Windows 2000 pro PC keeps restarting at splash screen

[BP]

I have a Windows 2000 pro PC that keeps restarting as soon
as it gets to the splash screen. I can hit F8 but it still
restarts when going into safemode as well. It is formatted
NTFS. I have tried to run the repair install from the W2K
CD and did not help. Can I run the Fresh reinstall option
off the W2k CD menu and not lose all of my settings/data?
How can I get out of this cycle?
I also changed the RAM and it still does the same thing
with new RAM. It boots all the way to where the white tick
bars at the bottom are loaded across left to right then
just as the W2K splash screen pops up to gives a
little 'grrrb' sound then reboots.

 

[DR]

Did you ever find a fix for this? I encountered the same
problem today - continuous rebooting. There is a quick
flash of a blue screen with what looks like a small script
then it powers off and restart.

 

[Warren C. E. Austin]

Did you ever find a fix for this? I encountered the same
problem today - continuous rebooting. There is a quick
flash of a blue screen with what looks like a small script
then it powers off and restart.

What you are likely getting is an abbreviated "STOP" Error. This behaviour can occur when there are two or more conflicting Administrator Profiles; which usually arises from a "new" install of the OS, overwriting an earlier one, but without the user removing (or renaming) the Documents and Settings folder beforehand. Typically you would have an Administrator and Administrator.WINDOWS, or similar. Deleting the ".WINDOWS" folder (from DOS, outside of the Windows OS), or vice versa usually removes the conflict.

This situation may also arise from faulty drive ribbon-cables - even the slightest of nicks will hinder system-boot - even though all may appear well at the DOS-level with applications running without fault. Windows'2000 is not tolerant of slight voltage fluctuations which may arise from leaking cabling.

The above are two instances where I've resolved this problem; like out MVP's know of more.

Warren C. E. Austin