Hardware, Software, or Both?

MY WinXP pc has a strange problem: It doesn't want to run cold.
Symptom:
It takes more than 16 operations of the 'start' button just to reach the 'POST' beep. Then after 2-3 more shutdowns it will finially run for hours, in 'Safe' mode. However, it will shutdown within a few minutes after switching to 'Normal' mode. No blue screens, no strange messages, just like someone kicked the power plug.

What do think:
Memory?
Motherboard?
CPU?
Software?

The system is six years-old, and this problem has persisted for 10 days.
It does run well in 'Safe' mode but the program I use the most, "Adobe Photoshop Lightroom" doesn't really like 'Safe' mode.

Has anyone experienced similiar symptoms?

 

This sounds more like a Hardware issue.

Check and first see if the power cord is plugged in properly.

 

If the hard drive is six years old too, I would suspect it for the slowdown.

Maybe a little dose of HDSentinel would paint a better picture?

 

1) I'm pretty sure it's not the power cord. Its been replaced, and tried in 3 different outlets and 2 different circuits.

2) Video card - It won't start with the card removed, or the with the on-board video either.

3) Memory - I've tried each of the two 'sticks' on-at-a-time with the same difficulty reaching the 'POST' beep.

4) Other info - During 'boot' it acts like it just needs several 'start button'
operations to warm it up. My best guess is failed capacitors either on the motherboard or CPU.

I have another motherboard/cpu combo in transit.

 

Okay, I replaced the motherboard with a slightly newer one (Asus P5S800-VM). Now it goes to the Windows splash screen then to the 'Windows Safe Mode Selection' Black & White screen and when I try to start it in 'Windows Safe Mode' it just loops back to the 'Windows Safe Mode' screen, again?

The same loop happens in each of the choices on the B&W 'SafeMode' page?

Yesterday, with the older motherboard it would run just fine in 'Safe' mode.
Both (ide) hard drives have passed Windows Disc Check, and I checked the heath of them yesterday (old motherboard & 'Safe' mode') with HDSentinel
and the results were 99% and 100%.

OS is WinXP/SP3

Help!

 

How old is the PSU? I had a similar issue with an older PC not powering up properly because the 6 year old PSU had begun to fail. PSUs don't last forever.

Also, your newer motherboard probably requires different drivers than the old motherboard and would explain your inability to boot even into safe mode.

 

Recap: WinXPpro PC:
PC took several operation of 'Start' button to boot, and would only continue to run if 'Safe Mode'. I replaced motherboard and that problem is gone, but now I'm stuck in a 'safe mode selection screen loop'.

Last night I ran Windows Disc Check, from the installation cd, on C:\. Then ran 'bootfix'. Nothing has changed. It won't do anything but open the Windows splash screen, flash a partial blue screen (too fast and too small to read), and revert to the black & white Windows screen with the 'Safe Mode' selections.
It will not boot either 'Windows' or 'Safe Mode'.

I haven't been able to install the drivers for the motherboard I have in it now.
Could this be the problem? If so, how can I install them, if I can't load an OS?

 

Is this the same machine from this thread?

And, to answer your motherboard driver question: yes, it's very possible that the board needs a driver load - that board has Serial ATA but Windows XP does not natively support SATA.

 

Yes Caliban, its the same ide hard drive, different motherboard/CPU/Memory. I have some more information:
1) The blue screen is 'stop:Ox0000007B (OxC0000034, Ox00000000,
Ox00000000)

2) Ran 'fixboot' and 'fixmbr', after a chkdsk scan that found nothing.

3) The blue screen page says: run "chkdsk /F". What is /F? Whatever it is neither c:\ or c:\Windows will run it.

I still have the stop screen when trying to boot Windows.

Recap: Replaced bad motherboard/cpu combo and would like to avoid an
OS reinstall. I have my 22,767 images backed up, but I'm sure the Lightroom catalogue will be a nightmare..