Computer keeps rebooting at startup

It keeps doing it. I am working on it for a friend, he doesn't know anything about it. I cannot boot from a CD either, I have changed it in the BIOS, and hit F8 to go to the boot menu, checked CD and it still didn't work. I don't see any errors, it shows a blue screen for less than a second, then it shuts down. I cannot reinstall the OS, I have read that it is a virus causing that, and I cannot get into Windows to get rid of it. None of the safe modes work, I go to them and it starts loading and then reboots. Last known good config doesn't work either, same result.



Medion 5200 computer
Windows XP

 

If you hit the F8 key at the right time in xp, it should give you the choice to select safe mode, or even "last known configuration".

 

Can you read the thread first...

 

Ah, yes. I guess my brain skipped that part. :-o

There should also be an option for "disable automatic restart on system failure".

Then you can post the BSOD here.

 

What section of the BIOS would that be in? I cannot seem to find it. And I wasn't trying to be rude with that, hopefully you didn't think that.

 

I cannot get into windows, I saw you could disable that in my computer, also in the startup options. But what I get is:
safe mode
safe mode with networking
safe mode with command prompt
last known good configuration
start normally

Safe mode won't start, if I press safe mode I get about 30 lines of text mostly : multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\winnt\system32\drivers\acpi.sys and many more having to do with drivers but I can't list them all because the computer loops back to restart too fast. I do see a blue screen for a flash and it seems to have text on it with a red highlighted line on it but it is gone so fast that I can't even make out one word.

 

Cannot reinstall the OS because of CD problem, just to clarify.

 

Thanks, odd. No option for advanced, no option for "disable automatic restart".

Hrmmm....what if, you went into the bios. Used a known good xp boot cd. And removed the hdd from the boot options? I've ran into this in the past (5 years ago).

 

Just wondering if that works, before I state anything else.

 

I am using XP home, that is probably why. On my pro computer, I have those options too. I just tried that same thing before I saw this thread . It says disc boot failure insert system CD... or something like that, I am sure you know what I mean, I insert and it keeps saying that. In either drive I put it in. I have checked power/ribbon cables on both drives, they are attached correctly. I also tried booting it up with one stick of RAM at a time, that didn't work.

 

Using that CD, on your pro computer, can you boot to it?

 

Yes, I can boot it on my XP Pro.

 

What would you guess on this? How do I fix it?... I was thinking of putting the hard drive into my pro computer, installing windows again on it. Can all computers use a SATA drive? It is kind of an old computer, around 2004. It is an Emachines T3414, came with an IDE. Should I put my IDE hard drive in it and see if it will boot? I am kind of lost, not used to hardware issues. I mainly do software...

 

You're sure it's a virus? Could it be data corruption, or PSU flaking out? Maybe try chkdsk if you can somehow load command prompt safe mode. If not install the drive slaved into another working machine and run chkdsk on the drive.

 

What i'd recommend is using your current working computer and set up your faulty computers hard drive as a slave in your working computer, that should boot windows from your primary master HDD, if you get as far as loading the OS maybe try a virus scan on the slave HDD. and if that doesnt help, back all necessary data needed on the slave HDD and then run a reformat.

Hope this helps.

 

Not sure if my computer will hold a SATA, how can I tell?

 

I just checked, it definetly doesn't have a SATA, it has an ol' ribbon cable. What would you do now? This is my only computer.

 

Only thing I can think of now, since you have two computers, is to swap the cd/dvd drive from your other computer to the compute that is having the issue. And trying to boot to the cd using the other drive. Also making sure that bios is set to boot to cd first (I know I've stated this already, just saying it again. )....

 

Well, I found a converter online, but it is for 160G<. I have a 200GB hard drive.

 

I actually have like 6, but they are all old =D

 

Well, try another drive. :-D

 

I replaced the CD drives, it still won't boot. I moved the jumper etc. after installing, made sure they were setup right in BIOS, and when it didn't go I hit F12, still didn't work. Those CD drives are working, for sure.

 

Is the IDE cable shared with another device? Is the cdrom drive set for cable select (cs) or Master?

 

try taking out your PSU from your faulty computer, and installing it in the working pc, along with your working pc's hard drive as a Master and faulty computers hard drive as slave.
whichever PC the hard drive with SATA came from, the PSU of that computer SHOULD support both SATA and IDE.

* Dont forget to take note where all the leads on the PSU come from on the Motherboard, check your PSU can connect everything first

 

yes and yes

 

Still haven't solved this...