Well Crap - Bad Bad Problems

[Bingo]

Crap. My PC seems to have serious, serious issues.

So now instead of looking for a Disk Imaging Program in case my rig crashes, I'm now looking for how to fix my rig crashing. :(

The irritating problem that had me worried things were going to die was that sometimes when I would turn my PC off or go to sleep mode, it would shut down and then rapidly power on-off every second or so. As if you were flicking a light switch on and off rapidly. If I turned off the power supply switch on the back it would shut down.

Then sometimes when I would turn it on it would act like it was booting up just fine but nothing would ever come on the monitor (It wouldn't even wake up from sleep mode) and I noticed the hard drive activity light was steady on. Usually I could just turn it off and back on and it was fine. One day last week it kept on doing this no matter how often I turned it off and back on. Then Friday it was fine again.

Now last night I turned it on just fine. I went to copy some files off a CF card and everything froze. Then I got was I assume is the XP version of the Blue Screen of Death. Something about a stop error and a bunch of stuff that basically said 'OMG we're gonna die'.

Windows automatically attempted a restart.

That time and everytime after here's what happens:

I get the ASUS Splash screen that has always come up immediatly upon powering on.

After about 5-10 seconds I get a big screen apologizing to me very nicely but saying Windows didn't start up right. Gives me the 3 safe mode options, a last known good option and a normal option.

Whichever option I choose, there is a pause and then the Black with color Windows XP startup screen as per normal.

Then another pause and the whole process starts over again back at the ASUS splash screen. Right before that it does appear as if the monitor has that brief second of sleep mode just like when you do a soft restart right out of windows (I hope you know what I'm meaning here).

So, basically, I'm thinking I'm hosed. Anyone have any ideas?

Thanks -

Bingo

[ME BIGGD01]

Did youinstall sevice pack 3? If this is the case let me know.

[ME BIGGD01]

Read this although it appears some have not had a problem this may be an issue if you did indeed install sp3.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/05/09/xp-sp3-crashes-amd-machines


Now you are not hosed to say the least. Don't stress, it's fixable as anything surely is.

First you should do an image regardless just so you have a backup of all of your files.

Second do you have the original xp cd?

I will wait for your response.:thumbs:

[Bingo]

I'll have to be honest and say I'm not sure. I'm pretty sure I did, but I can't swear to it.

With the different computers both and work and at home, I don't remember which ones I got to and which I didn't. I'm 90% sure I did on the rig that won't start.

I tried the tricks listed on that blog for the AMD rigs, both switching to a PS2 mouse and also inserting a usb drive. I tried one, the other and then both.

All 3 times I couldn't get out of the loop. I tried both the safe mode option as well as the regular mode option.

Oh, and I can't still image the drive since I can't boot :) Or at least I should say I don't know of a way to do it without being able to boot it up.

Any way to tell for sure if I installed SP3 when I can't actually boot to Windows and check?

[ME BIGGD01]

did you try last known good boot option?

[ME BIGGD01]

Boot up with the original xp cd and let it detect you have an os on the drive.

Once it has detected you have an os on it, choose repair and letit do a repair install. After that is done, you will need to install service pack 2 along with all the other updates. This will fix your problem id indeed the os is crapped. Doing this will not lose any of your data such as e-mail r documents. It will simply install all default files where you will just have to do the updates again. Have your cd key ready because it will ask you. Your passwords will stay the same.

[Bingo]

did you try last known good boot option?

Yeah I did try that first actually.

Trying the recovery CD now to see what happens.

[Bingo]

Okay, so I tried the CD. I think I may have messed up without knowing it.

It has an option for 'Advanced Systen Recovery'. I tried this and it asks for a floppy disk. I'm guessing maybe I was supposed to have run this CD at some point and created a floppy. I've run across systems like that before. I'd never had any reason to even pull this out, so never created the appropriate floppy. I always assumed this CD was self-contained.

So after that, it automatically starts displaying messages about loading drivers. Mouse, display, etc.

Then it shows this picture with these options. This sure smacks to me of a system that plans on totally re-installing everything. What do you think?

[ME BIGGD01]

wow that does not look good but dont fear we may still be able to fix this.

As you see there it is not detecting your drive correctly or partition.

again boot of the xp cd but dont wait for it to get to detecting your already installed version of windows. You want to click r for repeair as soon as it gives you the choice. This will bring you to the command prompt.

Follow the intructions as it goes there and tries to log you on.

When at command prompt you want to type the following commands
/help
that will give you the list of commands
you want to fix mbr so type fixmbr
after you type that you will get a question and press y for yes.

type fixboot

then type chkdsk and let it scan your disk for problems.

try to boot after that is done.