Endless loop, with or without CD

[Guest]

Okay, so here's a twist. I've seen the endless loop issues listed here that
can occur during setup with Win XP. My problem has a new twist...even if I do
not "press any key", the computer reboots aynway. Then, if I remove the CD
and reboot...it starts an endless reboot of the system after the BIOS
diagnostics. It simply checks the RAM, the drives on the machine, gets to the
point of starting the OS...then reboots and starts over. Never an error
message, never actually starting Windows XP. If I put the disk back in, it
starts from the beginning again. It seems to run through the entire process
prior to this without a problem. I also know the disk should still be good as
I have only just recently loaded this XP onto another system of mine without
a hitch.

So, could it be a faulty HDD? I should note I had this same problem happen
with an entirely different system but the same disk and HDD.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Please give details about your computer (brand, model, ram, cpu, laptop?)

Do not assume the hard drive is faulty. Do use another computer to download
the manufacturer's hard drive test diskette to your desktop from the hard
drive manufacturer's site, put a diskette in A:, and doubleclick on the
downloaded icon to generate the floppy. Boot the problem computer with the
diskette and follow the onscreen directions to test the drive. The first
test should be an installation test to make sure you have the drive properly
installed and the jumpers (if any) correct. There are usually three tests
that you want to run, but not knowing the make of your drive I can't be more
specific.