Computer Won't Finish Booting

So, it's tax season, and if I don't get this thing up and running again, my dad's probably going to have a stroke.

For a while now, my PC has basically been rolling craps as to whether or not it wants to start up. It usually gets as far as the Windows XP loading screen before it just resets to the boot-up screen again. Sometimes it resets on the log-on screen. Occassionally it'll restart while Windows is still loading after someone signs in. Most of the time, though, once you get as far as a desktop, it's fine.

It used to take 3 or 4 times to start up, but now it just doesn't seem to want to. It used to blue screen when it restarted, too, but it stopped doing that, as well. I tried booting into safe mode with the same result.

So, it's a Windows XP SP3 machine with a P4HT 3.2GHz. 2 gigs of RAM, and a Sapphire-brand Radeon on the AGP slot inside. Anyone know what's going on inside this fucking thing this time? I appreciate any help.

...and now he's screaming and ranting.

Would a repair install help?

perhaps, but it could also be faulty hardware, dunno without any detailed info

Try resetting your bios first. Then pull all the RAM and try starting it up with only one stick in at a time, swapping them out until you either get it booted or still have no success. Report back.

RAM re-seating accomplished. Still no success.

Random resets, if they are indeed truly random, are almost always a hardware issue. If you get lucky and it boots successfully, is it still prone to random reboots or lock-ups?

I say try running a memory check program (I wish I could recommend one, but it's been a while... there are many that run as a boot cd though, so you don't need to do it through windows). If your RAM checks out (and if you followed Mykozo's advice, it's probably not the RAM), check your hard drive, and if that's fine, I'd guess there's an issue with the motherboard. I had a similar problem recently and it turned out to be the mobo.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Frogacuda

Random resets, if they are indeed truly random, are almost always a hardware issue.

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Yep.

Does the mobo have onboard video? If so, try pulling the AGP video card and booting with the onboard video. If it doesn't have onboard video, try swapping a different card out with the current one, either PCI or AGP.

Also, while doing all of this, disconnect any non-essential hardware and cards, like external drives, PCI cards of any sort, anything USB or FW that doesn't need to be there etc. If you can get it booted up bare-bones then start adding devices back on until you find the offender.

Once it boots, it's fine. It runs wonderfully. I play TF2. I laugh. I cry. Rarely ever a problem besides my dad misplacing a file and blaming it on the computer. I get BSODs, but I KNOW that's a fault of the card as this model is known for it. Also, they're rare because I use the Omega Drivers.

There's no on-board video. The resets aren't random, either. They happen AT THE SAME TIME every time, so I'm starting to think a Windows file is corrupted. I think I'm going to fuck with Recovery Console for a while. I also have all of my PCI devices out from last time there was an error, as I realized I don't use the Modem anyway. I may try to swap out for an old video card first, for the hell of it, though.

Yeah, give the video card swap a try. Have you tried repairing the installation from your install disc yet?

Last ditch is a reformat/install of XP. Toss that drive in another computer to pull anything off of it that you want to salvage before you do that.

Ah, yeah, that sounds like a windows issue to me. Reinstall to a fresh directory, I say.