Tek-Tips is the largest IT community on the Internet today!
Members share and learn making Tek-Tips Forums the best source of peer-reviewed technical information on the Internet!
-
Congratulations gkittelson on being selected by the Tek-Tips community for having the most helpful posts in the forums last week. Way to Go!
PC Keeps rebooting 1
- Thread starter gersfeld
- Start date
-
1
- #2
- Thread starter
- #3
When it comes up with the option screen for safe mode, etc.; if I remember correctly each of the menu items has a number - can you select the item using either of the numeric keys?
Can you boot off a floppy or CD?
If you don't touch anything does it boot, if not what happens?
Can you boot off a floppy or CD?
If you don't touch anything does it boot, if not what happens?
- Thread starter
- #5
First of all I admit I am one of those poeple that does not make a boot disk, so the floppy isn't an option.
It does boot after I am not able to choose anything and comes to the black windows screen like windows desktop is just about to start,but instead it starts all over again ad would just keep on doing that if I did not shut it down.
Today I am going to try a few things.....and btw I DID try the number keys and no they don't work either.
First gonna check the pwr supply..got a thing to check that.
Then I'm going to try the memory chips one at a time.... if it doesn't work with either chip alone that doesn't help me much..
It's either, memory, Hard drive, MB or Pwr Supply..wow that's really narowing it down! I can try running XP to repair..problem is I only have one version of XP!
It does boot after I am not able to choose anything and comes to the black windows screen like windows desktop is just about to start,but instead it starts all over again ad would just keep on doing that if I did not shut it down.
Today I am going to try a few things.....and btw I DID try the number keys and no they don't work either.
First gonna check the pwr supply..got a thing to check that.
Then I'm going to try the memory chips one at a time.... if it doesn't work with either chip alone that doesn't help me much..
It's either, memory, Hard drive, MB or Pwr Supply..wow that's really narowing it down! I can try running XP to repair..problem is I only have one version of XP!
It's a good idea to check those things but my feeling is that there's a problem with the hard drive, perhaps in the MBR.
Here's my logic, that may well be flawed ...
* If you can get into the bios and the keyboard works, then the power supply is likely to be ok. In my experience power supplies tend to fail 'totally' not gradually.
* If you can get to the Win option select screen then the memory and mobo should be alright since the mobo should do a memory check before it gets to that point.
It sounds to me like the problem is with the hard drive, since you have the problem when accessing the hard drive to get to the Win option screen. If you have access to another PC, you could make a boot floppy from there (there's an option in Win somewhere I believe). If you can boot off that then you can see that your hardware is working and the problem is most likely the hard drive. If it still doesn't boot then you know that it must be something else like the mobo. Good luck!
Here's my logic, that may well be flawed ...
* If you can get into the bios and the keyboard works, then the power supply is likely to be ok. In my experience power supplies tend to fail 'totally' not gradually.
* If you can get to the Win option select screen then the memory and mobo should be alright since the mobo should do a memory check before it gets to that point.
It sounds to me like the problem is with the hard drive, since you have the problem when accessing the hard drive to get to the Win option screen. If you have access to another PC, you could make a boot floppy from there (there's an option in Win somewhere I believe). If you can boot off that then you can see that your hardware is working and the problem is most likely the hard drive. If it still doesn't boot then you know that it must be something else like the mobo. Good luck!
- Thread starter
- #7
If it IS the mother board..this is the second Maxtor drive to go bad for me. I was always told, by more than one person that Maxtor was a good drive,but now I am starting to wonder..
Western Digital I was told was a no no.
Any advice in the event that it turns out to be my drive?
Western Digital I was told was a no no.
Any advice in the event that it turns out to be my drive?
If it turns out to be the drive it might just be the data on it that's bad. If you don't need the data, you could just wipe it with fdisk and then reformat it. The manufacturers utility program (is it MaxBlast?) at
might be worth getting to check the drive integrity.
Don't give up on the drive yet.
might be worth getting to check the drive integrity.
Don't give up on the drive yet.
- Thread starter
- #9
Ok wanted to update all of you who helped me. Here's what I found out.
1. Keyboard just will not work in boot up..had to use another one to at least get into safe mode.Initially I couldn't even get it to do that. I used the XP disk and chose repair..in doing that I got the C prompt. I ran fixboot...which was probably a mistake I'll mention why in a bit.
2. Eventually, did get into windows with safe mode, even got it to boot in normal more BUT I get an error.This is the error:
Limited Virtual memory
Your system has no paging file or paging file is too small.
I also get amissing inetsvc.dll error.
I followed advice in setting the page file limit, it does NOT 'stick' and continues to boot and shut down with the pagefile error message. I think fixboot created this problem.
3. The keyboard that does not work in boot up DOES work in windows. It has a USB plug...one I used while fixing was an OS/2 plug...anyone have any ideas why? It and the mouse are both logitech. Both have always been a bit quirky.
I suspect the USB port is not working properly for that keyboard, but system info states otherwise.
Any advice?
1. Keyboard just will not work in boot up..had to use another one to at least get into safe mode.Initially I couldn't even get it to do that. I used the XP disk and chose repair..in doing that I got the C prompt. I ran fixboot...which was probably a mistake I'll mention why in a bit.
2. Eventually, did get into windows with safe mode, even got it to boot in normal more BUT I get an error.This is the error:
Limited Virtual memory
Your system has no paging file or paging file is too small.
I also get amissing inetsvc.dll error.
I followed advice in setting the page file limit, it does NOT 'stick' and continues to boot and shut down with the pagefile error message. I think fixboot created this problem.
3. The keyboard that does not work in boot up DOES work in windows. It has a USB plug...one I used while fixing was an OS/2 plug...anyone have any ideas why? It and the mouse are both logitech. Both have always been a bit quirky.
I suspect the USB port is not working properly for that keyboard, but system info states otherwise.
Any advice?
Did you run the diagnostic from the Maxtor site that "sh00der" posted?
You need to be sure the problem isn't the hard drive before you go on. I am still leaning toward bad hard drive.
In my exprience Maxtor makes decent drives but I have never had any problems with the Western Digital drives.
helenw
-"All animals except for man know that the ultimate business of life is to enjoy it" Samuel Butler
You need to be sure the problem isn't the hard drive before you go on. I am still leaning toward bad hard drive.
In my exprience Maxtor makes decent drives but I have never had any problems with the Western Digital drives.
helenw
-"All animals except for man know that the ultimate business of life is to enjoy it" Samuel Butler
- Thread starter
- #13
This is a follow up. I ran that Maxtor disk checker, it found some errors and fixed them. I also bought anew keyboard and mouse and I bought the PC a new version if XP and installed it OVER the old installation because I didn't want to wipe out info.
I still get that pagefile error and no matter what I do according to the instructions that error stays. Plus I cannot logon to windows with the welcome screen because when I did it freezes there..I suspect it has something to do with the age file error
I swear running fixboot in Dos did this and I Have no idea what I did..does anyone else know maybe?
All suggestions welcomed.
Beth
I still get that pagefile error and no matter what I do according to the instructions that error stays. Plus I cannot logon to windows with the welcome screen because when I did it freezes there..I suspect it has something to do with the age file error
I swear running fixboot in Dos did this and I Have no idea what I did..does anyone else know maybe?
All suggestions welcomed.
Beth
- Status
Similar threads
