problem booting into windows 2000

F

FalconSS

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jul 2, 2004
Messages
1,297
alright... here's what I got

an old p3 800mhz
3 sticks of 128mb ram

I go to boot up and the computer posts fine... proceeds to come out of hibernation, goes to the starting windows 2000 pro screen. the blue bars go all the way up... then it reboots... steps taken so far..

changed power supply...no change
change to another hard drive...no change
change to another hard drive .... just gets to starting windows screen... not windows 2000 and the bar goes all the way up before it reboots.

reseated ram- no change
start taking out ram 1 stick at a time....no change
unplug everthing but hard drive and mobo... no change

all the hard drives had windows 2000 pro installed... any help will be appreciated! this is driving me crazy!!!

EDIT: Whooop! limp gawd!
 
You know, I had a PIII that failed any time you tried hibernation. Abit mobo, good hardware, just it could not ever do any hibernation. It would reboot to a crash.

When Windows is loading, hit F8, try some of the other boot options, if you haven't already.
 
already tried it man...

f8- tried safe mode, debugging mode...same thing
 
Whelp, if your rig was newer, I would assume some things about it that I won't here. I'm going to cut to the chase: how valuable is the information on that drive to you? Can you do a clean install (do you own Windows and it's CDs)? When was the last time you installed Windows on it, anyway?

If you feel like you've done enough troubleshooting, and have an extra hard drive, install 'Ders on that one, copy the files from the previous drive and start over. If you're going to install 2k on it again, I have a convenient list of software that you'll want in addition right here. . .

Service Pack 4
Firefox & Thunderbird
Foxviewer (lightweight (1.2mb!) .pdf reader)
7-zip
Winamp

Drivers for:
Chipset,
Video card,
Sound card,
Network card,
Printers

That should get your checklist going.
 
well... I work at a bank so I have to keep these drives... What im doing now is trying to go through all this old stuff and see if any of it works... My coworkers guess is power supply... still working on it...
 
I wouldn't assume that it's the PSU if it POSTs. And if it, you know, does the same shit with a completely different power supply. If it was RAM, you wouldn't likely POST, certainly not with a bad CPU. . .my money is on failed data integrity. Either the hibernation process corrupted something critical or the drive itself is on it's last legs, or a spark or jolt of some sort. . .any of that could bork the boot.

However, the fact that it resets is a little unusual. . .is there a chance that the CPU is overheating? Is it a slot-1 or socket PIII? How does the heatsink look? Loose?
 
socket... fan spins, heatsink is on ect...my thoughts followed yours exactly but ive tryed 3 hard drives so far and all restarted in the same place.
 
Boot it in selective startup ( I believe), and confirm each file that's being loaded, once the computer reboots, you know which file makes it reboot.
 
Is this a computer from work? Is there a chance that you can get a hold of a computer with the same motherboard?
 
ok...update...

put hard drive in known working computer... so its the hard drive. it didn't work

reformating now...
 
guess I will have to try all those drives now to find out which ones do not work


grrrrr
 
grrrrrrr... okay recap...

-put drive into new computer...rebooted in same place
-reformated drive... got into windows
-swapped drive back into other computer- rebooted in SAME PLACE!

is it just the mobo or what? ive about had it... just put an "X" on the whole thing and throw it out.
 
Someone said earlier that the computer overheating could be a problem, and that sounds like thats what it could be. Go into bios and leave your computer running for awhile to see what kind of idle temps you're getting.

PSU isnt the problem because normally youd get into windows before it would crash to a BSOD with a hardware failure as the cause.

A mobo CAN prevent the boot into windows, but normally it is a driver conflict and not the hardware itself, so reformatting would solve the problem.

Did you try reformatting on the original computer because it sounds like you only formatted on another one and switched back. A lot of times when you do it like that, you will have a motherboard driver conflict and the computer will reboot at that point, especially on older OS's.

Other than that, make sure your NTLDR file isnt corrupted, which would obviously be solved by a format/reinstall.

If none of those helps, then Im really not sure what the problem is.
 
I can't check the temps because its an older bios...no onboard sensor on the mobo. the heatsink is cool to the touch though so I can't see overheating to be the problem. ( speaking of that I need to post a thread in cooling)... maybe its a driver conflict... thats my choice now...

EDIT: yes I have several running windows 2000...
 
Pentium IIIs don't get too warm, but if your heatsink is cool to the touch, then it's NOT working right. As long as the heatsink is hot, the heat isn't in the CPU.
 
ive had it sitting in BIOS for about 20 min now... the heatsink is warm to the touch but not hot...
 
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