Hi I tried to turn on my PC this morning and it's stuck in a reboot loop. It does the POST, then it goes to the screen "Windows did not start properly last time etc....Start in Safe Mode, Command Prompt or Normal etc" As soon as I select an option (any option), it immediatley reboots and does it all over again. I have tried booting from the XP CD and I went to recovery console...from there I ran CHKDSK and FIXMBR but neither one helped. I tried going to the BIOS and changed the setting so it wouldn't reboot on error...but it still did. I tried a different power supply after reading some posts saying it could be a bad power supply. I switched out the RAM and it also didn't help. I wondered if anybody had any other ideas before I have to re-install? Thanks for your help!

I wouldn't go so far as to reinstall yet. Most especially if you haven't tried a repair. A repair differs from what you tried in the recovery console so don't confuse the two. To repair, boot from the XP CD and begin an install process. When you get to the point where it finds an existing XP install you will be given the option to repair that installation....choose that option. Once you're done the repair, you'll likely have to redo all the MS updates on the unit.

"I tried going to the BIOS and changed the setting so it wouldn't reboot on error" There is a setting in XP for rebooting on error. What setting are you talking about in the BIOS ? I would check the cpu temperature in the BIOS. If that's OK, I would run memtest to check the ram, though if it's rebooting, temperature would seem more like ly.

Actually, I don't have a Windows XP disc...I was using a friends' just to get to the recovery console. All that came with my pc is a Restore disc....I'm not sure if I can run a repair from that or just set it back to factary default. I switched out the RAM with a 'known good' stick and it still rebooted. It takes about 20 secs for the whole procedure to take place so I don't think it's a temperature issuse..... thanks for your ideas!

You can run the repair from you friend's XP disc-I don't think you can do it from the restore disc, but I could be wrong about that. You might be right that it's not a temperature issue, but I would check it anyway.

Hi After a couple of failed repair installs, I finally broke down and did a clean install. Everything seems to be working fine now. Thanks for all your ideas.