My computer constantly restarts and a blue screen appears for only a second. Help needed.

[shoguyver]

I recently had some internet connectivity problems through my cable modem provider. My computer runs on a wireless network. He wanted to run a hardline from the cable modem to my computer. I reinstalled the LAN card, and the computer gave a loud beep. I opened the case and realized that the hard drive ribbon had came unplugged. My computer was working with no problems today aside from the laggy internet signal. This is the problem:

1) There will be a loud beep, and the computer will seem to normally boot up. The Windows load screen will appear with the green bar moving.

2) The screen will then flicker and show a blue screen, but the computer restarts so quickly the blue screen can't be read.

I've checked all the corresponding ribbons and everything is configured properly. It's tightly plugged and exactly where it's supposed to be. If anyone would be so kind to let me know what they think the problem is that would be great.

 

[GuitarDaddy]

Have you tried taking the lan card out?

List your complete system specs!

 

[shoguyver]

Yes, I've taken the LAN card out of my rig. I'm still recieving the same error.


AMD64 +3400
Abit KV8-Pro
NEC DVD-RW x16
BFG 6800OC 128mb
Hitachi 120 GB
OCZ 450/w PSU
1 Gig PQI Turbo RAM PC-3200
Thermaltake Xaser V case

 

[GuitarDaddy]

There is probably a setting in bios to turn off the automatic reboot on error. If so turn it off and you should be able to see the bluescreen error.

In my experience BSOD's are usually caused by ram, try loosening your timings and or increasing the vdimm

 

[Musafir_86]

@shoguyver

-I think your harddisk partition's filesystem (whether FAT32 or NTFS) have a problem.

1) There will be a loud beep, and the computer will seem to normally boot up. The Windows load screen will appear with the green bar moving.

It seems you're using WinXP Home prior to SP2, right?

-Try using CHKDSK to check your HDD. You can boot using Win2K/XP CD and select Repair (not Automated System Recovery!). Then run CHKDSK /F on all partition (also with /R parameter for thorough (surface) check - better but it will take longer to finish).

-If still can't, use this tool to run CHKDSK from DOS :-
http://www.datapol-technologies.com/dpe/freeware/index.html
or http://www.datapol.de/dpe/freeware/

Get bootdisk from here :-
http://www.bootdisk.com/
or http://www.freedos.org/

Then run CHKDSK or CHKDSKG (bundled with NTFS4DOS) to fix the error. You don't need to load NTFS4DOS or whatever to run CHKDSK; just perform clean (minimal) boot to DOS and start repairing!

EDIT: You better choose bootdisk with least/minimal files on it; the NTFS4DOS Setup will consumes a lot of space on you diskette. Or you can use another WinXP PC to create this bootdisk (using Format option for 3.5 Floppy in My Computer).

-Don't forget to report your result here, bye.

Regards,
-Musafir_86.

 

[shoguyver]

I'm actually running Windows XP Home Edition with SP2. I never bothered to buy a 3.5 Floppy drive I never thought I would need one until now.

 

[Musafir_86]

-WinXP Home with SP2??? Maybe you've installed a beta or RC (Release Candidate) version of SP2 - the final/RTM version change the boot screen (no "Home Edition" phrase & blue progress bar, etc.). You should check this out.

-Get it here http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/sp2/default.mspx or http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/deta...-4F30-8245-9E368D3CDB5A&displaylang=en

-Or do you use any Boot Logo/Screen customisation?

Musafir_86.

 

[shoguyver]

I meant I have Windows XP Home Edition, and I've installed SP2 from Microsoft's download site.

 

[Musafir_86]

-Okay, it doesn't matter whether the progress bar is green or blue...

-BTW, do you have any progress? I'm waiting for your feedback.

Musafir_86.

 

[shoguyver]

I haven't had any progress. I realluy don't want to reformat and lose all my files. I was just about to back them up today. I tried taking my hard drive out and using it in the family computer. It would boot up to the Hewlard Packard screen and then a black screen with a blinking dot. I don't what know what else to try.

 

[Musafir_86]

@shoguyver

-Why don't you try my previous suggestion above (using CHKDSK in DOS). It works whether you have Win2K or WinXP.

 

[nebula]

Dont' fret about not having a floppy, I only hook mine up when flashing my mobo BIOS. Anyway you can make a DOS boot CD very easily if you have access to a burning program. It's called The Village Idiot's Bootdisk and you can download an zip file which contains a 2.88MB image that you can burn onto a CD. It's 2.88 to allow you to add more files if need be. Now here's the only problem, I can't seem to find the website with the image anymore but I do have it on my system so I can email it to you, it's 2mb zipped. PM me if you need it.

I'll search around more to see if I can find the instructions but in Nero you just create a Bootable CD, select the image file, set emulation to Floppy 2.88 and I beleive that's it.

 

[mechBgon]

Big picture: get a router. Having your PC directly connected to a cable modem is taking an unnecesary risk of worm/hack attacks. If you have SP2 installed and the Windows Firewall up, that's good, but malware targets the Windows Firewall and Windows Security Center lately, to take down your firewall and keep you from being informed of that. Why make it your only line of defense?

Beyond that, instead of trying to boot your drive in the other computer, put it in as a secondary drive. Boot from the other computer's regular drive in SAFE MODE. Now, in Safe Mode, find your problem hard drive, go to its \Documents and Settings\username directory, right-click it, choose Properties, go to the Security tab, click the Advanced button, then the Ownership tab, and give Ownership of the directory and contents to the account you're using on the other computer. Like shown in this picture except put a checkmark in the box for Replace Owner etc etc. Do the same thing for any other user accounts you need to get stuff out of.

Now you can reboot into normal Windows on the other computer and pull out anything you need for safekeeping, then put the drive back into your computer and either keep troubleshooting or do a reinstallation, knowing your stuff is backed up.

 

[nebula]

Here's some links:

Clean Boot CD This looks nice, easy to add your own files, don't even need a burning program! But, just tried it and it didn't boot my system.
Ultimate Boot CD Includes all the hard drive disk utilties, WD, Seagate, etc. and a bunch of other stuff.
Boot CD Links

This should get you something.