Windows XP: Cycling

Hello,
I work for a local school on their computers and have run into a proplem all year long. Finally its bugging me to the point that I need some major help. The Computers that have this problem in Windows XP. Basically they cycle. They get the GUI " Windows XP " screen and the fancy green bar across the bottom and after a minute or so it restarts. Does this constantly. Please If you have faced this problem please tell me the fix for it.


Thanks

I have my XP settings to a quick defrag every time I start up so it reboots once or twice. However it does it without really stopping on any one screen so that may not be the problem. Still you could check.

Random, and repeated rebooting are considered XP's number 1 complaint. Part of that is because people are not aware that Microsoft changed xp to reboot by default, instead of giving you the blue screen of death.

It is rebooting for a reason however. Finding the reason is the hard part. It is a step by step logic. First thing is to think....was a piece of hardware replaced, or software installed just before this started happening? Some virus cause similar actions, is the antivirus up to date and running?

You can find several articles about this here.

You can force XP not to reboot, and then read the event logs to help find out what is causing the stop error.

First you have to get into xp, and since it is only rebooting, you will need to startup in safemode. Start the computer, and just after the BIOS screen, start tapping the F8 key. The Windows Advanced Options Menu appears. If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. To resolve this, restart the computer and try again. Use the arrow buttons to select SAFE MODE. Press Enter. The computer then begins to start in Safe mode. When you are finished with all troubleshooting, close all programs and restart the computer as you normally would.

Windows XP lets you specify how the OS handles critical errors. To change this setting, select Start --> Control Panel --> Settings --> System (in the Classic-style Start menu, Control Panel is under Settings). Click Advanced --> System And Recovery --> Settings. In the System Failure section, clear the Automatically Restart check box --> click OK. Click OK here and in the next dialog. Reboot.

Now when Windows XP encounters a Stop Error, it will simply display a message on the screen and won't automatically reboot. Write down the STOP ERROR code, if it bluescreens. The stop error will look something like this Stop 0x0000000A. Search google for that error, and follow the suggestions.

If it does not blue screen, you can go to the event log, and look for the red errors. Then search for them on google.

To open Event Viewer, follow these steps: 1. Click Start, and then click Control Panel. Click Performance and Maintenance, then click Administrative Tools, and then double-click Computer Management. Or, open the MMC containing the Event Viewer snap-in.
2. In the console tree, click Event Viewer.

The Application, Security, and System logs are displayed in the Event Viewer window.


You should be aware that Microsoft has many articles about this problem. Here is one of them.

Here is an article explaining how to run a repair on xp with the original cd, without loosing any of your personal data.

best of luck.



[edit on 26-2-2005 by makeitso]

if theyre connected to the net you probably got a worm. Nothin a clean install wont handle. worked on mine..

Nice answer makeitso. I gave you a way above for that.

replace them with Apple computers then there wont be a problem

sexygeek,


so that "x" in your pro-pic is not a booboo caused by your flawless mac ?


eh ?

I think that x in his pic was put there purposefully as a joke.

My machine does the same thing. For some reason it syas there are multiple versions of windows installs when I boot up thje computer and then it asks me to choose and if I don't choose fast it goes to Windows XP (bootscreen) then that fails to start up so it just keeps restarting. i have no clue why my computer is shuttting itself down though. Anyone know how to get rid of a secodn version of windows?

CPR12

1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties.
-or-
In Control Panel, start the Performance and Maintenance tool, and then click System.
-or-
In the Control Panel you may be able to choose startup, depending on your xp settings.
2. On the Advanced tab, click Settings under Startup and Recovery
See image below.


Choose the xp install that you want to boot to by default from the drop down list. In the box below that you can set the time it waits for you to choose which install to boot to. See image below.


You can find out more about these settings here.

Best of luck

[edit on 27-2-2005 by makeitso]

Thanks a lot makeitso. Now I just need to find out what's causing it to restart.

Sorry about the long delay. Nothing will boot. The computer will not boot in safe mode of any mode for that matter. It only gets to the XP load screen and restarts. Thats it. I got an error code that was 0x0000007B and researched it and none of that research has helped. I need more advice please.

hope this helps

How to troubleshoot "Stop 0x0000007B" errors in Windows XP

Boot-Sector Viruses
You may receive a "Stop 0x0000007B" error message if your computer is infected with a boot-sector virus. Check your computer for viruses. If you find a virus, also check any floppy disks for viruses before you use them again.


CAUSE
This problem may occur if one or more of the following conditions exists:


• Your computer is infected with a boot sector virus.
• A device driver required by your boot controller is not configured to start at boot time or is corrupt. If during a WINNT /B installation no mass storage device was detected.
• A resource conflict exists between the boot controller and another controller in the system or between SCSI devices.
• Drive translation is not being performed or was changed.
• The boot volume is corrupt and cannot be mounted by Windows NT.
• Information in the Windows NT registry about which device drivers load at start up is corrupt.
• If this error occurred during Windows NT Setup while reading Windows NT Setup floppy disk 2, you may have the Drive Swapping option enabled in your computer BIOS.
• Using winnt /b as the installation method may present a timing issue for the disk controller. The controller is not given enough time to respond and identify itself and is therefore detected incorrectly or not at all.
• If you run Setup from a bootable SCSI CD-ROM drive, you receive a STOP 7B error message because Setup does not allow you to add a third-party SCSI driver when you boot from the SCSI CD-ROM.

From Microsoft Support

good luck

[edit on 28/2/2005 by Sauron]

Been up and down that and none of it works. It only happens on computers that have had SP2 loaded on them.

My computer works now and it doesn't cycle (YAY!) After doign the thing earlier posted about changing my default OS and then running a few virus and adaware and spyuware scans it is fixed!!!.

cpr12r,

Congratulations! Excellent work! Watch out for those squirrels, ok?

Sauron

What can I say? Perfect post.
Keep up the good work.


Nightwalker

I am sorry that the stop error did not represent an easy fix. However, you now know that the repeated reboots are probably caused by an inaccessible boot device. Don't dispair, there are still many, many more steps that can be taken. The above was simply the first steps. Since you are doing this for a school, I consider it a worthy cause, and will continue to help if you are into it.

So here are some options.

Give us something to work with, cough up some info on the pc. What are the hardware spec's. Are all the machines that do this the same hardware? What software is on it? Have you recently unistalled Roxio? What antivirus are you running? Are you installing xp sp2 from a "friends burned copy cd"?

Do you have a known good spare vid card, or memory you can stick in as a test? Can you put the hard drive into another machine as a slave and run a check disk?

If you have the xp cd, you can boot to the recovery console, and run check disk (chkdsk) I think the switch is /p /r to automatically fix errors on the HD.
-and or-
check directory (chdir)
-or-
fix boot (fixboot) to repair boot sector problems
-or-
fix master boot record (fixmbr) to fix.... well you get that one right?

Uninstall xp sp2 from the recovery console.

Here is a couple more links for you to research on.
How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP:
support.microsoft.com...

How to Perform a Windows XP Repair Install:
www.michaelstevenstech.com...

Click here on How To Run a Repair Install:
www.webtree.ca...

Lots of xp repairs here:
www.webtree.ca...

Best of luck



[edit on 28-2-2005 by makeitso]

[edit on 28-2-2005 by makeitso]

I'm back all. However I've tryed just about everything on this page that you guys have posted and none of it has worked. However some of the computers have been fixed. I have been able to boot in safe mode with some and do system recovery. Others I can't even get into safe mode. There is no pattern. Some don't even have SP2 on them. I don't know what to do. Is there a way to do a remote system recovery?