Reboots during windows loading

[JClark]

Hello Group:

I hate to add to the list of "reboot" problem posted here, but mine
seems a bit different from the others.

The system: Supermicro SCSI system, Intel PIII 600, a few years old,
but running well. Three SCSI HDs. Win 2kPro/sp4, always kept up to
date and always antivirus program with autoupdates of virus
definitions running.

The problem: I put in a new power supply and since then, the system
reboots, just after the windows progress bar gets to the right of the
screen, just before the Windows splash screen would come up. I just
see a few horizontal or oblique lines and then it reboots.
I can't get into safe mode. I checked all the connections and
everything seems OK. All devices show up on the SCSI list during
bootup. I went to fail safe CMOS setup. I restored the boot C drive
from a ghost image on D drive, thinking it might be a windows problem,
but no luck.
Sounds like a hardware problem??
I disconnected all devices except boot drive. No help.
I removed memory DIMMs one at a time. No help.

Confession: I can't be sure the power supply was my original problem.
It started out after reconnecting the computer this morning. The only
thing I could see on bootup was the video driver info, then nothing
came up after that and no response to keyboard. After a few tries, no
power at all. Hence I assumed a shot power supply. I keep thinking I
hooked up something wrong, but I've been over it carefully and can't
find anything.

I stumped! Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Apologies for long
post.

Jack

 

[Arup]

Hello Group:

I hate to add to the list of "reboot" problem posted here, but mine
seems a bit different from the others.

The system: Supermicro SCSI system, Intel PIII 600, a few years old,
but running well. Three SCSI HDs. Win 2kPro/sp4, always kept up to
date and always antivirus program with autoupdates of virus
definitions running.

The problem: I put in a new power supply and since then, the system
reboots, just after the windows progress bar gets to the right of the
screen, just before the Windows splash screen would come up. I just
see a few horizontal or oblique lines and then it reboots.
I can't get into safe mode. I checked all the connections and
everything seems OK. All devices show up on the SCSI list during
bootup. I went to fail safe CMOS setup. I restored the boot C drive
from a ghost image on D drive, thinking it might be a windows problem,
but no luck.
Sounds like a hardware problem??
I disconnected all devices except boot drive. No help.
I removed memory DIMMs one at a time. No help.

Confession: I can't be sure the power supply was my original problem.
It started out after reconnecting the computer this morning. The only
thing I could see on bootup was the video driver info, then nothing
came up after that and no response to keyboard. After a few tries, no
power at all. Hence I assumed a shot power supply. I keep thinking I
hooked up something wrong, but I've been over it carefully and can't
find anything.

I stumped! Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Apologies for long
post.

Jack

The best way is to make your system bare bones, that is only with the boot
drive connected and the video card, all other peripherals should be
disconnected, if your system boots, then it is a power supply problem.

 

[JClark]

The best way is to make your system bare bones, that is only with the boot
drive connected and the video card, all other peripherals should be
disconnected, if your system boots, then it is a power supply problem.

Arup:
Many thanks. I sort of did that once, and it still didn't go all the
way through the boot process. I thought this morning I'd try hooking
up a different formatted boot drive, install windows, and see if that
boots. That should tell me if it's a problem with my boot drive.
I'll get to work, but I'll will try your suggestion again first.

Jack

 

[Geoffw]

Arup:
Many thanks. I sort of did that once, and it still didn't go all the
way through the boot process. I thought this morning I'd try hooking
up a different formatted boot drive, install windows, and see if that
boots. That should tell me if it's a problem with my boot drive.
I'll get to work, but I'll will try your suggestion again first.

Jack

I would either re seat and re try the video card
then test the memory - will it boot from the CD or a floppy
? I guess if yes not the video card

then do a repair install to see if any corrupted files
Have you checked the bios and boot sequence to be sure scsi
is fist device ?

Geoff

 

[JClark]

I would either re seat and re try the video card
then test the memory - will it boot from the CD or a floppy
? I guess if yes not the video card

then do a repair install to see if any corrupted files
Have you checked the bios and boot sequence to be sure scsi
is fist device ?

