Originally Posted by jephree

Thanks for the Thanks and Best of Luck!

Let us know how it goes. Sweet dreams!

Right then,

Not been on my pc for a couple of days ( kids are on school holidays,pets,wife,arm injury! etc etc blah blah... )
BUT : bearing in mind it was taking longer + longer to even start the damn thing ( 13 restarts iirc last time? )

Fired it up today.............and it started first time!
What's going on here then.........obviously the startup sequence/files must be ok? I'm baffled..

I'll see how it performs in the next few days

Did you open it up and clean it?

GRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!

Spoke too soon.Tried to turn it on today and it wouldn't have it.Not at all.
So i decided to open it up + clean it, ( haven't cleaned it in 3 years... )
LOADS of dust around the fans and CPU assembly - see attachment
Took the fans and CPU assy apart and gave it a damn good clean.Looks mint now,
so i fired it up................and.....................nowt!
15 or so restarts later and i'm getting reeeally peeved now, ( start normally/start last good configeration ) so i start in safe mode.
It starts,so i restore to an earlier time ( which i did before + it worked ),cross everything 'cos it has to restart............and it works
Then i cleaned all my files,cookies,history etc, virus scanned ( all clean ) and re started...and it re starts fine again

The only hardware recently is the printer - but that's been unplugged since yesterday.

Sorry to keep banging on,but it's the main pc in the house and has never just developed a weird problem like this.........could something be failing?

Thanks for all help guys, top site

Sorry, can't attach pic,so i'll have to use a biiig img



P.S, after much reading - The amount of RAM seems to keep cropping up in puters with my kind of problem. I only have 256 mb of ram..and there's a lot of stuff on this pc - It's the main pc of the house,the kids have over 500mb on theirs......for games !!??

How can i do a RAM test?

OMG what a dirty PC...lol

were you careful clearing the dust away, have you tried removing and reseating the RAM?

256 is a minimum for XP. Another 256 would help. Make sure you match the speed and brand if possible.

RAM test: http://www.memtest86.com/

RAM scan: http://www.crucial.com/systemscanner/index.asp

" OMG what a dirty PC...lol"

you're not wrong there pal,I hang my head in shame.

Now it's clean the probs still there tho

Edit.......Cheers for that info jephree, I'll give it a try

Hi again - 3 months on and it's still not right.........

It keeps freezing on starting and only works in safe mode.When i do an AVG virus scan, the first 2 MBR sectors are bad / unreadable,hence it can't boot.

BUT, the odd time i turn it on ( from cold ) it fires straight up - and a virus scan now says the mbr sectors are fine,hence it's booted

I've tried a few diferent hard drives in it and it's still the same,so it can't be my HDD, can it? There's no problems in device manager or system etc,alls clean. I've also doubled the RAM.
Could something on the motherboard etc be failing?
I've no idea,i'm baffled with this one.

I'm trying to use this pc's modem ( cable - USB ) on the wifes pc ( old win98 ), just so i can stay online, and hopefully fix my pc,but i'm having trouble finding my internet settings and modem driver ( motorola SURFboard SB4100 USB cable modem ) -

or get the lump hammer out...... any help muchly apreciated,cheers,Dave.

When you say that you have tried different hard drives: are you reinstalling XP on these different drives?

Did you ever reinstall XP?

Next to that my first suspect would be your power supply unit. You can find an inexpensive tester such as:

http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...n&q=psu+tester

Or if you happen to have a spare PSU you might change it out. A failing PSU could cause this behavior.

First I would try reinstalling XP if you haven't already.


Another alternative short of reinstall is the following:



If you cannot boot into any aspect of Safe Mode options then you will need a boot disk.

If you have a retail version of XP CD then:

If you cannot boot into Windows I would suggest first trying the Recovery Console:

http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;EN-US;307654

To try to fix the boot:

Assuming that your XP is on C: then:

Type:

FIXMBR C:

then enter. After that completes type:

FIXBOOT C:

then enter. After that completes type:

BOOTCFG /rebuild

then enter. After that completes type:

EXIT

then reboot.

If in the process you are asked to run chkdsk say YES.

Also after the BOOTCFG /rebuild you will be prompted to:

C:\Windows
1. Add installation to boot list? (Yes/No/All):
2. Enter Load Identifier: (Custom description for an operating system loading from the Boot menu)
3. Enter Operating System Load Options: (that is: /fastdetect)

Reply:
1. Yes
2. XP
3. /fastdetect

If this fails you can run a Repair Install that will leave your data intact:

http://michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

Thanks for replying jephree,much appreciate it : )

Yes,i tried re installing XP, no joy.
Put 5 HDD's in,formated em,installed windows - did the full install every time....then froze.
So it can't be my HDD. Even changed IDE? cables,still same.

Power supply? I thought if it weren't getting power it wouldn't work at all?

PSU...? Do you mean CPU? sORRY FOR ALL THE DUMB q'S

I have my original XP CD that came with the PC, but no boot disk.....( floppy?)

I've tried recovery console ( + repair install, i think - when it 1st crashed )-no joy

Now then,lol,to get to the point...

Tried a few times today to fire it up - no way,wouldn't have it.
Looked at a few of your answers on this site and Event viewer kept coming up.Checked my logs and have LOADS of red X's in it.Lots on CD ROM ( device not working )
I have 2 cd roms ( D: and E: )

E: started buzzing and not burning cd's properly 6 months ago,so i don't use it anymore.

So..........out of curiosity i unplugged e: drive and re started ---- and it's fired up

I daredn't re start the pc yet, as this is the 1st time i've been online since my last post!

but i'll try start it 2mor - with fingers crossed, and report back.

If it won't boot, i'll try your FIXMBR C: ( if it works in safe mode )
I've copied + pasted it to my docs' , Thanks for your help, tis a top site. Dave.

First off glad you are working again!

BY PSU I meant Power Supply Unit. When these fail they tend to do so gradually. This is the source of many intermittent and mysterious hardware issues.

Your original XP CD is a boot disk. You can boot it to either a Repair or Clean Install as well as the Recovery Console.

All that being said perhaps that CD drive was the wrench in the works as they used to say.

Let us know how it goes.