Boot.

Someone suggested I reinstalled the Win XP system files from the Win XP CD. Unfortunately, I lost the Win XP CD when I moved house recently. None of my friends have a suitable Win XP CD ROM. They either have a Win CD for HP, Acer, DELL or Fujitsu PCs, which is incompatible with my MSI Mobo.

Given the increasingly hopeless situation, I am rapidly being driven towards the option of going out to buy Windows Vista, reformat my hard drive C and start life afresh. Vista, I understand, is more robust than XP. I guess I've to check if the drivers of my AMI BIOS need upgrading to handle Vista.

My daughter has also urged me to buy the Apple iBook Pro. Because Apple makes both the software and hardware, there's just much fewer problems with the MAC.

 

hotjava,

What year are you living in ?

In year 2008 [as far as I know] there are only 2 version of Windows XP - 32 bit and 64 bit and if Microsoft would have its way, there would not be any Win XP 128 bit - not now or in future.

 

Have you run chkdsk on your hard disk ?

 

Yes, I ran chkdsk /r. Nothing unusual there.

 

Shotgun these procedures.

May or may not be a fix but will cover many bases!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Download Dial-A-Fix (DAF)
http://wiki.djlizard.net/Dial-a-fix#...C_and_articles

Have XP CD available in case DAF needs a file.

Check all boxes on the screen (clear any restrictions if it shows any)
Then click GO!

When the entire page is finished click the HammerHead at bottom to go to the second DAF page.

Here 1 at a time do the below

Reinstall BITS
Reinstall Windows Firewall
Repair Permissions
Reset networking
Reset WMI/WBEM

Watch for any File not found or other errors and make note as this may lead to the fix!

Reboot retest!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Then do this even if above sucessful!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clean and update Java
Cleanup old Java and update to newest version this program will do it all for you.

Download JavaRa http://prm753.bchea.org/JavaRa.html

Unzip it, run it, cleanup old versions then use the update, chose Jucheck first and if you do not have Jucheck then chose Update using Sun. Then click Additional tasks and check "remove Useless JRE files.

Lastly:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Clean and tweak services

In services stop and disable all of the below just to get them out of the way for now for trouble shooting purposes.

Nothing is un-installed or deleted only disabled from running!

They can be put back anytime later but I would not, as none of them are needed by most home users and very few business users. Basically stuff M$ thought you should have.

Disabled uses no memory (RAM) and no CPU cycles.
Manual uses the RAM but a small amount of CPU.
Auto and not started they use even more RAM and CPU.
Auto and started even more RAM and CPU ..

Now in this case we disabling for trouble shooting purposes. But when we finish if you leave them all off until it is noticed that you need one (not likely for 99%) then it can be enabled.

Leaving these all off, then becomes a performance tweak/boost as they free some RAM and CPU cycles! Special note. If you are going to pick and choose then be aware that the small amount of RAM and CPU cycles of each one individually is not significant but as a group it is! So if you need most of them (or just think you do because you don't) then just as well enable them all)!

DNS Client
Fast User switching
Indexing service
Messenger
Net logon
Net.TCP Port Sharing
NetMeeting Remote Desktop Sharing
IPsec services
QoS RSVP
Remote Registry
Uninterruptable power supply
Universal Plug and play
Web Client
Windows media player Network Sharing

IF you are using a wired network card and "NOT" using wireless on this computer then you can
also disable

Wireless Zero configuration

This is only used on computers with a wireless NIC like a Laptop. Do not disable Wireless Zero configuration on a Laptop. Has nothing to do with other wireless hardware like wireless routers etc.

In short if this computer has a CAT 5 or 6 cable and no ability to connect wirelessly if that cable is unplugged, then you can disable Wireless Zero configuration.

This is not to be confused with Wired Auto Config do not disable that!

Mike

 

The problem has worsened now. The PC would hanged during the bootup. C'ant even boot to Safe Mode.

I've swapped a new Power Supply, new Power On switch, installed an additional fan to cool the processor. It boots up for a while, but then quickly hangs again, even in Safe Mode. It's a major hardware problem now. Does it mean things are beyond repair at a reasonable cost now?