I have a 2nd hand PC running XP that won't start up - on switching the PC on I get the bios info on screen, then about 5 seconds into the windows xp screen the screen blanks out and then the machine reboots. starting in Safe Mode has no effect and starting up from a windows XP install CD gives me the message that I need the restore plus! disk instead of the XP disk - which of course I dont have!!!. Any help appreiciatedTry and boot the machine in safemode by tapping F8 while it is booting...then check Control Panel / System / Hardware / Device Manager and see if any devices are showing a yellow exclamation point.As I mentioned 'starting in Safe Mode has no effect' I get the safe mode options - choose one of them - and then go back into the startup loopYou will need to post more info on that machine and what happened prior to this and someone will be along shortly...Can you be more specific about what other info you need??

I've put the Hard drive in another machine and scanned it for virus's and the drive came out clear.

When the machine starts up from cold I first get the 5 seconds of windows XP screen then the screen goes black for 2 seconds then a click, THEN I see the bios info screen with some info then back into the 5 seconds of windows XP screen etc etc

Why can't I boot up in Safe Mode???!! or from a windows install CD??!! Its driving me mad, it must be a windows problem but why am I locked out of Safe Mode and booting from a CD!!I've managed to get a XP Home disk to boot up the Recovery Console - when I exit this and boot up the safe mode option gives a COMMAND line list of stuff which stops at .....system32\driversMup.sys and then we go back into the boot loop with no interference from me.

Before you do the following...make sure you understand the directions or have someone with a little more knowledge give it a try.

Try this...

Boot from the Windows XP CD and choose the Repair option.  It should go into Windows Setup and eventually ask you which Windows XP installation you'd like to repair.  Select the appropriate Windows Installation.  You should then get a command prompt asking you to type your Adminstrative Password...type it in if you used one or just hit the "Enter" key.  At the next command prompt, type

chkdsk /r

Once it is finished, type

exit

and then hit the "Enter" key.  It will then go into boot...please do not allow it to boot from the CD.

Hope this helped.didn't you mean

chkdsk /r instead of chkdsk \r Ran chkdsk /r and /p/r with no change to the loop in either case.

Has anyone here had a similar problem booting?Have you tried resetting the BIOS to default?yes i've tried resetting the bios to its default - and before anyone 'experts' suggests it YES I HAVE TRIED SWITCHING IT ON AND OFF AGAIN

AAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 crashbangwallop...... Has this machine ever worked correctly since you purchased it ....used ?  
Do you have the original disks that came with it ....when new ?
Have you considered just wiping the HD and installing a new version of XP ?


dl65  The PC has worked (its a friends) and I only have my set of software not the originals, which as I have explained wont boot it, apart from a xp home disk which in safe mode TELLS me the disk has XP pro installed, but my xp pro install wont boot the machine up I just get an error saying it needs the 'restore plus!' disk which given the bios has been set to default is perplexing

If I could wipe the disk I wouldn't be wasting my time typing here

I've got the disk in another machine now so hopefully I'll be able to reinstall XP pro once the disk has been wiped, thanks anyway.In the recovery console, apart from using just chkdsk /r or /p, use "fixboot", and "fixmbr", saying "y" for yes at all their "are you sure?" type questions. I had the same problem this morning and fixed it this way. Lemme know if it helps (if you haven't already wiped it clean). Quote

The PC has worked (its a friends) and I only have my set of software not the originals, which as I have explained wont boot it, apart from a xp home disk which in safe mode tells me the disk has XP pro installed, but my xp pro install wont boot the machine up