Rebooting at windows splash

[kencheeto]

Finished upgrading my PC; current parts:

e6600 c2d
2gigs g.skill DDR2 800
evga 7900gt co
evga 650i ultra mobo
2x seagate 7200.10 160gb HDD
x-fi xtrememusic
antec 550w psu

Finished installing XP sp2, rebooted. However, as soon as the windows splash screen is up for about a second/two the pc reboots. Can't get into any version of safe mode, but am stuck in an endless cycle of rebooting. I flashed the bios to the most recent (p02) and the bootup goes for about another second but still reboots.

I'm not overclocking or anything, all settings are default and the installation itself went just fine. I doubt the psu is having issues, I had switched over to e6600 and new mobo from an X2 4400+ with evga nf41 mobo which uses more power.

Don't see any options in BIOS related to auto-reboot.. i ran memtest and it does fine. The other parts have been tested before using the 4400+ and worked fine (vid card, sound, memory, HDD..) so I don't really know what could be causing this.

Any ideas? Going computerless for two weeks has been an unsatisfying experience.

 

[tank171]

Maybe your reset button is stuck in? Did you try reinstalling Windows? Maybe call Microsoft for troubleshooting, or just use one of your hard drives. One of them may be defective so try reinstalling Windows on both of them and individualy test it.

 

[ch33zw1z]

Can you boot into Safe Mode?

 

[cprince]

Are you doing RAID? I think that there is a driver issue.

 

[kencheeto]

Thanks for the tips.

Originally posted by: tank171[/i]
Maybe your reset button is stuck in? Did you try reinstalling Windows? Maybe call Microsoft for troubleshooting, or just use one of your hard drives. One of them may be defective so try reinstalling Windows on both of them and individualy test it.

The button is fine, I actually press the reset button in to reboot so its fine. Have tried reinstalling windows twice now, same problem. Flashing the bios seems to get me about half the way across the loading bar at the splash screen, then it reboots.
I'll try installing Windows on the other drive (i've tried one of them by itself)


Originally posted by: ch33zw1z[/i]
Can you boot into Safe Mode?

Nope, safe mode exhibits the same problems as normal. I've tried safe mode w/networking and command prompt but neither get anywhere. I can POST just fine, everything up to getting into Windows for the first time (after the windows setup off the HDD) fails.

Originally posted by: cprince
Are you doing RAID? I think that there is a driver issue.

Yeah, I thought so too. I've taken them out of RAID, reformatted, reinstalled windows on a single drive, no luck. I don't know what else to update/change, the raid drivers were fresh from the evga site as well as updated bios.


Is it possible that my sound card (x-fi xtrememusic) or vid card (evga 7900gt co) are causing issues? :\ Seems wierd, since the only thing I changed was my mobo/processor and now I can't get into Windows.

Could it be a psu problem? I'm just scoping out what tests I can run further to diagnose my problem. Its a 550W Antec TruePowerII I got a little over a year ago, but its really been doing fine until I swapped out mobo and processor.

Does this sound like a heat issue? The mobo reads about 44C at POST but perhaps I wasn't careful enough with the grease? Windows gets to the exact same point on the splash screen every time, seems like overheating would occur at various points.
Thanks

 

[Blitz KriegeR]

It?s king of a long shot, but it can?t hurt. I?d suggest you pull apart the CPU/MOBO connection and check the grease. Thoroughly clean both the CPU and heatsink with something like AS5 Cleaner or pure isopropyl alcohol 90%. Let dry, then re-apply a good thermal compound like AS5 and reseat the HSF.

Again, I know it seems like a long shot, but this recently fixed another gentlemen?s issue when it really didn?t look like a temp problem.

 

[kencheeto]

I'll give it a shot. Who knows? Any other suggestions would really be appreciated..

 

[benzylic]

You said you changed mobos? Did you reinstall Windows after that change? If not I think thats the problem. Without reinstalling your going to have chipset drivers and what not that Windows doesnt know what to do with. A repair installed *should* work.

 

[kencheeto]

Yeah, I'll try the other drive with Windows and keep at it.. I'll update later tonight if I'm lucky.

 

[montag451]

And finally, disconnect EVERYTHING that isn't completely essential to it booting.
ie,
Floppy, optical drives, sound, extra usb, extra hdd etc etc - you get the picture

 

[kencheeto]

No luck;

I tried the other HDD, same thing happens. I've disconnected the floppy, extra opticals (tried switching between them too), sound, everything except video because the mobo lacks onboard.

I've also tried installing Windows on just one drive trying each, no success. Same problem. I've ordered ASV, but I don't believe heat is the issue..
Keep em coming!

