Windows XP Home/E-machine booting problem

My girlfriend's E-machine w2247 will not complete a boot up. There is a repeating cycle that sends the computer back to reboot at the moment it seems like windows is about to start up. There is a very brief moment, ususally less than a second, that you can see the first windows screen. Then it begins a reboot again....and again....and again.

Specs for this computer can be found here:
http://www.emachines.com/support/support_info.html?prodName=W2247

Thanks in advance for your help.

Jason

 

With, or without SP2?

Will it work in Safe Mode?

 

Yes, the first thing I would try is safe mode. Has it ever worked before, and if so did you make any changed that might have caused this?

It might be overheating, or have a bad power supply, or any other number of hardware/software problems. If safe mode makes it work, then it's something wrong with the software.

 

Without SP2. So far, unable to boot in safe mode.

 

Sounds to me she's been infected with the blaster worm.Check this out forr info and cure
http://www.microsoft.com/security/incident/blast.mspx

 

Blaster doesn't run in Safe Mode.


In fact, most viruses don't.

 

Try this:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545

You need an XP CD, or the XP boot floppies.

 

I have confirmed, safe mode provides no benefit. The same cycle repeats. I sent a request for assistance to e-machine's tech support, including a detailed description of the problem. A web search showed me that this problem has happened to others, but the threads I found it in were all incomplete. No one seemed to have a specific correction availble. Thanks for the suggestions and any others that you guys may provide. I think I'll go read her user's guide to see what help her system CD's might be. My only concern there is if loading those CD's might only provide complete system restore with loss of all data.

 

Did you try the article, above?

Keep in mind system in C:\windows\repair is actually system.bak on an e-machines computer.

So you must rename system.bak to system.

 

I did read the article, but my lack of technical vocabulary limited my understanding of the info provided. I am awfully anal about attempting things that I do not fully understand.
Just contacted a friend of mine in the IT biz. He suggests that I use the "last known successful config" option available within XP, available at the same screen as safe mode. He said to try it several times if it does not succeed at first attempt. Later guys....headed accross town to try it.
Thanks again.

 

By the way, the article did state "This problem was first corrected in Windows XP Service Pack 1." I am assuming that since her computer had SP1, that she should not have encountered the applicable condition. Is there a posibility of this same failure anyway?

 

Its a simple registry replacement.

You don't necessarily have to get a Registry Failure message to have registry entries that keep you from booting.

So you are simply replacing the registry, thats all.

these are the best directions that I have, from MS on how to do it.

 

Thanks again for the info. My IT buddy had a similar suggestion which required the hard drive to be installed in another computer as as slave, then to change the registry. Again, at the moment, that is a bit over my head, but if it comes to it, I may take the drive to him for assistance.

Ok, now I really am leaving. In the words of the Road Runner..."beep beep...zip tang"

Later.
jason

 

Problem corrected. System restore is just a big a$$ eraser, eh?

Thanks for the help.

 

Oh boy, this ain't my day.
System restore completed. SP2 update completed and a few various programs re-installed. Now this friggin DrWatson jumps in when I try to delete anything, mostly those annoying desktop icons that all programs want to put on the desktop.
DrWatson has encountered an error and needs to shut down, etc....
Also
Windows Explorer has encountered an error and needs to shut down, etc....
Looking now for the nearest dumpster.

 

Uninstalled SP2, performing great now.