XP keeps rebooting

[Dave]

This started yesterday and I thought it might be SP3. First boot of the
morning worked fine. Then I shut it down and later that morning the wife
started up the machine. I have two hard drives, both equiped with XP home
off the same CD. Well, it gets as far as Loading windows but never gets to
the Welcome screen before rebooting. I thought it might be SP3 so I
uninstalled it, windows did an update that morning, thus I removed them as
well. If I unplug the slave HD, it works fine. If I switch the Slave to
Master and vice versa, it boots fine. The issue is them booting together. I
am sure it is probably a driver issue, but how do I find that out?

 

[Andrew E.]

Are both hds configured correctly in the BIOS (boot drive priority),and both
hds have the jumper pins configured...Either way,move one drive to another
IDE connection,set jumper pins as needed,when pc starts,enter BIOS &
make sure the boot priority is correct..

 

[Malke]

Are both hds configured correctly in the BIOS (boot drive priority),and
both
hds have the jumper pins configured...Either way,move one drive to
another IDE connection,set jumper pins as needed,when pc starts,enter
BIOS & make sure the boot priority is correct..

Andrew, please. The OP says that the issue just started. Jumper pins don't
figure into the fix at all. The BIOS can't magically change itself, either.

Malke

 

[Malke]

This started yesterday and I thought it might be SP3. First boot of the
morning worked fine. Then I shut it down and later that morning the wife
started up the machine. I have two hard drives, both equiped with XP home
off the same CD. Well, it gets as far as Loading windows but never gets
to
the Welcome screen before rebooting. I thought it might be SP3 so I
uninstalled it, windows did an update that morning, thus I removed them as
well. If I unplug the slave HD, it works fine. If I switch the Slave to
Master and vice versa, it boots fine. The issue is them booting together.
I am sure it is probably a driver issue, but how do I find that out?

This is most probably not a driver issue at all but rather a hardware issue.
Your description of the machine's behavior points to a failing power
supply. Of course other components could be having problems, but I'd start
by swapping out the psu for a known-working one. If that solves the issue,
replace the original psu.

http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

Malke

 

[Dave]

You may be right. I cut it on last night, to check this forum, and it made a
weird sound before the mobo beep. I'll try a new PSU, but I think the issue
is Mobo related. I checked the bios and it had reverted back to the
original settins (I have a 512 AGP card and it had a PCI video listed). The
mobo is 5 years old, AMD 3000+, and has probably done it's job. If that is
he case, time to upgrade.

 

[Dave]

Just a side note, the small drive 80 gigs and the large drive 300 gigs, won't
let me configure to change master and slave. 80 gig wants to be master or
not run at all.

 

[Malke]

You may be right. I cut it on last night, to check this forum, and it
made a
weird sound before the mobo beep. I'll try a new PSU, but I think the
issue
is Mobo related. I checked the bios and it had reverted back to the
original settins (I have a 512 AGP card and it had a PCI video listed).
The
mobo is 5 years old, AMD 3000+, and has probably done it's job. If that
is he case, time to upgrade.

It may certainly be time to replace the motherboard, but if everything else
is going along fine I'd:

1. Replace the CMOS battery on the motherboard, which is the main reason
BIOS settings revert to default. This is a repair that costs under $5.00.

2. Swap out the psu. This is a repair that costs under $50.00.

Malke

 

[Dave]

Well, I tried an resinstall of windows hoping it was just an corrupted file.
But it goes through the process just fine until it asks me for Office XP
disk, which I don't have anymore thanks to my son thinking it was a frisbee.
When I hit cancel, it sits there for a long time and the status bar doesn't
more. Maybe I should just try again and walk away for several hours, see it
it works. DOes that sound normal?

 

[Malke]

Well, I tried an resinstall of windows hoping it was just an corrupted
file. But it goes through the process just fine until it asks me for
Office XP disk, which I don't have anymore thanks to my son thinking it
was a frisbee. When I hit cancel, it sits there for a long time and the
status bar doesn't
more. Maybe I should just try again and walk away for several hours, see
it
it works. DOes that sound normal?

What happened when you addressed the hardware issues?

Malke

 

[Dave]

Same thing, reboots.

What happened when you addressed the hardware issues?

Malke
--
MS-MVP
Elephant Boy Computers
www.elephantboycomputers.com
Don't Panic!

 

[Malke]

Same thing, reboots.

This means you changed out the CMOS battery and the power supply and are
still having problems? Other hardware components are bad, then. Sorry I
can't help you narrow it down further.

Good luck,

Malke

 

[Olórin]

Well, I tried an resinstall of windows hoping it was just an corrupted
file.
But it goes through the process just fine until it asks me for Office XP
disk, which I don't have anymore thanks to my son thinking it was a
frisbee.
When I hit cancel, it sits there for a long time and the status bar
doesn't
more. Maybe I should just try again and walk away for several hours, see
it
it works. DOes that sound normal?

Feel like I've turned over two pages at once here - how does Office XP
suddenly enter into the equation while reinstalling Windows?

 

[Dave]

Turned out to be a corrupt hard drive. Had to reformat and reinstall. It is
back up and running, of course, I lost all my work due to not backing up.