Track this topic | Email this topic | Print this topic

i went to startup my computer after getting home from work, and it seems to be trapped in some kind of infinite startup loop. it gets are far as showing the XP logo and playing the little startup chime. fter that, it goes back to the boot-up screen. i've tried starting in safe mode, safe mode with networking, safe mode with command prompt, etc. nothing works. what's worse is that i cant even boot off of my windows disk. hell, i can't even get into the recovery options.

if anyone knows why this might be happening and maybe someway to fix it, that'd be great.

This post has been edited by Malevolence on 11th December 2010 19:20

--------------------

moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

Does anybody who may be less than 100% trustworthy have access to your computer? I'm mainly asking because the first thing that comes to mind is a prank which involves writing up a quick script-like file and throwing it into the startup folder. I'd try booting into safe mode and emptying the sucker out, being sure to check for invisible files if possible.

Edit

Oh wait, safe mode doesn't work? Didn't catch that in time. Probably not what I'm thinking, so I'm not quite sure what the problem could be. I'm quite sorry for the bother then...Perhaps you might want to look into sysresccd or some other sort of linux live bootdisc you could use to examine the file structure of your startup disc, since windows isn't giving you much of any luck.

This post has been edited by Tonepoet on 12th December 2010 08:03

--------------------

Role reversal at its finest.

Had this happen to my computer and it turned out the motherboard was fried and had to be replaced.

--------------------

Arts

Farts

Twarts

i got it to stop restarting itself and i got a BSoD instead. it says it's encountered an "unmountable boot volume." every fix i've found online requires me to be able to either get into the recovery partition or boot off of my windows disk. since i can't do either i'm completely out of ideas.

--------------------

moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

I had something similar to this happen to me just last week. It would stall FOREVER at the mobo screen, then show the loading bar from Vista64 and then immediately reboot. Booting in Safe Mode, Networking, Command Prompts didn't work. I ended up having to boot from disc and do a system restore for the previous day, and that has fixed everything. I definitely got a BSoD in the middle of this as well, but it was so quick - almost like a flash before it rebooted - that I could never actually read what was happening. Definitely give the System Restore a shot.

EDIT: Just saw your last post - why can't you boot from disc?

This post has been edited by Neal on 12th December 2010 18:50

--------------------

Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

when i attempt to boot up with the disk in, it asks me if i want to see the recovery options. from there, i'd be able to repair whatever's wrong (or so says the google). the problem is, when i try to go to the recovery options, i get an error. i have no idea what it says. it flashes up for a split second and then the boot-up loop starts again. =\

i've tried going into the BIOS menu and telling it to load the disk drive before the HDD, still i get the same errors.

This post has been edited by Malevolence on 12th December 2010 21:21

--------------------

moé in the streets, senpai in the sheets

When it beeps as you turn it on, is it just the normal beep or something else? (Multiple beeps, one long beep, etc)

I had a similar problem with XP some yearas ago. I formated and problem solved (lol). By that time I blamed some worm blaster for it, because it all began with my pc saying that it would restart in some seconds.It told me it was gonna restart, not asked, the olnly option given was to restart immediatly or when the countdown ended. It restarted and entered the infinite loop of restarting, just like yours, Malevolence.

I´m not an expert, but try to put your HD into someone else's PC, save your important data and format. Hope it helps.

--------------------

Live Long and Prosper!

If you can't get the restore partition to work either, do what I did with an old laptop, and just install Ubuntu, or any other operating system, fresh, and start over..

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 12th December 2010 23:28)

If you can't get the restore partition to work either, do what I did with an old laptop, and just install Ubuntu, or any other operating system, fresh, and start over..

If he starts to wipe the hard drive and then the issue turns out to be hardware related on the motherboard, RAM, PSU, etc, then the only thing he's accomplished is to lose all his data permanently, and he still won't have a working PC. This is not advice I would follow.

Cefca has the best advice so far, IMO, given the symptoms I've read (at least to start). Listen for the number and pattern of beeps that your machine is giving during POST, and then use the BIOS to get the model of your motherboard (if it's a homemade machine) or get the model number of your PC (if it's storebought) and use the Google again to check if the beep pattern against the possible error patterns. If the pattern is normal, then all of the startup checks are coming through fine, which reduces the chance of a major hardware piece being totally blown. If you don't have a system speaker in your machine, of course, this won't help.

If this, too, leads to a dead end, I'd find someone with a PC that they can do without for a bit, or find an external hard drive enclosure, so you can set your drive up on another PC as a slave and at least check out your data and back up what you can. I know that most people don't have the money or time to go randomly trying different parts in and out of their machine, but at least the HD is something that is reasonably portable.

The last time something like this happened to me, it was because the CPU and the Motherboard had an incompatibility, despite both Intel and the mobo manufacturer saying that they would work fine together. Since your machine isn't new, that can't be your problem, but it DOES point to one of those two going on the fritz.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 13th December 2010 07:57)

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 12th December 2010 23:28)

If you can't get the restore partition to work either, do what I did with an old laptop, and just install Ubuntu, or any other operating system, fresh, and start over..

If he starts to wipe the hard drive and then the issue turns out to be hardware related on the motherboard, RAM, PSU, etc, then the only thing he's accomplished is to lose all his data permanently, and he still won't have a working PC. This is not advice I would follow.

Yeah, Rangers is right.

My computer didn't have an infinite restarting loop, and I remember somehow determining that it was the hard drive's data's fault. Tried restoring but didn't work; it's worked with Ubuntu since then though. Though I don't really use it.

However, Rangers is right in that I neglected the possibility that it's other pieces of hardware that are at fault. That said, if it's your hard drive that's having problems, what I mentioned is an idea you might consider.

--------------------

Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Quote (Glenn Magus Harvey @ 13th December 2010 14:05)

Tried restoring but didn't work; it's worked with Ubuntu since then though. Though I don't really use it.

However, Rangers is right in that I neglected the possibility that it's other pieces of hardware that are at fault. That said, if it's your hard drive that's having problems, what I mentioned is an idea you might consider.

If it's truly the hard drive having issues, he should get it in another machine, get as much data off of it as he can, and then never use it again. Hard drives have a way of becoming unrecoverable.

--------------------

"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?