Sir, can someone please help me overcome my problem? Win2K Pro (installed in my machine's C: drive was working fine till today morning but after taking a break for about 3 hours, when I restarted my machine in the afternoon, I find Win2K restarting by itself. I can see the Win2K logo (which also shows the progress of the OS starting) after which the blue screen appears for a short time. At this point, Win2K restarts by itself. I neither have installed any hardware or software lately. Somebody please help me out with this. It's driving me crazy. I feel it needs mentioning that the file system of C:\ was FAT32 but using the 'convert' command, I successfully changed it to NTFS today. I even restarted my machine after converting C:\ to NTFS (not once but 3-4 times) & it booted without any problems. So I don't think that the conversion from FAT32 to NTFS is the culprit. I don't do any mischief with my computer but some problem or the other goes on creeping up now & then!! A FEW DAYS BACK, I READ SOMEWHERE THAT SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH. SINCE THEN I STOPPED.....READING :-

"blue screen appears" er, what does it state ?????

Orbital, it's the normal blue screen which makes up the background after the Win2K logo step. When Win2K is working correctly, on this blue background, a dialog box comes up (after the Win2K logo step) on this blue background after a second or two which says 'Loading personal preferences...' followed by 'Applying network connections and settings...' (I can't recollect the exact messages now) after which the dialog box comes up where I am supposed to enter the password to log into my m/c. The blue background doesn't display any errors. Let me iterate that if Win2K boots normally, this blue background gets displayed after the Win2K logo step. I am trying to boot using the Win2K Pro CD-ROM (by changing all the 3 boot devices to CD-ROM) but Windows doesn't allow me to boot from the CD-ROM. Is there any way by which I can force Windows to boot from the CD-ROM? I can atleast try to repair the Win2K installation using the CD-ROM. A FEW DAYS BACK, I READ SOMEWHERE THAT SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH. SINCE THEN I STOPPED.....READING :-

Hello, I would try to eliminate the other copy that might be on your drive. Or check for stuck keys and the power switch. Disconnect the switch wires from the motherboard and momentarily jump the power tangs. See if that works. Do the simple first before laying down a fresh instal. You might have issues other than Windows 2000. - Good Luck

"...after which the blue screen appears for a short time. At this point, Win2K restarts by itself. I neither have installed any hardware or software lately." Does it blackscreen at that point and then restart? If so, your power supply may be failing. Failing power supplies are common and can cause that symptom. Check your PS. See response 4 in this: http://www.computing.net/hardware/w... .... I think this applies to Win 2000 too, but I don't have a Win 2000 installation to look at, at the present time: "Win XP is often set to reboot when it encounters an unrecoverable error. To have XP display the error message instead of rebooting: 1. Click Start, and then right-click My Computer. 2. Click Properties. 3. Click the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery. 4. Under System failure, click to clear the Automatically restart check box. 5. Click OK, and then click OK."

Oops - the second part is of no help if you can't get it to boot into Windows.

Have you tried booting in Safe mode? "I am trying to boot using the Win2K Pro CD-ROM (by changing all the 3 boot devices to CD-ROM) but Windows doesn't allow me to boot from the CD-ROM." Windows has nothing to do with whether the computer will boot from a bootable CD - that's a bios function. Are you sure it was bootable before? - e.g. if it is an upgrade CD it is not bootable.If the CD is a copy on a CD-RW disk, you may have problems booting it in some CD drives. If it was, are you sure you were able to boot it on this computer before? If you were, the CD drive you have it in may be faulty, the CD may be too dirty or too scratched, or the laser lens on the CD drive may be dirty - try cleaning the CD, using a laser lens cleaning CD in the drive. If you have another CD drive on this computer, try the other one. In any case, if you can't get the Win 2000 CD to boot the computer, there is a utility in a directory on the Win 2000 CD that will make a 6 floppy Setup boot set. You can make the set on another computer, boot with the first floppy on your troubled computer, load the contents of all the floppies, then you can run Setup or Recovery Console from the Win 2000 CD. NOTE that you must set your bios boot order to boot a floppy drive before a hard drive. FYI If you can set your boot order to floppy drive first, then CD drive, then a hard drive, you don't normally ever need to change it. CD drive first, then floppy drive, then hard drive will not allow a bootable floppy to start a computer if there is no bootable CD, in most bioses.