overj
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Windows 2000 reboots itself almost as soon as it starts
Windows 2000 reboots itself
I installed Windows 2000 as an upgrade from Me (in other words, not dual boot). For a few months it ran fine but then it
started to reboot itself at random times. This got more and more frequent until, now, it usually restarts during the first
progress bar (the thick white one that lets you press F8 for Safe mode etc). Sometimes, it gets as far as the W2000 logo
screen but then hangs. Until a few days ago, I could start in Safe mode but even that does not work now. So the problem has
got progressively worse. I never see the blue screen of death.
I have done the following:
0. Searched Google, Norton for 'restart loop'; several refs to XP, none to 2000.
1. Ran Norton AV scan - found and removed 3 files that had W32.RANDEX (but they were Me files anyway, I think).
2. Ran Norton's cure for the KLEZ worm - not found.
3. Removed NAV in preparation for re-installing W2000 (I learned that I should have done this before I upgraded in the first
place).
4. Tried to re-install W2000 from setup diskettes - Setup runs and even copies files from the CD but, after the first reboot,
the machine goes into its reboot loop.
5. Tried to repair W2000 from the repair CD I had made - it read the diskette, asked for the CD but then went into its reboot
loop after the first programmed restart.
6. Run hardware diags - passed all tests.
7. The disk had a system recovery partition, which I think ran under W98. I tried to install W2000 on that - same problem.
I wondered whether the disk was faulty despite the good diag report. So:
8. Moved the main partition to another part of the disk (Partition Magic).
9. Formatted the recovery partition and installed DOS in a small partition on the disk - OK (this was to see whether the disk
was good).
10. Sworn a lot, almost wept - no good.
11. Pulled out hair - no good.
Does anyone have any ideas as to cause and cure? PLEASE!
I installed Windows 2000 as an upgrade from Me (in other words, not dual boot). For a few months it ran fine but then it
started to reboot itself at random times. This got more and more frequent until, now, it usually restarts during the first
progress bar (the thick white one that lets you press F8 for Safe mode etc). Sometimes, it gets as far as the W2000 logo
screen but then hangs. Until a few days ago, I could start in Safe mode but even that does not work now. So the problem has
got progressively worse. I never see the blue screen of death.
I have done the following:
0. Searched Google, Norton for 'restart loop'; several refs to XP, none to 2000.
1. Ran Norton AV scan - found and removed 3 files that had W32.RANDEX (but they were Me files anyway, I think).
2. Ran Norton's cure for the KLEZ worm - not found.
3. Removed NAV in preparation for re-installing W2000 (I learned that I should have done this before I upgraded in the first
place).
4. Tried to re-install W2000 from setup diskettes - Setup runs and even copies files from the CD but, after the first reboot,
the machine goes into its reboot loop.
5. Tried to repair W2000 from the repair CD I had made - it read the diskette, asked for the CD but then went into its reboot
loop after the first programmed restart.
6. Run hardware diags - passed all tests.
7. The disk had a system recovery partition, which I think ran under W98. I tried to install W2000 on that - same problem.
I wondered whether the disk was faulty despite the good diag report. So:
8. Moved the main partition to another part of the disk (Partition Magic).
9. Formatted the recovery partition and installed DOS in a small partition on the disk - OK (this was to see whether the disk
was good).
10. Sworn a lot, almost wept - no good.
11. Pulled out hair - no good.
Does anyone have any ideas as to cause and cure? PLEASE!
Every expert here will tell you that an upgrade path is not the best choice. In that vein, I would suggest you slave the drive to another system, copy your data that you need, then reformat and reinstall your OS.
I will assume that you tried Last Known Good, so that is all I will say on that...
You could try using the Recovery Console and run chkdsk -r, then if still unsuccessful, the fixboot/fixmbr commands:
What can I do with the Windows 2000 Recovery Console?
http://www.jsifaq.com/sube/tip2000/rh2037.htm
3201 » What are the Recovery Console commands?
http://www.jsifaq.com/SUBG/TIP3200/rh3201.htm
I will assume that you tried Last Known Good, so that is all I will say on that...
