PC continually reboots at start up.

[gcol]

Ok here's the deal. My mate has dropped off his pc for me to have a look at (e-machine pc) cause I've got half an idea about PCs. But this has a problem that I've not seen before. At boot you get the e-machine logo screen which is a big "e" on the screen, then it restarts..... and just does the same again i.e. pops up the "e" again and reboots etc etc etc. Just loops round like that for as long as you leave it. There's no screen at boot where it goes through recognising the devices - just this logo screen.

So, I've set bios to defaults. Reseated all components (except cpu) and leads. I removed the pcb battery to reset the cmos and nothing I've done has made the slightest improvement. I can get into the menu where you can select to start in safe mode etc, but whatever I select it just carries on with this rebooting problem.

My thoughts are that the cpu has gone, but I have no way of checking it. I could try and reinstall windows but I don't really want to spend hours and hours doing it when I won't be getting paid for it. Anyone had this before or any suggestions? Anyone think that windows is corrupted? Does windows even start that early in boot?

 

[2scoops0406]

Have you enabled POST BIOS diagnostics, if not, then this may point to a suspect device.

 

[gcol]

I had a look through the bios to make sure there was nothing amiss before I reset it, but I don't remember seeing a setting for that.

 

[Igorian]

It could be a number of things.

Emachines have ropey PSUs and this is a possible cause.

Are you using XP? Another possibility is that the boot file(s) are corrupt. Try booting from the XP CD and start the recovery console. First thing to do is a check disk. At the command prompt, type chkdsk /r and let it run and check if it has fixed any errors.

Once it's complete, replace the NTLDR and NTDETECT.COM files from the XP CD with the following command:

copy d:\i386\ntldr c:\ (change the d: to the letter of your CD drive)
then
copy d:\i386\ntdetect.com c:\ (change the d: to the letter of your CD drive)

Reboot and see what happens.

 

[gcol]

Thanks Igy, I will try that first thing tomorrow (before my mate takes it back to Currys under warranty). I think he may come unstuck with the warranty though.

 

[gcol]

No dice I'm afraid. I changed the boot priority to the cd drive and restarted with the xp disc in. I got the big "e" then a flashing curser in the top left. Then after about 30 secs it restarted and did the same again.
Pretty sure it's terminal now.

Thanks anyway.

 

[Igorian]

You should get a prompt to 'press a key to boot from cd', which you may have missed, as it only appears for a few seconds.

Also, is it a genuine XP CD or is it a restore disk, provided by emachines?

Some consumer stuff here about Emachines.

 

[gcol]

I installed xp on the machine last year. It was the proper xp disc, not a backup. There was no prompt to "press any key to boot from cd" at all.

 

[breezer]

since you seem to be able to get into the bios, could you not change the "boot selection" so that the first boot device is the cd rom, 2nd being the hd?

just a thought

oh another thought, since you may have to reinstall xp, can you not take the hd out, stick it in another pc and format the hd? (obviusly you will need to change the setting to slave if on the primary hd.

its how i sometimes do mine

 

[Igorian]

I installed xp on the machine last year. It was the proper xp disc, not a backup. There was no prompt to "press any key to boot from cd" at all.

It's not booting from the CD, so either the CD is not sert as the first boot drive, which you say you have done.

I would swap out the PSU if you have a spare one.

 

[gcol]

It was set to boot from the cd first. It's a moot point now anyway, my mate's wife picked it up earlier and she's gonna get it looked at under warranty. He took out 5 year mastercare cover for £200 - I'll be damned if I'm gonna **** about with it when they've got cover on it. When I find out the outcome I'll post back.

 

[breezer]

dont you hate it when people do that, i bet she will also tell them you looked at it and blame you becasue they wont now look at it.

 

[gcol]

No, I saw em in the pub last night and explained that I thought it was a little more than the usual Windows fault and that I suspected that it was a hardware fault. They said they would pick it up today and give mastercare a ring.
Suits me fine - out of my hands.

 

[suffolklad]

hi my bosses pc started to do that reboot again and again i took alook inside and got the vacum on the heatsink it was full of dust fluff stuck to fan as well put fan back on problem solved. if the cpu is getting hot it would shut down in mater of seconds . My bosses pc had a naff cheap small heatsink and fan on a 3000 athlon. my sister had probs with her 3000 athlon too it rebooted when worked hard it was heat probs too . anyway love to find out what problem was

 

[gcol]

I'd be very surprised if dust on the heatsink would cause it to overheat in about 5 seconds.
When/if I find out the outcome, I'll post back.