Best Option...

[Guest]

Whats the best option. After taking someones advice, and I hope they are
finally happy, my machine wont stay on for longer that 10 secondes before it
shuts down. Should I just reformat the HD on another machine or would
clearing the cmos work?
Good advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

 

[R. McCarty]

What advice & what exactly did you do ? - Hard to offer counsel on
the best option when we don't know what's wrong. For almost every
issue it's a good idea to try and resolve it before falling back on the
"Full Install/Configure" approach.

 

[D.Currie]

Whats the best option. After taking someones advice, and I hope they are
finally happy, my machine wont stay on for longer that 10 secondes before
it
shuts down. Should I just reformat the HD on another machine or would
clearing the cmos work?
Good advice would be appreciated. Thank you.

Is it ten seconds, no matter what you're doing, or is it a specific point in
the boot process? That's going to make a lot of difference as far as whether
reinstalling Windows is going to make any difference. And there's no reason
to format the drive in another machine, no matter what. The XP installation
CD will do the formatting for you, if that's what you choose to do.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Trans

Ten seconds is just enough time to complete the initialization screen.. if
it really is true re. only lasting ten seconds, then you need to go out and
buy a new PC..

Alternatively, you could tell us exactly what happens..

 

[Guest]

What advice & what exactly did you do ? - Hard to offer counsel on
the best option when we don't know what's wrong. For almost every
issue it's a good idea to try and resolve it before falling back on the
"Full Install/Configure" approach.



First thanks for the reply. Basically it entailed adding the letters SOS to the startup and rec. area in the advanced part of the system in control panel. Now it wont stay on for more than 10 secs before it shuts down. Thanks again.

 

[R. McCarty]

Have you tried to start the PC in Safe Mode (F8 @ transition from BIOS
to the Windows Flag Screen) ? Or you might try the Last Known Good
Configuration, which is copy of the last successful boot sequence.

 

[Guest]

Trans

Ten seconds is just enough time to complete the initialization screen.. if
it really is true re. only lasting ten seconds, then you need to go out and
buy a new PC..

Alternatively, you could tell us exactly what happens..

--
Mike Hall
MVP - Windows Shell/User





LOL thats hilarious.

Well thanks for all the replies, basically when I push the on button, itll
run for approxmately 7 to 8 seconds and immediately shuts down. Really if you
dont want to help me please stop spamming the boards, like I want to waste my
time trying to get help for a problem I dont have. Do you work for Microsoft?

 

[NotMe]

Does it give an error message or just restart? Or does it turn off?
Without the details, no one can give you the correct troubleshooting advice.
My first guess would be either hardware failure or a virus.

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

You are NOT giving much information. What do you see on the screen just
before it shuts down. Ten seconds means nothing as systems vary in speed.
When do you start counting the ten seconds from. I would start from when I
press the power button. But maybe you are counting from when you first see
the welcome screen. See what I mean!

We have to know how far along you get in the boot process before it shuts
down.

Help us to help you. Give precise information and error messages, if any.

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Trans

I had a client whose computer would just shut down after three of for
minutes.. absolutely no warning, just a black screen and straight into the
re-boot sequence.. most of the computer internals were replaced with new and
more modern items, and the problem has not returned..

Another had a problem with a virus that was shutting down the computer, only
this time with a blue screen warning.. so both computers were shutting down,
but for very different reasons.. I ran a few programs, and all was fixed
without further incident..

From what I can gather, you manually edited the 'boot.ini' by adding the
letters SOS to the boot path.. I would have to ask why you did this..

Now you need to fix the MBR..

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/...Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prkd_tro_evwd.asp

This opens at Ch 27 Repairing damaged MBR's and Boot Sectors.. the section
opens up into Restoring the MBR and Replacing the Boot Sector.. you may want
to print the pages out..

No, I do not work directly for Microsoft, but I and 2799 others, covering
some 80 product lines in as many countries, endeavour to help people like
yourself in our free time, receiving no payment other than the odd 'thank
you' from some.. and all of us need something more to go on than 'it doesn't
work..

Perhaps you will be good enough to return to this thread and tell us of your
progress, be it negative or positive..

 

[Leythos]

Well thanks for all the replies, basically when I push the on button, itll
run for approxmately 7 to 8 seconds and immediately shuts down. Really if you
dont want to help me please stop spamming the boards, like I want to waste my
time trying to get help for a problem I dont have. Do you work for Microsoft?

Look, since you didn't post much in the way of details, do you really
expect anyone to not ask for more info? You don't want to waste YOUR
time, but you don't mind wasting our time by having us ask you for more
details.

Had you not been such a little snot in the above reply I would not have
wasted my time replying to you either.

