Do I have an infection or bad hardware?

When I turn on my computer it goes to the log in screen then won't let me log in. I will try to log in and it starts then immediately logs off and goes back to the log in screen. I have tried to log in under safe mode and the same thing happens. I tried booting to the c: prompt and it again goes directly to the log in screen and still I can't go anywhere. Some one told me that a bad motherboard will sometimes cause these type of problems. I am currently testing my memory and motherboard to see if there may be an error there. Has anyone else faced this type of problem? I am relatively near an expert at troubleshooting and this one has me stumped. Please help!!! TIA

Chris

 

Which version of windows are you running?

 

I am running Windows XP. I tested the motherboard and memory and it is fine.

 

Try booting to the recovery console and running

Code:

chkdsk c: /r

. You will need to watch the chkdsk run to see what it fixes since you may not be able to open the applications event log where details will be stored in an event from Winlogon.

 

Do you mean to boot from the XP CD and goto the recovery section to run chkdsk or from hitting F8 from the boot menu?

 

Boot to the CD. Go to recovery console and run the chkdsk from the command prompt.