XP Pro Laptop reboots on a loop

[niallo32]

I have a Maxdata M-Book 1000T XP Pro Laptop. When trying to boot, it gets as far as the Windows XP screen, appears as if it's going to bring me to the login screen, but then reboots.

I've tried Safe Mode, Last Known Good configuration etc etc but the same thing keeps happening.

Can anyone help???

Thanks

 

[andrewsco]

Hi,

When did the laptop last work? (I assume it did) and if so, did it stop working after a certain incident - maybe a download, install, file attachement etc? If you think its a virus I would suggest getting hold of a Knoppix live CD and using it to check for viruses on your Windows install, and you wont lose your files.

Just a suggestion
Andrew

 

[niallo32]

Hi,

It was working up until a few days ago. It's not actually my laptop, it belongs to a friend who was defragging etc and he says he may have deleted some files by accident but cant say which files.

I've found the Knoppix Home page - it appears to be a Linux Distribution? Will I just burn it onto a cd, boot the laptop and ensure it boots from CD ahead of Hard drive and just follow defaults?

Thanks

 

[Rick998]

It sounds like the problem is more likely related to your friend's actions than to malware. I suspect the Knoppix CD will not be much use except to let you save data files off the hard disk.

I think the best course of action is to repair the Windows installation by running it over itself. You will lose all the Windows updates (which will need to be re-installed afterwards) but the applications and data will be untouched.

Have a look at:
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP (Q315341)

http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/q315/3/41.asp

Hope this helps...

 

[niallo32]

I'll do a reinstall to the same location so. I thought there might have been an easier way around it!

Thanks to you both

 

[alidabiri]

To specify what Windows does if the system stops unexpectedly.
You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings might also prevent you from completing this procedure.
1-go to settings / control panel
2-Open System in Control Panel.
3-On the Advanced tab, under Startup and Recovery, click Settings.
3-Under System Failure, select the check boxes that correspond to the actions you want Windows to perform if a Stop error occurs:
* automatically restart
you can uncheck "automatically restart" so the system will get stuck on the error screen and produce a dump to be analyzed.
*Write an event to the system log specifies that event information will be recorded in the system log.
*Send an administrative alert specifies that your system administrator will be notified.