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#1
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Continuous Reboot
A friend has a machine with XP-Home on it which suddenly fails by repeatedly
rebooting whenever it's turned on. So he called me to look at it. Some observations: 1) The first thing I see is that it appears to boot properly, then something executes which kills the system. That something may be me invoking a program, or it may happen just sitting there. XP flashes up a full page of error text and then blacks it out in about one second which is really not very helpful. The first line says something about "If you've seen this error before"... On down one can catch a quick flash something about perhaps it's got insufficient disk space. (not the problem -- 20GB disk with 4GB free). Further down is something about maybe newly installed hardware or device drivers something, something, something. There is nothing newly installed though. At the bottom there's a line of hex dump that I have no idea what it is since it disappears so quickly. 2) So my second attempt is to boot the system in Safe mode. That's better, but still very twitchy and will reboot itself randomly. Nothing untoward is in the Startup folder. When I try to restore the system to a previous level the system will fail. "Help & Support" works, but when I click on the "Restore" link I get an error message: "The procedure entry point to UuidToStringW could not be located in the dll RPCRT4.dll ". 3) Running Chkdsk will sometimes find a few problems to correct. I suspect that every time the machine crashes there's a possibility of screwing up the disk a little bit more and creating new problems for chkdsk to find. 4) Unfortunately, I don't think the machine's XP has been updated in a dog's age -- if ever. And it can't be done now because every time I try to do so the machine fails and reboots. Don't even ask about virus software. Is there anything to do with this short of trying to reload the operating system from scratch? And can I just reload XP without trashing the rest of the disk? I rather doubt that any backups have been done on the system, so I'd rather not trash the data files if possible until XP can be made stable enough to off load backups of the data files. Any suggestions? Thanks. Bill |
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#2
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Continuous Reboot
"Bill Martin" wrote in message ... A friend has a machine with XP-Home on it which suddenly fails by repeatedly rebooting whenever it's turned on. So he called me to look at it. Some observations: 1) The first thing I see is that it appears to boot properly, then something executes which kills the system. That something may be me invoking a program, or it may happen just sitting there. XP flashes up a full page of snip could be a hardware problem run a ram test and harddrive diagnostic |
#3
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Continuous Reboot
"philo" wrote in message ... "Bill Martin" wrote in message ... A friend has a machine with XP-Home on it which suddenly fails by repeatedly rebooting whenever it's turned on. So he called me to look at it. Some observations: 1) The first thing I see is that it appears to boot properly, then something executes which kills the system. That something may be me invoking a program, or it may happen just sitting there. XP flashes up a full page of snip could be a hardware problem run a ram test and harddrive diagnostic ---------------------------------------------------------------- Do you have a suggestion as to what diagnostics to run? I'm unaware of any ram test in XP. When I try to do the XP hard drive test it just stops immediately and says the disk needs to be defragged. But the last thing I want to do is defrag something that's crashing randomly. Bill |
#4
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Continuous Reboot
Black Startup Screen Is Briefly Displayed, Computer Restarts Repeatedly
http://support.microsoft.com/default...en-us%3b314466 Windows XP Logon Screen Does not Appear and the Computer Continuously Restarts http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;310396 -- ================================== TaurArian [MS-MVP] 2005-2007 - Australia ================================== http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm Need more help? http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=ph;en-us;6527 (Links to web pages and MSKB Articles are posted for the purposes of keeping the information current) "Bill Martin" wrote in message ... |A friend has a machine with XP-Home on it which suddenly fails by repeatedly | rebooting whenever it's turned on. So he called me to look at it. Some | observations: | | 1) The first thing I see is that it appears to boot properly, then something | executes which kills the system. That something may be me invoking a | program, or it may happen just sitting there. XP flashes up a full page of | error text and then blacks it out in about one second which is really not | very helpful. The first line says something about "If you've seen this | error before"... On down one can catch a quick flash something about | perhaps it's got insufficient disk space. (not the problem -- 20GB disk with | 4GB free). Further down is something about maybe newly installed hardware | or device drivers something, something, something. There is nothing newly | installed though. At the bottom there's a line of hex dump that I have no | idea what it is since it disappears so quickly. | | 2) So my second attempt is to boot the system in Safe mode. That's better, | but still very twitchy and will reboot itself randomly. Nothing untoward is | in the Startup folder. When I try to