PC fails to boot up, stuck in loop

Hi all,

This wonderful forum helped me when I picked up a virus earlier in the year so I am hoping you can help me again.

My PC today has begun to BSOD out on startup. Power on, I see the pc detecting MB, gfx etc. it got to the XP loading screen and then BSOD'd out and immediately started to boot again.

I then got a screen with an 'American Megatrends' logo and a message saying the 'overclocking has failed'. I get two options:

F1 - Enter setup and reconfigure
F2 - Set defaults and continue

First off I hit F2

It then asked me if I wanted to continue in safe mode or boot normally. I asked it to boot normally because there was no reason for it to do this.

Boot up then continued to XP screen where it BSOD'd again and tried to start up once more.

Bro in law thought it might be the fan on the chipset - I powered the pc on with the side off (didnt touch anything!) and all fans are working.
Point to note: I have never overclocked this PC, as far as I'm aware when I bought it from PCspecialist.co.uk it was not overclocked. I have never modified it beyond its original spec either. The only time I have opened the case is to clean it out (gently and making sure I'm grounded first)

below is the spec. I hope you can help me with this - I won't be surprised if its just a age thing since the pc is quite old now.


Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™2 Duo E6750 (2 X 2.66GHz) 1333MHz FSB/4MB L2 Cache
Motherboard ASUS® P5K SE: DDR2, SATAII, PCI-e x16, 2 PCI, 3 x PCI-e x1
Memory (RAM) 2GB CORSAIR XMS2 800MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY! (2x1GB)
Graphics Card 512MB GEFORCE 8800GT PCI Express + DVI + TV-OUT
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 320GB SERIAL ATA II HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 20x Dual Layer LightScribe DVD Writer ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Power Supply & Case Cooling 600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 19 dBA INTEL CPU COOLER
Sound Card Sound Blaster® Audigy® SE with 7.1 Surround Sound:
Network Facilities ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options 8 x USB 2.0 PORTS (6 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD

 

Hi and welcome back to MG's,

Do you get the same result in "safemode" ?? it could be that you need to do a repair install as it sounds to me like you have a corrupt system driver.

take a read here ....

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/978788

 

It could also be a sign of a failing hard drive. Although hard drives don't have a set life span, your statement that the PC is "quite old" (based on my experience as a repair tech) raises this as a red flag.

If you can remove the drive and attach it to a working PC, back up your data and then run a long Drive Self Test (DST) such as WD's Data Lifeguard or Seagate's SeaTools (SeaTools has a generic long DST included for other brands of drives).

If there is any doubt as to the hard drive's overall health, I'd replace it. Although drives have become rather expensive, I'd rather deal with the cost of a new one versus the time and hassles of risking another crash.

Hope this helps.

 

ok I tried it on the off chance it had decided to sort itself out while I was at work

I caught the words

UNMOUNTABLE BOOT VOLUME

on the BSOD before it disappeared

 

note:

I have put my XP recovery cd in the drive but its not picking it up. drive is operating, its not going into the XP recovery thing\

 

BSOD 0XED

Hard drive corruption -- potential failure.

Run a chkdsk c: /r on it first and see if it completes.

 

well....

I still have the problem, but the gf took one look at my face when I told her the PC was dead, weighed up the pros and cons of me being forced to sit next to her on the sofa and watch tv (which I hate - watching tv that is) and went out and got me another pc.....

god I love that woman!

the now old pc I will get sorted out and use it as.... hopefully something to learn about PC's with.

thanks for your help though guys - I will probably be back to try to fix the problem with the old HDD - there is stuff on it that we want, but nothing that we need immediately.