Can't Boot

Computer won't complete the bootup. It makes it to the Logo screen and reboots repeatedly. Never makes it to the desktop. What can I do to find the error and resolve this problem? No errors are posted.


Win2000 sp4, ATI Radeon 9500

 

There are two things that I would do at this point.
1) Go into setup and set boot seq to boot from the CD 1st and install the
Window install cd.
Go to the point to do a full install or just install windows files.
Pick just install the windows files.

2) Run a memory test to see if there is a problem.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/Memtest86_d1247.html

 

Not sure with Windows 2000, but it should be similar to Win XP.

Tap F8 after the Manufacturer or BIOS logo appears, but before you see the Windows 2000 loading screen. You should then have a list of options, one of which says to Disable automatic reboot. There should then be a blue screen with lots of info on it appearing. You'll want to either search the internet for information on the error name (in all caps and _ in place of spaces), the error number (0x000000xx), and any files names that show on the screen (specifically around 2/3 the way down the screen, before a large group of columns), or post back here with that info and we'll see what we can find on it.

Hopefully we can fix this issue without reinstalling Windows or testing the memory.

 

Does the PC reboot after clicking on a user name and entering the password (if you have a password)? If you don't have seperate user accounts listed, then I'm assuming it's rebooting right before the desktop comes up. These same symptoms can be malware related.... there's one called 'OmniQuad' or something similar and it mods the registry to boot to a file called 'wsaupdater.exe' instead of 'userinit.exe' and it modifies the userinit file so that when a malware scan is performed, the userinit file is removed, rendering the PC unbootable. The reg mods are made to the WinLogon subkeys. Here's a link, but it's written for WinXP and I'm not sure if it will apply to Win2000 or not. It may be worth a look to put you on the path anyway.... Link: http://www.winxptutor.com/wsaremove.htm Scroll about half way down, and you'll see the blue lettering that says "....solution to log-on log-off loop...." or something very similar....
Good Luck!

hopperdave2000

BTW- It's probably not a good idea to modify the registry or remove any files in the recovery console until you're sure that you have the malware in question. If you recently ran a spyware scan (AdAware for example) then there's a good chance that your symptoms are caused by the malware mentioned above.... AdAware is especially known for causing the log-on log-off loop after it removes the userinit and/or wsaupdate file(s)....