You could try using the Recovery Console and run chkdsk -r, then if still unsuccessful, the fixboot/fixmbr commands:
What can I do with the Windows 2000 Recovery Console?
http://www.jsifaq.com/sube/tip2000/rh2037.htm
3201 » What are the Recovery Console commands?
http://www.jsifaq.com/SUBG/TIP3200/rh3201.htm
And McAfee..
http://msn.mcafee.com/root/mfs/scan.asp
http://msn.mcafee.com/root/mfs/scan.asp
And after thinking about Deb's suggestion, you should slave the drive anyway, and use a good AntiVirus scanner on the drive from a system you know is clean..!! :)
ASKER
Thank you all very much for this advice; I'll let you know what happens.
The Administrator default password is blank, is it not? Julian
The Administrator default password is blank, is it not? Julian
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ASKER
Debsy.
Thank you for your advice. However, it turns out that my W2K CD is not bootable. Please tell me why I should start the
repair process from a CD rather than from the Setup diskettes - and, if it is essential, whether I might be able to create a
bootable CD on another machine.
Fatal Exception
Yes, I tried all the boot options but exactly the same thing happens. I tried CHKDSK /r but it did not help. I will now try
fixboot and fixmbr but I wonder whether the registry has got in a mess and how I could fix that; problem is that the range of
commands you can run from the repair console is limited - I wanted to edit BOOT.INI but could not find a way.
I backed the data onto CDs when the trouble first started, so that's OK; perhaps I should just format the disk and have done
with it. Don't like to be defeated, though. Do you think that formatting the disk will clean it properly or is there a utility that really scrubs it?
Todrescher - thanks for that advice, I had wondered about hardware but I have run the diags twice and all is apparently OK (though that doesn't testthe power supply, of course). I haven't another machine that I can put the disk into but I'll try to think of something.
Thank you for your advice. However, it turns out that my W2K CD is not bootable. Please tell me why I should start the
repair process from a CD rather than from the Setup diskettes - and, if it is essential, whether I might be able to create a
bootable CD on another machine.
Fatal Exception
Yes, I tried all the boot options but exactly the same thing happens. I tried CHKDSK /r but it did not help. I will now try
fixboot and fixmbr but I wonder whether the registry has got in a mess and how I could fix that; problem is that the range of
commands you can run from the repair console is limited - I wanted to edit BOOT.INI but could not find a way.
I backed the data onto CDs when the trouble first started, so that's OK; perhaps I should just format the disk and have done
with it. Don't like to be defeated, though. Do you think that formatting the disk will clean it properly or is there a utility that really scrubs it?
Todrescher - thanks for that advice, I had wondered about hardware but I have run the diags twice and all is apparently OK (though that doesn't testthe power supply, of course). I haven't another machine that I can put the disk into but I'll try to think of something.
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If you are using the CD to get to the Recovery Console, then it is a bootable CD. (if you are using the setup floppys, that is a different matter, of course). If your CD is a Recovery CD from the manufacturer, then if you try using it, then it will more than likely reformat the hard drive anyway...
And I agree, a fresh install is always a great idea. If you boot to the Cd, then delete the partitions and reformat. That should take care of anything that is on the disk that is causing the problem (like virii).
FE
And I agree, a fresh install is always a great idea. If you boot to the Cd, then delete the partitions and reformat. That should take care of anything that is on the disk that is causing the problem (like virii).
FE
ASKER
Well, I deleted the original partitions on the disk, created one new one that takes the whole disk (20GB) and started to re-install W2000 from a set of setup diskettes. It progressed from these to reading the CD and copied its files to the hard disk (C:\WINNT). Then it rebooted itself, as is normal - but exactly the same thing happened as before ie. it went into a reboot loop and eventually hung with the W2000 screen displayed, showing half the progress-bar complete.
The BOOT.INI file is a bit odd in that it contains 2 options:
Windows 2000 Professional
Unidentified operating system on drive C:
even though there is only 1 partition on the disk.
I don't think the disk is bad because (a) it passed diags (b) PartitionMagic has checked for bad sectors and done everything else it does at least twice (c) the original files were still readable (d) I installed DOS on a partition and it worked OK.
The power supply seems to drive the PC fine - it has been worked pretty hard that last few days.
Could the BIOS have gone bad (it is the latest version, installed some months ago, since when it has worked perfectly well)?
Does anyone have any other ideas?
