A friend of mine had a perpetual restart problem on his computer. The only option I found -- after trying everything I could think of and then researching it -- was to wipe his system and start over.

So I reinstalled WinXP using the system restore disk that came with his Gateway. I ran fdisk to reset his partitions, and then formatted the HD. When Windows finally finished installing -- and I tried to login -- I got the following error:


          The system cannot log you on due to the following error:
          The specified domain either does not exist or could not be contacted.
          Please try again or contact your system administrator.


All the research I've done on this points to a network problem. It shouldn't have anything to do with logging in. Should it?

Also, I tried on his name and with the admin account under safe mode and normal startup.Is it set to boot up from a network source in the BIOS? PERHAPS he was monkeying around in there? THis does not happen with a FRESH install on a normally configured machine. What are the boot options listed/Boot order is as follows:

1. HD
2. Floppy
3. CD-ROM
4. DVD-ROMHow did you setup the network when you reinstalled? A workgroup or a domain? Try a workgroup. That should solve it.I haven't finished the setup yet.

It runs the "DOS" setup first. After that it says remove any MEDIA you have in the drives and restart, but when I restart it won't let me log in and gives me that error.Win XP does not have DOS, so that is a Gateway restore CD. (Do you have a SATA hard drive in there?)

Windows XP is a graphical install start to finish.I thought Gateway computer Were dead Befor windows XP came out

and the Error your getting could only mean the image your loading was configured to connect to a domain

That is a Stupid thing for an Image to DO ... very very stupid. but it not your fault

What you need is a Real XP Disk, if i were me id Download one, and SINCE you have a lisence for XP its legal sorta