[RU55]

Hey

Yesterday morning I woke up to find my PC restarted. Usually, i leave it on 24/7 as i'm constantly downloading. When I attempted to reconnect the Internet, nothing happened. When I tried to open 'My Computer', nothing happened. I tried to run virus, registry and spyware scans, but they lagged considerably.

I decided to boot from the XP OS disc and selected 'repair'. Everything seemed to be running okay, so I left it for a couple of hours. When I returned I found the PC to be consistently restarting after 10-15 seconds. when I attepted to restart in Safe mode, the same thing happened.

It is worth noting that the pc's clock has been well out of time for a few months now (My understanding is that this means that I need a new CMOS battery), and my DVD-Rom drive often didn't work or show up at startup when the system runs a check on all hardware components.

The only solutions I can think of are to reinstall windows and buy a new CMOS battery. But I would rather not loose all of my data on the hard drive.

Please help me..!

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Open the CD ROM Drive used to install Windows, insert the XP CD but leave the drawer open. Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter and close the CD ROM Drive drawer. You will get a blue progress bar, after the bar goes, reboot. This will check for and replace missing or corrupt system files.

You can check for an improvement after running sfc /scannow then after each step until you have run through them all, if necessary

Click start then run, type chkdsk /f /r then press enter, type Y to confirm for next boot, press enter then reboot.

This will take an hour, it will appear to load normally then either the monitor will show progress or the screen will go blank, do not disturb this.

When it gets to the desktop, the system files and the hard drive will be as they should

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, all the files in the folder will now be highlighted, right click any file, click delete, a box will appear asking if you want to delete all the files, confirm the delete then reboot

If no change

Please go here to repair your operating system

Repair XP

If you are unable to run Repair XP

Alternate XP Repair Guide

Use the last one - Windows Installation CD to repair the current installation, which uses a slightly different method

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

After running the repair it will be necessary to install all Windows Updates



You could also try to get to a point before the repair and the problem onset

1. Restart your computer, and then press F8 during the initial startup to start your computer in Safe Mode with a command prompt.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

A description of the Safe mode boot options in Windows XP

http://support.micro....com/kb/315222/

[Retired Tech]

Open the CD ROM Drive used to install Windows, insert the XP CD but leave the drawer open. Click start then run, type sfc /scannow then press enter and close the CD ROM Drive drawer. You will get a blue progress bar, after the bar goes, reboot. This will check for and replace missing or corrupt system files.

You can check for an improvement after running sfc /scannow then after each step until you have run through them all, if necessary

Click start then run, type chkdsk /f /r then press enter, type Y to confirm for next boot, press enter then reboot.

This will take an hour, it will appear to load normally then either the monitor will show progress or the screen will go blank, do not disturb this.

When it gets to the desktop, the system files and the hard drive will be as they should

Click start, all programmes, accessories, system tools to run disc clean up, then from system tools, run disc defragmenter.

Click start then run, type prefetch then press enter, click edit then select all, all the files in the folder will now be highlighted, right click any file, click delete, a box will appear asking if you want to delete all the files, confirm the delete then reboot

If no change

Please go here to repair your operating system

Repair XP

If you are unable to run Repair XP

Alternate XP Repair Guide

Use the last one - Windows Installation CD to repair the current installation, which uses a slightly different method

Windows XP repair feature won't delete your data, installed programs, personal information, or settings. It just repairs the operating system

After running the repair it will be necessary to install all Windows Updates



You could also try to get to a point before the repair and the problem onset

1. Restart your computer, and then press F8 during the initial startup to start your computer in Safe Mode with a command prompt.

2. Log on to your computer with an administrator account or with an account that has administrator credentials.

3. Type the following command at a command prompt, and then press ENTER:

%systemroot%\system32\restore\rstrui.exe

4. Follow the instructions that appear on the screen to restore your computer to an earlier state.

For additional information about the Safe mode with a command prompt, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

A description of the Safe mode boot options in Windows XP

http://support.micro....com/kb/315222/

[RU55]

Hi

Thank you for your reply.

I have already tried to 'repair' XP. Since doing so I can not get past the load up screen, so therefore cannot access the 'start' menu in windows.


I have also attempted to start in Safe mode, Last good configuration, and normal, but each time after 5 seconds of chossing any option, the pc simply restarts.

Do you have any other suggestions plz?

[Retired Tech]

If you tried starting system restore from a command prompt and didn't get anywhere, you need to re-run the repair, use the alternate one

[RU55]

I will try another repair when I get home tonight.

Is it likely that the CMOS battery is dead if it won't load up?

[Retired Tech]

If you doubt the CMOS battery, get another one, replace it directly, (no big interval) if you can