 

[kencheeto]

Well, still struggling. Here are some options.. opinions, suggestions welcome

If i need to, i can put more money into this. I've already spent 300+ on the mobo and cpu though, but if something is broken i'll need to RMA or just buy a new one.

I tried my two sticks in different slots changing them around but no avail.

Anyway, the options:

1. Find somebody to come and look at it (is there a service that would do this? geeksquad or something? it would have to actually be useful)

2. I don't really know what else to try. I'll try the ASV when it arrives but I really doubt it will do anything, because the reboot isn't random and temps on CPU were reading about 44C.

3. Pay someone to rebuild it for me.

I would consider myself a beginner-intermediate knowledge level.. Helppppp!

p.s. My vid card did have some artifacting before the upgrade, but everything ran smoothly and would only artifact at 65C+. I don't know if this would affect a reinstall/upgrade. I get random colored pixels from time to time on my screen, always just a few and in various places. I don't have another pcie card to test the removal of this and the mobo has no onboard video.

 

[montag451]

Also, what voltages are your DDR sticks running at?
Search for some posts in the mobo section and see if there are any recommendations on voltages.
Run memtest.

Check vid card seated properly.

 

[kencheeto]

Originally posted by: montag451
Also, what voltages are your DDR sticks running at?
Search for some posts in the mobo section and see if there are any recommendations on voltages.
Run memtest.

Check vid card seated properly.

Checked the vid card seating last night, its secure.
RAM was not running at recommended voltages during Windows install, recommended 2.0-2.1v but default was set at 1.83. I changed this value and have since reinstalled windows and such but haven't seen any changes yet.

Also, it has been having problems actually getting Windows installed now, occasionally my keyboard (usb) will stop responding. Can't tell if its the computer locking up or my keyboard. During the second step of install (off the HDD) it also says 'cyclic redundancy error' and states that Windows files haven't been installed correctly. I reinstalled and it worked fine. Is my XP disc suspect? It isn't scratched, only been used once before on my previous build.

Memtest ran for 8+ hours (still running now, from midnight) and is still going without errors.

Thanks for the replies, I'm still trying to get this beast to work..

 

[montag451]

Hi,
The CRC error could possible be caused by a bad cable running to the drives.

Got a spare?

 

[Boztech]

Do you have a Linux LiveCD you can test the system with?

This would narrow it down to a hard drive or Windows OS problem.

 

[kencheeto]

My friend lent me a copy of Ubuntu, I'll try it out and see what happens.
As for the cables, I have the cable from the old as well as new mobos so I'll try both just in case.

 

[RomeshW]

I am getting the exact same problem with this board. Heatsink seems to be seated fine, and CPU temp is reported in the bios as being around 33 degrees C.

I've tried a lot of different things but can't get it to boot. I've ordered some new thermal paste, so will try that.

 

[kitkat22]

Try placing the RAM into another computer, see if you can't borrow a PSU from somebody.

If all else fails, it almost sounds like you need to RMA the motherboard.

 

[RomeshW]

FIXED

Originally posted by: cprince
Are you doing RAID? I think that there is a driver issue.

You get the prize for hitting the nail on the head!

I did some more searching online and found someone else who had similar problems with a different board. One of the suggestions was to ctrl+r, then run chkdsk /r, fixmbr and fixboot on the drives, which got me thinking that maybe something went funny with the raid drivers.

I also then remembered that on my first installation attempt, which included a raid 0 setup, windows was unable to read one file of the F6 install disk, so I had to cancel the install, move the floppy to another computer to make a new one and try again, which is about the point the reboot loops started. That got me thinking (in my amateur mind - I'm an accountant by trade) that maybe something messed up the boot record of the drives, and that something could either have been the failed driver installation or maybe just bad drivers.

I had used the Evga raid drivers initially, so while I was still at work I downloaded and extracted the nforce drivers from nvidia and copied the files in ...NVIDIA\nForceWin2KXP\8.44\IDE\WinXP\sataraid to a floppy

When I got home I tried to recreate the reboot loop, but lo and behold I managed to get windows to install on one of the two drives (after deleting the array and disabling raid). Well at least that meant there was unlikely to be a problem with the motherboard or cpu.

Not willing to settle for that I set up raid again, and tried with the new drivers, and voila, it worked. Absolutely no problems. XP is running smoothly and I am very relieved to say the least.

Thank you for everyones input. To the OP I hope this resolves your issue, as we were showing identical symptoms (including USB freezes). I don't think a standard format can clear the boot record, a friend suggested installing Win95 as that wipes anything from the MBR.

kind regards,

Romesh