 

[Guest]

Remeber YOU wanted the details here it is:

This post requires time and patience.
Sat evening I purused these forums looking for a way to shorten the boot
time, and remove the DOS screens when I start my comp.
I got to a thread where someone suggested adding the letters SOS to the --->
Start, Setting, Control Panel, System, Advanced, Startup and Recovery,
Settings , Default OS in the Startup area. There is a line of words in a
dropdown menu that has the words fastdetect. He suggested that I add SOS to
that instead of Noexecute thats there in my comp.

NOW, everytime I try to start my computer, it shuts off immediately, It
dosent beep bang smoke or anything else. The screen shows nothing. No Errors.
No nothing, push the on button 7-8 seconds appr. then shutdown no warning.
I cant enter SAFE mode, I cant enter the BIOS, I cant insert the XP disk. I
cant do ANYTHING to it. Aaaaahhhh the Internet lol. Anyways.


3 gig P4
ABIT MAX 3
1 gig pc 4000 ram
ATI 9800 pro (128)
SB Audigy 2
WD 80, 120, 250 gig HDs
This system ran fine for over a Year and a half with no problems.

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

You don't see any white text on a black background when booting? You don't
see a manufacturers splash screen when booting? Do you hear a single "beep"
from your computer case, indicating that the P.O.S.T. has completed
successfully?

If you hear a beep, your computer has successfully completed the post. If
this is the case, and you don't see anything on the screen, you have monitor
problems. Check your video connection. Remove and reinsert the monitor's
plug. Remove and reinsert the video board.

You haven't been playing around with "over clocking", have you?

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[Trax]

|>Remeber YOU wanted the details here it is:
|>
|>This post requires time and patience.
|>Sat evening I purused these forums looking for a way to shorten the boot
|>time, and remove the DOS screens when I start my comp.
|>I got to a thread where someone suggested adding the letters SOS to the --->
|>Start, Setting, Control Panel, System, Advanced, Startup and Recovery,
|>Settings , Default OS in the Startup area. There is a line of words in a
|>dropdown menu that has the words fastdetect. He suggested that I add SOS to
|>that instead of Noexecute thats there in my comp.
|>
|>NOW, everytime I try to start my computer, it shuts off immediately, It
|>dosent beep bang smoke or anything else. The screen shows nothing. No Errors.
|>No nothing, push the on button 7-8 seconds appr. then shutdown no warning.
|>I cant enter SAFE mode, I cant enter the BIOS, I cant insert the XP disk. I
|>cant do ANYTHING to it. Aaaaahhhh the Internet lol. Anyways.

Adding SOS or editing the boot.ini will not prevent the XP CD from
running.

Disconnect your hard drive and turn on the computer - reboots
Hardware.

 

[Mike Hall \(MS-MVP\)]

Trans

Maybe my suggestion to get a new computer was not so bad after all.. you
appear to have a hardware problem that has co-incidentally appeared at the
same time as your changes to MBR..

 

[Guest]

Thanks for all replies.

Richard:
no there is no text at all, no splash screen, no beeps at all. Monitor is a
1 year old Syncmaster 957 that Iam typing this on right now lol, doubt its
that though. No havent touched overclocking yet, havent need to, Far Cry.
HL2, and DOOM 3 all ran peachy fine on it no probs. ( Not worth the .4 gig I
might get out of it)


Trax: did that still shut down after 7 or 8 seconds.


Mike: while I apperciate your response maybe I should look at the Power
Supply first? You think everything broke at once huh? What are the chances
of that happening.

 

[Richard Urban [MVP]]

Slim, but possible that something happened co-incidentally!

--
Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from: George Ankner
"If you knew as much as you thought you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!"

 

[D.Currie]

Actually, I've found that if something is going to fail spectacularly, most
of the time it's going to do it on startup. Things may overheat or a sudden
power surge could kill a part while the computer is running, but most of the
time things seem to fail when you start them up.

So it makes sense that something would fail when he rebooted after making
whatever changes he did.

Like lightbulbs. They usually go when you turn on the lights, it's less
common for them to fail while they're already turned on.

 

[Z]

Well thanks for all the replies, basically when I push the on button, itll
run for approxmately 7 to 8 seconds and immediately shuts down. Really if you

Have you tried pressing F1 and F2 during that initial power-on period to
see if you can enter the BIOS. On some systems, by the time the screen
display comes alive after a power-on, you're already past the BIOS
screens. But the keyboard is active and F1/F2 work.

If you can get into the BIOS, then you should be able to boot to the CD
by setting the boot order. It sounds like you hosed your boot.ini, which
you should be able to rebuild with bootcfg /rebuild from the XP
Recovery Console.

 

[Asher_N]

I'm going to assume that there is no failing hardware here. If you can,
taje he drive and load it as a secondary drive on nother machine running
XP. Open 'My computer' make sure that you can see the hidden files. In
the root of your drive (should be 'D') there is a hidden, read-only file
called boot.ini. remove the read-only flag. Open the file with Notepad.
chage the line to read /nodetect again. save and make it read-only again.
Put the drive back in your own machine. Try to boot again.