Continuous Reboots During XP Home Installation

[Anna]

Hi Anna,

To check if the onboard video was the problem, I installed an old PCI
video
card, disabled the onboard video, and rebooted. This time the machine
posted
just like it has been and then went to the black screen and rebooted
itself.
So, there was no different behavior with a PCI video card versus the
onboard
video.

Now I've moved into the process you advised about disconnecting all
components (DVD Drive, hard drive, lan connection, speaker connection) and
letting it post. The machine posts with no problems (as it has been) and
I
have it now with the BIOS screen up so I can monitor temperatures. I'll
let
that run for a while and check temperatures. Right now the CPU is 89.6 F
and
the motherboard is 86F. I'l also reset it a couple of times and see if
that
triggers any different behavior.

Not sure if you saw my post to Gerry, but I did try to disable the
automatic
system restart to see if I could get an error code (F8 after the BIOS
welcome
screen). I don't think I disabled the auto restart though (no change in
startup behavior). I did try to start in safe mode with a command prompt
and
the system stopped loading drivers at mup.sys. Seems to me that I've seen
some posts on that in the past, so I'm going to research that while I'm
waiting for the temperatures to rise. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks!

Charlie

Charlie:
The temps for your processor & motherboard are fine. Assuming they don't
change dramatically higher over a few minutes or so time there's nothing to
be concerned about on that end.

All in all, based upon what you've experienced so far - and assuming no
major changes in the system temps or a rebooting problem (or other problems)
over a period of about one-half hour or so - it seems to me that in the
final analysis this problem you're experiencing is most likely nothing more
than a corrupted OS.

I'm assuming the system is malware-free. I can't recall if you previously
indicated you ran a Repair install of the XP OS but I'm assuming you haven't
as yet undertaken that process. If you haven't, reinstall your components,
i.e., your HDD, optical drive, etc., and try a Repair install of the OS. I
assume you're familiar with that process and that you have an XP
installation CD that will allow you to undertake the Repair process
(sometimes referred to as the "second" Repair process, *not* the Recovery
Console "repair" process). If you go that route, before doing so copy off
the HDD any of your important or crucial data. I'm assuming you can do that
by installing the HDD as a secondary drive in another machine or in a USB or
SATA/eSATA external enclosure connected to the latter machine. This is just
a cautionary note since it's possible (although generally unlikely) that
should the Repair process fail (and even in some cases where it's
successful) data will be further corrupted or lost.
Anna