Windows XP Home Edition has trouble loading

[MASON]

My computer upon booting gives the error message NTLDR not
found .
I have to shut down the computer a few times before it finds the file
and windows
starts up . I have yet to shut down the computer since I received
this message for
fear of not being able to get windows to load again .

I have created a boot disk from my office machine that has
Windows XP
Professional . My first question is will this work on my home
computer that
has the Home Edition ? I modified the text on the Boot.ini file from
Professional to
Home Edition . I also copied on the floppy the files NTLDR and
Ntdetect.com .

My second question is the fact that Windows will start
after restarting the
computer a few times a sign of the file being corrupted ? I would not
think it
would start at all with a corrupted file . Is it possible the file or
files are heavily
fragmented and would running defrag possibly solve the problem ?

Finally one of the solutions according to Microsoft is to
download from their web
site a service pack for Windows XP . What do you think of this idea
since my computer
is still up and running ?

Any help would be most appreciated .


Regards Mason

 

[JS]

Some links: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm
http://xphelpandsupport.mvps.org/how_do_i_correct_an__ntldr_or_nt.htm

JS

 

[Malke]

My computer upon booting gives the error message NTLDR not
found .
I have to shut down the computer a few times before it finds the file
and windows
starts up . I have yet to shut down the computer since I received
this message for
fear of not being able to get windows to load again .

Needing to restart the computer several times before the operating system
boots is a classic symptom of a failing power supply. This is a hardware
issue and reinstalling Windows (software) will be useless in solving the
problem.

What happens is that the power supply ("psu") hasn't got enough "juice" to
get the hard drive spinning all the way so it can boot Windows. The next
time you restart, the drive has enough momentum to get it all the way up
and going. This is easily solved by replacing the psu with a known-working
one.

There is always the possibility that your hard drive is failing, but I would
start with the psu. To test the hard drive, download a diagnostic utility
from the drive mftr. You will make a bootable floppy or cd with the file
you download. Boot with that media and do a thorough test. If the hard
drive fails any physical tests, it needs to be replaced.

Naturally, you will have backed up your data by now. Right? ;-)

Malke

 

[Curt Christianson]

Hi Mason,

I have to agree whole-heartedly with Malke on this.

You don't specify make/model of your computer, but unless it was custom
built to *your* specs. at an independent computer shop, you PSU may well be
underpowered. Because OEM's can pack so much bang for the buck into their
machines nowadays, one of the areas that they can skimp on is the power
supply. It may/may not be adequate for the condition in which it it was
shipped, but start adding an aditional harddrive, maybe another type of
optical drive, and suddenly the PSU is being asked to deliver power it was
never intended to.

By all means check the HD as Malke suggested, before going any farther.
Here is a list of the major HD manufacturers, and their diagnostic
utilities:

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm
--
Curt BD-MVBT

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://dundats.proboards27.com/index.cgi
http://www.aumha.org/

 

[MASON]

Hi Mason,

I have to agree whole-heartedly with Malke on this.

You don't specify make/model of your computer, but unless it was custom
built to *your* specs. at an independent computer shop, you PSU may well be
underpowered. Because OEM's can pack so much bang for the buck into their
machines nowadays, one of the areas that they can skimp on is the power
supply. It may/may not be adequate for the condition in which it it was
shipped, but start adding an aditional harddrive, maybe another type of
optical drive, and suddenly the PSU is being asked to deliver power it was
never intended to.

By all means check the HD as Malke suggested, before going any farther.
Here is a list of the major HD manufacturers, and their diagnostic
utilities:

Quantum/Maxtor - PowerMax
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

Western Digital - Data LifeGuard Tools (DLGDiag)
http://support.wdc.com/download/

Hitachi/IBM - Drive Fitness Test (DFT)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate - SeaTools
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/

Fujitsu - Diagnostic Tool
http://www.fcpa.com/download/hard-drives/

Samsung - Disk manager
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/shdiag.htm
--
Curt BD-MVBT

http://dundats.mvps.org/
http://dundats.proboards27.com/index.cgi
http://www.aumha.org/

Hello Malke and Curt

First let me thank both of you for your responses. My
girlfriend
accidently shur the computer down last night , force of habit , and
the same
symptoms appeared on restarting. I finally got the system up after
several cold boots.

I have a working power supply but it is for a tower model
computer , My
computer is an hp desktop. I realize the psu will not fit in the space
provided by
my computer but it appears that both psu's have the same voltages on
the power
lines . By power lines I mean the connectors to the motherboard , hard
drive etc.
However the wattages are different with the tower psu being slightly
higher at
400 watts . My question is can I use the tower psu to test Malke's
theory
of a bad psu ?

Thanks Mason

 

[Malke]

Hello Malke and Curt

First let me thank both of you for your responses. My
girlfriend
accidently shur the computer down last night , force of habit , and
the same
symptoms appeared on restarting. I finally got the system up after
several cold boots.

I have a working power supply but it is for a tower model
computer , My
computer is an hp desktop. I realize the psu will not fit in the space
provided by
my computer but it appears that both psu's have the same voltages on
the power
lines . By power lines I mean the connectors to the motherboard , hard
drive etc.
However the wattages are different with the tower psu being slightly
higher at
400 watts . My question is can I use the tower psu to test Malke's
theory
of a bad psu ?

So you have one of those HP's that need a proprietary power supply (in terms
of its size)? The psu is still a standard one in terms of behavior and you
can use a known-working psu to test out of the computer. In fact, when I
test psu's on clients' machines I certainly don't bother to remove the old
psu and install a new one just to test. Not all HP psu's are a proprietary
size - if it is a standard size it is easily replaceable. Just because your
computer is branded "HP" doesn't mean you have a special psu.

All you need to do is open up the computer and disconnect (carefully!) all
the power connectors from the old psu going to the motherboard and the
drives. You can use a power supply tester to test the the old psu or just
attach the connectors from a known-good one.

Malke

 

[R. McCarty]

One other option on those damn HPs, just replace the whole case
with one that includes a Power Supply. Many times it's cheaper but
requires migrating the hardware. Just be careful working in an HP
case - there are sharp edges and Band-Aids may be required. Any
2-4 year old Pavillion's are a Royal-PITA to mess with.