restore the system to a previous level | the system will fail. "Help & Support" works, but when I click on the | "Restore" link I get an error message: "The procedure entry point to | UuidToStringW could not be located in the dll RPCRT4.dll ". | | 3) Running Chkdsk will sometimes find a few problems to correct. I suspect | that every time the machine crashes there's a possibility of screwing up the | disk a little bit more and creating new problems for chkdsk to find. | | 4) Unfortunately, I don't think the machine's XP has been updated in a dog's | age -- if ever. And it can't be done now because every time I try to do so | the machine fails and reboots. Don't even ask about virus software. | | Is there anything to do with this short of trying to reload the operating | system from scratch? And can I just reload XP without trashing the rest of | the disk? I rather doubt that any backups have been done on the system, so | I'd rather not trash the data files if possible until XP can be made stable | enough to off load backups of the data files. | | Any suggestions? Thanks. | | Bill | |
#5
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Continuous Reboot
Bill Martin wrote:
Do you have a suggestion as to what diagnostics to run? I'm unaware of any ram test in XP. When I try to do the XP hard drive test it just stops immediately and says the disk needs to be defragged. But the last thing I want to do is defrag something that's crashing randomly. You don't run hardware diagnostics from within an operating system. Here are general hardware troubleshooting steps: http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot However, the first thing I'd do is back up the friend's data. It is completely possible to back up data (as long as the hard drive itself is viable) without going into Windows. You can either slave the drive in a working XP box and copy the data off that way or boot the machine with a rescue system like Knoppix or Bart's PE. Booting the machine with the rescue system also helps determine if the issues are hardware or software (Windows) related. If you don't have the skills to do this, then have your friend take his/her machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local version of BigStoreUSA). Malke -- Elephant Boy Computers www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!" MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User |
#6
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Continuous Reboot
I don't believe these are the problems. The machine does boot properly and
gets past the logon screen, etc. Then after it's booted properly at some minute or two of "random" time later it reboots. Thanks. Bill ------------------------------ "TaurArian [MS-MVP]" wrote in message ... Black Startup Screen Is Briefly Displayed, Computer Restarts Repeatedly http://support.microsoft.com/default...en-us%3b314466 Windows XP Logon Screen Does not Appear and the Computer Continuously Restarts http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;310396 -- ================================== TaurArian [MS-MVP] 2005-2007 - Australia ================================== http://www.dts-l.org/goodpost.htm Need more help? http://support.microsoft.com/?scid=ph;en-us;6527 (Links to web pages and MSKB Articles are posted for the purposes of keeping the information current) "Bill Martin" wrote in message ... |A friend has a machine with XP-Home on it which suddenly fails by repeatedly | rebooting whenever it's turned on. So he called me to look at it. Some | observations: | | 1) The first thing I see is that it appears to boot properly, then something | executes which kills the system. That something may be me invoking a | program, or it may happen just sitting there. XP flashes up a full page of | error text and then blacks it out in about one second which is really not | very helpful. The first line says something about "If you've seen this | error before"... On down one can catch a quick flash something about | perhaps it's got insufficient disk space. (not the problem -- 20GB disk with | 4GB free). Further down is something about maybe newly installed hardware | or device drivers something, something, something. There is nothing newly | installed though. At the bottom there's a line of hex dump that I have no | idea what it is since it disappears so quickly. | | 2) So my second attempt is to boot the system in Safe mode. That's better, | but still very twitchy and will reboot itself randomly. Nothing untoward is | in the Startup folder. When I try to restore the system to a previous level | the system will fail. "Help & Support" works, but when I click on the | "Restore" link I get an error message: "The procedure entry point to | UuidToStringW could not be located in the dll RPCRT4.dll ". | | 3) Running Chkdsk will sometimes find a few problems to correct. I suspect | that every time the machine crashes there's a possibility of screwing up the | disk a little bit more and creating new problems for chkdsk to find. | | 4) Unfortunately, I don't think the machine's XP has been updated in a dog's | age -- if ever. And it can't be done now because every time I try to do so | the machine fails and reboots. Don't even ask about virus software. | | Is there anything to do with this short of trying to reload the operating | system from scratch? And can I just reload XP without trashing the rest of | the disk? I rather doubt that any backups have been done on the system, so | I'd rather not trash the data files if possible until XP can be made stable | enough to off load backups of the data files. | | Any suggestions? Thanks. | | Bill | |
#7
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Continuous Reboot
First , back up any user's data (documents, address book, ....)
