Windows Boot prob

[Super Stall]

Happy New Year,

but not for my comp. Left my puter alone for a few moments whilst surfing, only to return to find it had rebooted. So logged on again. It booted/loaded as far as my desktop without any problems but then after about 15 secs it restarted again with no warnings at all (defo not Sasser, been through that RPC business abot 18 months ago).

This time XP advised there was a prob with C drive and automatically ran DSKCHK (or was it CHKDSK?) which passed all 3 stages.

However on booting same thing happened again this time CHKDSK found a number of corrupted files, but this all flashed pass too quickly to see what was going on. Now Windows wont boot at all.

Pretty sure its not a virus or other nasty as I run a pretty tight ship, but anyway transfered the HD to another comp, checked it for errors/virus/spyware and there appears to be no probs.

Data loss not a problem as I backup to a second HD using Drive Image and any other data has been recovered using second comp and original HD.

Now to the questions.

Is it corrupted windows boot type files that are causing the problems?

Bought the PC from a major supplier and only have a recovery disk. Can I re-install windows from scratch using this? Because.....

I've tried he 3 options to repair from the recovery menu which appears to have been provided by the manufacturer. Cant remember the name of the first but it did nothing. The second was to repair the boot section of windows but failed because the files were too corrupted (that souded serious ). The third was to return to manufacturers original state (I could then recover using image on second HD). This looked promising with much whirring and preparing of files but failed when system rebooted with same problems half way through.

I've recently built a computer so dont mind getting my fingures dirty experimenting and I'm as keen to know how/why as I am to fix it but I've tried googling and once I get into boot disks and command prompts its all a bit beyond me.

Any help/explanations as always gratefully received.

Athlon 3000+
1GB Ballistix
XP SP2
120GB HD
80 GB HD

[flybhx]

It's possible that the boot sectors on the hard drive are damaged which is why it cant go back to its original state. I believe that you can block out the relevant bad sectors but that is beyond my skill level.

[Super Stall]

Mmm..... After further investigation methinks this could be expensive.

I removed the HD from my second comp and put it in the broken one and the samething happened, including CHKDSK and a handful of corrupt files. I thnk I may of caught sight of a desktop.ini file and the string $I30 kept appearing. Replaced HD in second comp and all well again.

I'm presuming that although the second comp had a different proc (2800+) and MB it should be stable in windows. It ran briefly and found all the new hardware but then rebooted and rebooted....etc.

I'm starting to think either the PSU, Proc or MB may be borked.

Anyway of checking these items, any ideas?

by the way MB Asus A7N8x 2.0 delux
Galaxy Glacier 6800GT
Audigy 2 ZS soundcard

[maxell]

Have you checked the heatsink on the processor to see if its clear and not blocked with dust could be an overheat shutdown of the processor or the power pack may be failing or overheating
Had a similar problem on an Athlon 2800 and had to remove the cooling fan from the processor heatsink and brush out the heatsink it was that bad compressed air would not shift it

[Super Stall]

Cleaned heatsink and given the psu a 'hoover' and still the same problem. Temp and voltages all appear normal.

I have been able to boot to windows again, and if I logon as another user can keep it stable for a while longer, but if I try to run any progs at all system restarts.

Running out of idea's.

[maxell]

Have you got two sticks of RAM in the comp if so try removing one maybe one stick is failing, only other thing i can think of is a video card fail or corrupt drivers, or maybe an IRQ conflict with vid card and something else

Max

[Toxteth O'Grady]

As mentioned above sounds like a memory or possibly power problem.

Install Speedfan amd check stability of Vcore, +3.3, +5 and +12 voltages in the readings tab. If any are dropping significantly below nominal values you may have too weak or failing PSU.

What PSU do you have? Post the +3.3, +5 and +12 Amp ratings (see label on side of PSU). Have you added extra h/w or USB devices recently that would increase power consumption required?

Alternatively try disconnecting/removing all components except graphics card, 1 hard disk, 1 stick of memory and CPU of course.

Try booting from there. If that works add components one at a time (in order of importance to you) until you reach a config that won't boot.

Have you looked in System Information and Device Manager for problem devices?

To check whether it's your memory that's the problem, download Memtest86 . Install it onto a floppy and then boot from the floppy. The tests will run automatically on boot. Don't be daunted by the GUI, it's very easy to use.

HTH

[Super Stall]

Hoorah...Problem solved.

Thanks Guys for all your help. I did actually have a copy of Memtest but hadn't run it as to me it didn't seem like a memory problem.

1X512mb stick is completely borked and fails every test at every address, the other is ok. The good news is they are only a couple of months old. Bought them as a matched pair so they will both be going back tomorrow.

Bit annoying though as a thought I was buying top notch quality stuff (£180 quids worth of Crucial Ballistix DDR400).

Thanks again.