Geoff
Hi Geoff
re seat and re try the video card

Good thought. I'll try it now.

will it boot from the CD or a floppy

Yes, no problem booting from Windows CD or Norton Ghost Dos boot disk.

bios and boot sequence

Yes, I went through all of this quite thoroughly. No problem with boot
order, but a good thought.

Current endeavors: I found an extra HD and formatted it for NTFS and
installed windows, put in place of the current drive, and it does not
automatically reboot when it reaches windows splash screen. Hmmm. ..
Could I have a bad hard drive? Strange that all of this would happen
at once.
Well, I'm going to try to restore my system with a Ghost image on a
differend HD and see what happens.

Appreciate the advice from all.

Jack

 

[Geoffw]

Good thought. I'll try it now.

Yes, no problem booting from Windows CD or Norton Ghost Dos boot disk.

Yes, I went through all of this quite thoroughly. No problem with boot
order, but a good thought.

Current endeavors: I found an extra HD and formatted it for NTFS and
installed windows, put in place of the current drive, and it does not
automatically reboot when it reaches windows splash screen. Hmmm. ..
Could I have a bad hard drive? Strange that all of this would happen
at once.
Well, I'm going to try to restore my system with a Ghost image on a
differend HD and see what happens.

Jack

have you booted from the OS CD and done a repair from the CD
? it may be a corrupt boot.ini file or MBR

A repair from the CD (I always use automatic not console
repair and it works well, if you want you could try the
console, commands = fixboot and fixmbr

if this does not work it could be the HD

Geoff

 

[Gert B. Frob]

Hello Group:

I hate to add to the list of "reboot" problem posted here, but mine
seems a bit different from the others.

The system: Supermicro SCSI system, Intel PIII 600, a few years old,
but running well. Three SCSI HDs. Win 2kPro/sp4, always kept up to
date and always antivirus program with autoupdates of virus
definitions running.

The problem: I put in a new power supply and since then, the system
reboots, just after the windows progress bar gets to the right of the
screen, just before the Windows splash screen would come up. I just
see a few horizontal or oblique lines and then it reboots.
I can't get into safe mode. I checked all the connections and
everything seems OK. All devices show up on the SCSI list during
bootup. I went to fail safe CMOS setup. I restored the boot C drive
from a ghost image on D drive, thinking it might be a windows problem,
but no luck.
Sounds like a hardware problem??
I disconnected all devices except boot drive. No help.
I removed memory DIMMs one at a time. No help.

Confession: I can't be sure the power supply was my original problem.
It started out after reconnecting the computer this morning. The only
thing I could see on bootup was the video driver info, then nothing
came up after that and no response to keyboard. After a few tries, no
power at all. Hence I assumed a shot power supply. I keep thinking I
hooked up something wrong, but I've been over it carefully and can't
find anything.

I stumped! Any suggestions greatly appreciated. Apologies for long
post.

Jack

Jack,

On a board of that vintage, be sure to check that the power regulating
capacitors are not damaged. Look at the capacitors in the vicinity of the
CPU. If any of them are bulging and/or leaking, the board should be
replaced. When they fail like this, the problems caused are unpredictable
and can seem to originate from other areas.

If Supermicro used the bad caps, they will probably repair (exchange) the
board for free. ABIT does.

 

[JClark]

Jack,

On a board of that vintage, be sure to check that the power regulating
capacitors are not damaged. Look at the capacitors in the vicinity of the
CPU. If any of them are bulging and/or leaking, the board should be
replaced. When they fail like this, the problems caused are unpredictable
and can seem to originate from other areas.

If Supermicro used the bad caps, they will probably repair (exchange) the
board for free. ABIT does.

Epilogue:
Thanks to all for advice. By way of followup, I finally had to
reformat the HD, reinstall windows and all the programs. The ghost
image wouldn't work, for some reason (different problem!). But.....to
end the story sadly, after I got everything up and running again, I
thought the BIOS was probably dated for some of the programs and for
Win2k/sp4, because of power management problems. Sooooo..., I flashed
the BIOS, but in my fatigued state I downloaded the wrong BIOS (just
one letter different!) and cooked the BIOS for good. So to end the
story I bought another board and did everything from scratch. Fine
now. Thanks again to all for your efforts.

Jack