If this fails, and since if fails after a while in Safe Mode, try booting in Safe Mode Command Prompt. See if it fails in Safe Mode Command Prompt. Then, try a Windows XP Repair. If all fails, AND you backed up the data, reinstall. "Bill Martin" wrote in message ... A friend has a machine with XP-Home on it which suddenly fails by repeatedly rebooting whenever it's turned on. So he called me to look at it. Some observations: 1) The first thing I see is that it appears to boot properly, then something executes which kills the system. That something may be me invoking a program, or it may happen just sitting there. XP flashes up a full page of error text and then blacks it out in about one second which is really not very helpful. The first line says something about "If you've seen this error before"... On down one can catch a quick flash something about perhaps it's got insufficient disk space. (not the problem -- 20GB disk with 4GB free). Further down is something about maybe newly installed hardware or device drivers something, something, something. There is nothing newly installed though. At the bottom there's a line of hex dump that I have no idea what it is since it disappears so quickly. 2) So my second attempt is to boot the system in Safe mode. That's better, but still very twitchy and will reboot itself randomly. Nothing untoward is in the Startup folder. When I try to restore the system to a previous level the system will fail. "Help & Support" works, but when I click on the "Restore" link I get an error message: "The procedure entry point to UuidToStringW could not be located in the dll RPCRT4.dll ". 3) Running Chkdsk will sometimes find a few problems to correct. I suspect that every time the machine crashes there's a possibility of screwing up the disk a little bit more and creating new problems for chkdsk to find. 4) Unfortunately, I don't think the machine's XP has been updated in a dog's age -- if ever. And it can't be done now because every time I try to do so the machine fails and reboots. Don't even ask about virus software. Is there anything to do with this short of trying to reload the operating system from scratch? And can I just reload XP without trashing the rest of the disk? I rather doubt that any backups have been done on the system, so I'd rather not trash the data files if possible until XP can be made stable enough to off load backups of the data files. Any suggestions? Thanks. Bill |
#8
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Additional Continuous Reboot
Turn off the automatic reboot on failure under Control Panel | SYstem
|Advanced|Startup and Recovery .... System failure section. "Bill Martin" wrote in message ... A friend has a machine with XP-Home on it which suddenly fails by repeatedly rebooting whenever it's turned on. So he called me to look at it. Some observations: 1) The first thing I see is that it appears to boot properly, then something executes which kills the system. That something may be me invoking a program, or it may happen just sitting there. XP flashes up a full page of error text and then blacks it out in about one second which is really not very helpful. The first line says something about "If you've seen this error before"... On down one can catch a quick flash something about perhaps it's got insufficient disk space. (not the problem -- 20GB disk with 4GB free). Further down is something about maybe newly installed hardware or device drivers something, something, something. There is nothing newly installed though. At the bottom there's a line of hex dump that I have no idea what it is since it disappears so quickly. 2) So my second attempt is to boot the system in Safe mode. That's better, but still very twitchy and will reboot itself randomly. Nothing untoward is in the Startup folder. When I try to restore the system to a previous level the system will fail. "Help & Support" works, but when I click on the "Restore" link I get an error message: "The procedure entry point to UuidToStringW could not be located in the dll RPCRT4.dll ". 3) Running Chkdsk will sometimes find a few problems to correct. I suspect that every time the machine crashes there's a possibility of screwing up the disk a little bit more and creating new problems for chkdsk to find. 4) Unfortunately, I don't think the machine's XP has been updated in a dog's age -- if ever. And it can't be done now because every time I try to do so the machine fails and reboots. Don't even ask about virus software. Is there anything to do with this short of trying to reload the operating system from scratch? And can I just reload XP without trashing the rest of the disk? I rather doubt that any backups have been done on the system, so I'd rather not trash the data files if possible until XP can be made stable enough to off load backups of the data files. Any suggestions? Thanks. Bill |
#9
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Continuous Reboot
"Malke" wrote in message ... Bill Martin wrote: Do you have a suggestion as to what diagnostics to run? I'm unaware of any ram test in XP. When I try to do the XP hard drive test it just stops immediately and says the disk needs to be defragged. But the last thing I want to do is defrag something that's crashing randomly. You don't run hardware diagnostics from within an operating system. Here are general hardware troubleshooting steps: http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/...ardware_Tshoot However, the first thing I'd do is back up the friend's data. It is completely possible to back up data (as long as the hard drive itself is viable) without going into Windows. You can either slave the drive in a working XP box and copy the data off that way or boot the machine with a rescue system like Knoppix or Bart's PE. Booting the machine with the rescue system also helps determine if the issues are hardware or software (Windows) related. If you don't have the skills to do this, then have your friend take his/her machine to a professional computer repair shop (not your local version of BigStoreUSA). Malke -- Elephant Boy Computers www.elephantboycomputers.com "Don't Panic!" MS-MVP Windows - Shell/User ----------------------------------------------------------- You've put your finger on the problem - or part of it at least. The RAM is indeed failing. I'll go over again later to check power supply voltages, reseat the SIMM and such before concluding it's actually the RAM itself, but that seems to be the problem. Hopefully, once the RAM is stable then XP will work well enough to restore itself without a full reload. I guess it depends on what got wiped on the disk by the RAM crashing XP. We'll see... Thanks. Bill |
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