Continous reboot w/ one time pre-boot memory error

[DADSGETNDOWN]

Hello, I tried to shut down my computer it took forever at the saving
settings screen, so I hit the reset button.
While booting right after the bios check at the bottom it finds the hard
drive, and cd-roms, it said ONE time only something about a "pre-boot memory
decreased" I think it was decreased, Definitely "pre-boot memory", So I went
into the cmos and looked at the logging event and then marked it as read,
after a few tried to restart I deleted it.
SO, It does not show the message anymore.
It does say the right amount of memory.
It gets as far as the black bacnkground Windows screen and the little bar
under it has a blue scrolling loading type progress bar/meter.
then the keybaord flashes the lights and it goes black and then the screen
flashes blue like the logon screen. can't see anything other than a little
blue, then it clicks and restarts the power, like power off then on again.
I hit F8 and it does nothing.
I put in a windows xp sp1 cd And I can get it to show the the choices
install, recovery console, and F3 to quit, It will load the recovery console
but have no idea what commands to use.
BUT I really don't want to do that first, I would like to get into safe mode
or the restart using last known good configuration.
any clues ?
Oh I believe I have windows xp sp2 on this computer,
even though I have this other sp1 cd I am using, I am looking for my sp2 cd.
at the moment.

 

[Andrew E.]

If SP2 is installed,one cannot install the optional "recovery console" for pc
boot option,one can only use recovery by booting to xp cd & pressing r for
recovery..Also,a consistant pc reboot usually is a hardware conflict.One
other
option might be to clear the CMOS.

 

[Bill in Co.]

If SP2 is installed,one cannot install the optional "recovery console"
for pc
boot option,one can only use recovery by booting to xp cd & pressing r for
recovery..

Are you sure? My memory must be off, as I thought I had done that one time
(installed the recovery console on the HD), but then later restored an image
backup to get rid of that boot option.

 

[Mick Murphy]

You don't hit F8, you tap it continuously after the splash screen comes up,
to get to a list of startup options, including Safe Mode.

 

[John John (MVP)]

If you are meaning the Windows splash screen then it's too late to start
tapping the F8 key, you have to start tapping just after the BIOS POST
screen.

John

 

[John John (MVP)]

Start tapping the F8 key just after you see the BIOS POST information
and just before Windows starts to boot and disable the option to
Automatically Reboot on System Failure, that will cause the boot process
to halt on the blue screen, then see if you can get any useful
information from the bugcheck error message. You can also try booting
to the Last Known Good Configuration, if that fails try to boot to Safe
Mode.

John

 

[DADSGETNDOWN]

F8 does not do anything except beep when you tap or hold it, and still goes
to the windows loading status screen.
When it starts it shows the video card info, then that disappears, and then
it shows bios info, motherboard info, amount of ram, then mouse, keyboard,
then the hard drive and both cd-roms, then it makes a sound like accessing
the floppy, then it will beep and go to the windows loading screen.
I have tried tapping right before the sound of the floppy, and right after,
and right before the beep and right after and even during all the above.
I think I seen something in the msconfig (before I tried to restart, before
all this happened), something that showed up after a bad shutdown , dump/
something or something dump, Now maybe if I could get to the file that is the
msconfig info and change it.
Alhtough the easy way would be to get into safe mode.
Why nothing happens is beyond me.
It always gets to the windows loading screen the progress meter goes by
twice the screen goes black like it is going to go to the logon screen but
stays black for a few seconds then (once in a while) it will flash a blue
screen so fast you can not tell anything, and then always makes a click like
the power turned off and on or reset
then it restarts.
I didnt try to clear the cmos yet.
Any other ideas ?

 

[DADSGETNDOWN]

Hi Andrew,
How would I go about using commands to recover ?
since I can only get to the recovery by using the cd..?

 

[John John (MVP)]

You have to repeatedly tap the F8 key, and you have to start tapping it
at the right time.

John

 

[DADSGETNDOWN]

One of those times I mentioned has to be the "right time", right ?
It seems that it either is broken, or there is such a small time frame,
NOONE can do it. 1 millionth of a second and one tap. I feel I have tried all
of the proper timeings.
Maybe not. but...
I would like to think it's not as hard and as many tries as, breaking the
world record on Nintendo 64's Golden Eye, Facility 00 Agent. =

 

[DADSGETNDOWN]

Man that was difficult to catch it is so so fast, I had to use a digital
camera.
it can not find my user32.dll, how do I reinstall it ?
I would need to some how do it using the Recovery using the cd ?
Or maybe put it as a slave on this computer.

 

[Jim]

I tap it as soon as comp boots .

One of those times I mentioned has to be the "right time", right ?
It seems that it either is broken, or there is such a small time frame,
NOONE can do it. 1 millionth of a second and one tap. I feel I have tried all
of the proper timeings.
Maybe not. but...
I would like to think it's not as hard and as many tries as, breaking the
world record on Nintendo 64's Golden Eye, Facility 00 Agent. =

 

[Bill in Co.]

And do it a quite bit longer - not just as soon as it boots.