HELP! XP Pro won't boot past boot menu

[tviman]

I've just finished reinstalling Win XP Pro on a 250gb drive. I first scrubbed the drive clean to remove traces of info and possible viruses. Power-cycled the machine and it comes to the boot option screen - safe mode, safe mode with networking, etc. Regardless of the selection, it keeps returning to this screen. I pulled all unnecessary hardware and add-in cards and swapped memory with known-working chips. Still won't boot beyond the boot menu screen.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!!!

 

[flyboytim]

It seems that everything has not been configured correctly -you have little alternative than to boot from the install CD and perform a repair install.

 

[tviman]

Flyboytim - Did that twice! Still no luck. Something new... pulled the drive and put it in another machine - boots without issues!

I'm thinking it's a motherboard issue now.

Ideas?

 

[BadBigBen]

go into the BIOS setup, there load DEFAULT VALUES, EXIT and SAVE...

see if that helps you further...

other than that, take a close look at the capacitors on the mainboard, if they are bulging or leaking, then get a new mainboard...


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"

 

[tviman]

Hi Ben! Thanks for the reply. I should have said in my initial post that I had set the BIOS back to the default values. I've narrowd it down to either the MB or the drive firmware. The drive is Western Digital and I've seen their drive firmware go into la-la land for not apparant reason. The MB is from Dell and as yet I don't see anything physical that would lead me to think its bad but it could still have a crack someplace or one of the caps is cooked internally. (The power supply voltage at the motherboard connections is spot-on.)

As a side note, I just put the drive into a 3rd machine and had a lot of trouble booting, but it finally got there. Put it back into the original machine and got the "no boot device found" error. Put it back in the other machine and it booted right up. I think the drive is heading for the border.

 

[linney]

If it boots try running ChkDsk to check your drive for errors. Right-click your Drive icon/ Properties/ Tools/ Error Checking. Try it first by not checking either box (Read-only mode) to see if it flags any hard drive or file problems. If it does, start by ticking both boxes, in any further rerun.

You could also try ChkDsk /r from the Recovery Console if you load it, you could also look at things like FixMbr, FixBoot, and BootCfg, while you are in that.

How to install and use the Recovery Console in Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307654&FR=1&PA=1&SD=HSCH

A Discussion About the Bootcfg Command and Its Uses

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q291/9/80.asp

Perhaps this is what you should try first.

The hard drive manufacturer will have free diagnostic software that is bootable, or that may even run from within Windows, that will thoroughly check the condition of your hard drive.

 

[flyboytim]

Information gleaned:

Problem setup:

Dell Motherboard -BIOS reset to Default, Voltages seem OK
Memory OK, unnecessary expansion cards removed.

Western Digital 250MB hard drive

Windows XP Installed OK, but does not boot beyond Windows Advanced Options Menu (otherwise accessed using F8 at boot-up)(1)

Hard drive boots OK (without issues)on second system(2), intermittently on third system(3).

On (1) with Hard drive installed, switch on and enter the BIOS.
Is the drive recognised correctly with the correct capacity? Does the BIOS read the firmware ID of the Disk?
SATA/IDE set correctly?
Is it set as the primary master?
Is the boot sequence correct?

Repeat the process on (2) and (3), noting any differences.

Is it possible to change any BIOS setting on (1) to be the same as (2)?

 

[G0AOZ]

I'd also try running a test on the RAM, something like memtest86.

http://www.memtest.org/

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[LilBob]

You may also want to try running WD's Data Lifeguard Tools & run the diagnostics from there. It's a free download available at:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Hard-Disk-Utils/Western-Digital-Data-Lifeguard-Tools.shtml

They've since stopped supporting that tool & now have a new one called Acronis. Also free & available at:

http://support.wdc.com/product/downloaddetail.asp?swid=119&wdc_lang=en

Hope these help.

LilBob