Issues booting PC with XP Home using floppy

[pakku]

My friend recently asked me to look at his PC (TIger Direct brand). He
said all of a sudden his PC refuses to boot up properly. It goes up to
a certain point and then spontaneously reboots. I can get into F8 safe
boot mode.
Whether I choose Normal, Last known good configuration, Safe, Safe with
Command Prompt- it doesn't matter.
Behaves the same way.

At one point it gave me BSOD with the message UnmOUntable Boot volume.
I tried to boot from CD (I have Win XP home CD) so I could do chkdsk
but when booting from CD it said something like Setup Not completed and
then hanged.

I created the Win XP setup floppies (downladed the .exe and ran it).
When I try to boot from floppy it goes thru the 6 floppies and on 6th
floppy it says
"Not enough memory for WIn XP. Need 64 MB"
I know there is 128MB on this machine.

Has anyone some suggestions?

 

[T. Waters]

My friend recently asked me to look at his PC (TIger Direct brand).
He said all of a sudden his PC refuses to boot up properly. It goes
up to a certain point and then spontaneously reboots. I can get into
F8 safe boot mode.
Whether I choose Normal, Last known good configuration, Safe, Safe
with Command Prompt- it doesn't matter.
Behaves the same way.

At one point it gave me BSOD with the message UnmOUntable Boot volume.
I tried to boot from CD (I have Win XP home CD) so I could do chkdsk
but when booting from CD it said something like Setup Not completed
and then hanged.

I created the Win XP setup floppies (downladed the .exe and ran it).
When I try to boot from floppy it goes thru the 6 floppies and on 6th
floppy it says
"Not enough memory for WIn XP. Need 64 MB"
I know there is 128MB on this machine.

Has anyone some suggestions?

1. Test the memory.
http://www.memtest86.com/
2. Clarify this statement: I can get into F8 safe boot mode.Whether I choose
Normal, Last known good configuration, Safe, Safe with Command Prompt- it
doesn't matter.
3. See this site:
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/winxp/howto3/unmountable.htm
"Quite simply take the Hard Drive out of your computer, then go to a friends
house, that is a friend who owns a Windows XP computer, and with permission
open up his/hers computer, disconnect their CD-Rom drives, and plug your
hard drive in with theirs, of course make sure the cable is seated correctly
and that the power connector is plugged in. Your friend's computer will now
boot up and run Chkdsk before it logs into Windows, let this run & complete.
Take your Hard Drive home and test. This method has a good success rate."

 

[Malke]

My friend recently asked me to look at his PC (TIger Direct brand).
He said all of a sudden his PC refuses to boot up properly. It goes up
to
a certain point and then spontaneously reboots. I can get into F8
safe boot mode.
Whether I choose Normal, Last known good configuration, Safe, Safe
with Command Prompt- it doesn't matter.
Behaves the same way.

At one point it gave me BSOD with the message UnmOUntable Boot volume.
I tried to boot from CD (I have Win XP home CD) so I could do chkdsk
but when booting from CD it said something like Setup Not completed
and then hanged.

I created the Win XP setup floppies (downladed the .exe and ran it).
When I try to boot from floppy it goes thru the 6 floppies and on 6th
floppy it says
"Not enough memory for WIn XP. Need 64 MB"
I know there is 128MB on this machine.

Has anyone some suggestions?

It really sounds to me like your friend's machine is having hardware
problems. Applying a software solution (like reinstalling Windows) to a
hardware problem is futile. Here are some general hardware
troubleshooting steps:

1) Open the computer and run it open, cleaning out all dust bunnies and
observing all fans (overheating will cause system freezing). Obviously
you can't do this with a laptop, but you can hear if the fan is running
and feel if the laptop is getting too hot.

2) Test the RAM - I like Memtest86+ from www.memtest.org. Obviously, you
have to get the program from a working machine. You will either
download the precompiled Windows binary to make a bootable floppy or
the .iso to make a bootable cd. If you want to use the latter, you'll
need to have third-party burning software on the machine where you
download the file - XP's built-in burning capability won't do the job.
In either case, boot with the media you made. The test will run
immediately. Let the test run for an extended period of time - unless
errors are seen immediately. If you get any errors, replace the RAM.

3) Test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility from the mftr. Usually
you will download the file and make a bootable floppy with it. Boot
with the media and do a thorough test. If the drive has physical
errors, replace it.

4) The power supply may be going bad or be inadequate for the devices
you have in the system. The adequacy issue doesn't really apply to a
laptop, although of course the power
supply can be faulty.

5) Test the motherboard with something like TuffTest from
www.tufftest.com. Sometimes this is useful, and sometimes it isn't.

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a good local
computer repair shop (not a CompUSA or Best Buy type of store).

Malke

 

[pakku]

Thanks Malke. I do have access to a working computer and I will try
out your suggestions.
Regards