XP infinite reboot cycle

[J]

Hi, I just installed XP pro on a Dimension XPS R450 (PII
450 with 384 mb ram, 20gb hdd, etc).

The install went fine. No problems. I ran windows update
and installed service pack and it runs through a
continuous reboot. Gets to the windows XP Pro screen (the
boot screen) and after a few seconds, blacks out and
reboots. even does this in safe mode (command prompt,
networking, etc). any ideas what causes this? how to fix
without complete re-install. and will i run into this
problem again? any drivers i should update before doing
the service pack?

thanks!
J

 

[Merseyhawk23]

Hi,

Ok do you see a flash of a blue screen, just before the PC
reboots?
If so, i had something very similar happen to me.
Unfortunately it turned out to be a corrupt boot sector
(which may need a full reinstall), but you could try the
following things first.

Boot from the winxp cd, and enter the repair console.
run CHKDSK, which may be able to fix the problem.
If not, try FIXMBR (i think)
Depending on how confident you are with windows, there are
a few programs that allow you to alter the Master Boot
Record, but i would only attempt that if you know what you
are doing.
If you dont have much data to lose, a reinstall might be
the easiest solution.

Sorry i cant be more helpful.

John (merseyhawk23)

 

[xandervix]

I managed to find a fix for this - it had me stumped for days (and I fix
XP machines for a living!).

I had the same deal - clean install of XP Pro, no problems. THen as
soon as I installed SP1a it went into an inifinite reboot cycle, just
as described below. I re-installed XP 3 times, and each time I applied
the service pack, it went into the reboot cycle. I suspect that SP1
was replacing an unsigned driver...

I managed to work around it by re-installing XP Pro (clean install),
then going to Windows Update and applying every critical and security
update EXCEPT Sp1a. Reboot and then install SP1a - success! Still no
idea why (except maybe the driver thing I mentioned). But at least I
can stop pulling out my hair...

Good luck people.

James.