Resolved pc not booting

Hi all

here is my problem. i have a pc running xp pro sp2. 1st all it would do is switch on for 1 second then power off itself, i diagnosed all problems (RAM, processor, PSU, IDE cables, everything,) and turns out my motherbaord was failing.

So i replaced my motherboard and whala, pc boots up, but now it boots only to the xp boot screen then restarts, i have tried safe mode (normal) safe mode with networking, safe mode with command promps, last know good configuration and starting normally but nothing, (in safe mode it comes past mup.sys to a bthidmgr.sys and then reboots again. also dont have an option to disable automatic restart upon system failure to see whther or not i get a BSOD thats causing this..

tried booting from my xp recovery disk to do a system repair or atleast a chkdsk in recovery console but as soon as i get past the part it says "press F2 for automated system recovery" the computer shuts itself down, not even a restart, just a complete system shutdown.

Any help in fixing this matter (without having to format and re-install) would be very much appreciated.

 

I would first run the manufacturers diagnostics for your hard drive. You will have to take a look at your hard drive for the make and model number then do a search for "(Manufacturer name) hard drive diagnostics" find the download for Dos (CD). You will then need to burn the diagnostics .ISO file to a CD and then boot the PC with the disk in the CD drive. Be sure that you burn the file as an .ISO (image file). You can use this free software to burn the CD http://www.isoimageburner.com/

Lets see how this goes and we can take it from there.

It will also help if you follow this instruction.

 

ok before i do that, i have a seagate drive with windows installed and a western digital installed with windows also, wot are the odds of both drives failing because this is doing it on both drives, individually connected.

 

I'd say the odds are very slim.

Did you run a full diagnostics test in dos for the memory?

Do you have more than one memory module, if so take one out and try to boot normally. If you have more than two memory modules take each one out in turn.

If you only have one memory module try this test.

 

i used both modules in the pc im working on now and they work fine, so cant be my memory...

 

I don't know what else to suggest. Personally I would run the diagnostics I suggested on the hard drives and the memory just to be sure and then try to do a full (not quick) format and a clean install of Windows. Unless you have a faulty CPU or the new motherboard has a fault (unlikely but not impossible) there is little else it could be apart from a virus on the hard drive/s.

I am at this point assuming you installed all the correct motherboard chipset drivers.

 

ok im gonna do some more diagnostics, but i dont think this is w driver problem, the pc was working fine till we had a power failure and thejn it started doin this. i hvae a very good idea it must be hardware related and possible something to do with my drives ( but cant understand why both my drives would do that)

As for the format and clean install, its gonna be a bit difficult to do since the pc shuts itself down when i boot from the recovery cd.

i will keep on trying and if i manage ill post the solution here to he;lp out others aswell.

Thank yu for all your help mikemandras

 

I have to ask, after you installed the new mobo did you do a XP Repair install from the second R. In general this is required after a change of Motherboard to be able to boot into Windows normally.
hawk22

 

First and foremost: Did you install the new MOBO drivers???

From this statement it is fairly clear that the power failure was the cause, why didn't you mention that before. I have seen it cause all sorts of problems before. It can corrupt the hard drive when the power fails and cause damage when the power comes back on due to power surges. Were both drives connected when you had the power failure, it may have corrupted both of them.

The diagnostics CD's, when you have burned them, should boot the PC into DOS so they should run unless there is some other damage to the PC.

This is the problem we need to solve, something will be causing this, most likely is a corrupted hard drive. The tests will reveal any physical damage.
Get the test run on the drives and please also test the memory modules.

 

Thanks akll for the replies.

the motherboard i installed is exactly the same as the previous one that failed, exactly same make and model and like i said in my first post, even when booting from the recovery cd to do a system repair, it would shut itself down after reaching the point of "press F2 for automated system recovery ".

Besides the point, i took my HD out and hooked it up to another pc and backed up all my files, did n check disk through tune up utilities 2007 and it found some errors on my HD.

So the long and short of the story ---> HD problems after power failure, did a check disk, backup and re-install windows and currently it is running past the point where i used to fail.

So i presume the power failure damaged some sectors of my HD but i got it working again now.

Thanx all for the help and ill post on other problems if i can help out also with some advice

 

Freakinacage, well done, got there in the end

Glad to hear it is up and running again but I would still advise you to run the manufacturers diagnostics on the hard drive/s just so you can see what state of health it is in.

I would also advise you (for your own security) to upgrade to SP3. SP2 is no longer supported.

 

will do that (the upgrade to SP3) and ill be sure to do the manufacturer's diagnostics on my drive to see the health.

All help from you experts are very much appreciated.

Thanx a milion

 

Your welcome.

Please mark the post as resolved, but first, it would be of interest to see what the diagnostics find, or if it was just down to file corruption.

 

sorry for taking so long to post my reply, was out of town.

anyway, did the diagnostics on my drives and all turned out fine, would say my problems was corrupted files or something on my drive, sinple backp and formaty solved my problem.

thanx all for the help and i got this working again.

Problem resolved.

 

Thanks for letting us know and happy to help