The BOOT.INI file is a bit odd in that it contains 2 options:
Windows 2000 Professional
Unidentified operating system on drive C:
even though there is only 1 partition on the disk.
I don't think the disk is bad because (a) it passed diags (b) PartitionMagic has checked for bad sectors and done everything else it does at least twice (c) the original files were still readable (d) I installed DOS on a partition and it worked OK.
The power supply seems to drive the PC fine - it has been worked pretty hard that last few days.
Could the BIOS have gone bad (it is the latest version, installed some months ago, since when it has worked perfectly well)?
Does anyone have any other ideas?
Is this a brand name PC, or a custom build..?? (Some manufactures create hidden partitions on these drives for purposes of their own... )
Hi,
I know this is a long shot but it could be memory problem - which is can be hard to test for. We had this same problem with two machines that ran Me fine a couple of years ago. Came to upgrade to windows 2000 and they just wouldn't take it. Tried everything, eventually swapped the ram and it loaded fine. Is there anyway you can swap the memory?
Deb :))
I know this is a long shot but it could be memory problem - which is can be hard to test for. We had this same problem with two machines that ran Me fine a couple of years ago. Came to upgrade to windows 2000 and they just wouldn't take it. Tried everything, eventually swapped the ram and it loaded fine. Is there anyway you can swap the memory?
Deb :))
ASKER
The machine in an IBM NetVista 2257, about 2 years old, with a 20GB disk
that has a single partition, now empty since I reformatted it.
Memory - I have run MEMTEST86 and it reports only 4 small errors. And
the machine runs DOS and a Win Me DOS environment perfectly well; I have
run those for hours. As regards the upgrade from Me to 2000, I did that
some months ago and 2000 ran much better than Me had been, until this
reboot crisis. I don't have any spare memory that I can try but I do
have 2 modules in the machine and have tried each separately without
success.
Someone has suggested that a capacitor on the motherboard has failed; if
that happened over time, I suppose it might explain why the reboot
problem got progressively worse.
Julian
that has a single partition, now empty since I reformatted it.
Memory - I have run MEMTEST86 and it reports only 4 small errors. And
the machine runs DOS and a Win Me DOS environment perfectly well; I have
run those for hours. As regards the upgrade from Me to 2000, I did that
some months ago and 2000 ran much better than Me had been, until this
reboot crisis. I don't have any spare memory that I can try but I do
have 2 modules in the machine and have tried each separately without
success.
Someone has suggested that a capacitor on the motherboard has failed; if
that happened over time, I suppose it might explain why the reboot
problem got progressively worse.
Julian
When capacitors fail, usually the system will fail to boot period.
IBM puts a hidden partition on their drives, which is used for Recovery purposes. Usually these are accessed by tapping F11 at boot. If you go through the Recovery proceedure, it formats the drive, installs the original OS, and all the original apps.
Additionally (from what I remember of IBM) your system BIOS looks for the IBM signature on the drive, which allows it to boot. This is just for reference, as I am not sure that this could be a problem in your case..... Perhaps the signature is corrupted somehow..??
FE
IBM puts a hidden partition on their drives, which is used for Recovery purposes. Usually these are accessed by tapping F11 at boot. If you go through the Recovery proceedure, it formats the drive, installs the original OS, and all the original apps.
Additionally (from what I remember of IBM) your system BIOS looks for the IBM signature on the drive, which allows it to boot. This is just for reference, as I am not sure that this could be a problem in your case..... Perhaps the signature is corrupted somehow..??
FE
ASKER
Sorry, no cigar. The problem was a bad system board - capacitors were all swollen up, had rounded tops.
But there were some good tries - can I allocate some points for them?
Julian
But there were some good tries - can I allocate some points for them?
Julian
Absolutely.. determine the grade and split or award the pts as you see fit.. :)
FE
FE
Looks like we need to split this one up..
FE
FE
How to run a repair from the cd
http://www.windowsreinstall.com/install/win2k/repairw2k/page1.htm
This may help hetting it booted, then you'd need to run updated virus protection on it asap -
Online scanners - Trend
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
Panda
http://www.pandasoftware.com/activescan/com/activescan_principal.htm
Housecall
http://housecall.antivirus.com/housecall/start_frame.asp
Let us know if this is any help,
Deb :))