Boot - Continuous Loop

oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
edited January 2006 in Hardware
I shutdown my principal Windows XP - SP1 system hard yesterday after it became extremely sluggish and my patience gave way.

Now when I boot the system it will display the Windows XP splash screen, flash once, redisplay the splash screen and reboot.

My attempt to try safe mode resulted in similar results only with the text display screen doing the same thing as the Windows XP splash screen.

I did notice that the last file that was displayed during safe mode was AGP440.SYS. I went ahead, renamed this file and then rebooted. The result was no different.

I have since restored the OS from scratch and installed Veritas BE 9.1. I restored my last backup (1/10/04)... The data came across good and the system was able to reboot without a hitch. When I attempted the System Restore (from 1/10/04 as well) portion, I'm getting the same continuous reboot.

What is the likelihood that I nixed some hardware during my forced power shutdown? Any thoughts?

I'm going to yank some of the memory next and see if by chance one of my RDRAM modules is the culprit.

Thanks in adavnce for any assistance...
Ocomik
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Comments

  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited May 2004
    Just did a quick overhaul of the memory and still have the same result.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited May 2004
    I think it's just windows being windows. again. time to reinstall, maybe?
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    oCoMiK wrote:

    What is the likelihood that I nixed some hardware during my forced power shutdown? Any thoughts?


    Thanks in adavnce for any assistance...
    Ocomik


    Probably a corrupt Restore Point archive. CHKDSK will tell you if it is logically to file system bad if run in thorough scan mode, but may not be able to fix. Do you know how to run CHKDSK from an Install CD boot????
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited May 2004
    Geeky1 wrote:
    I think it's just windows being windows. again. time to reinstall, maybe?

    That's the direction I'm heading right now but it doesn't make me happy!
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited May 2004
    John_D wrote:
    Probably a corrupt Restore Point archive. CHKDSK will tell you if it is logically to file system bad if run in thorough scan mode, but may not be able to fix. Do you know how to run CHKDSK from an Install CD boot????

    Yes, but I didn't think about doing that before I started IDR and various other aspects to get this system back up.

    As for the restore point issue, I'm thinking because of the original problem, then a Veritas system restore from back in January, that more than likely that's not the issue. Thoughts?

    Thanks
    Ocomik
  • rykoryko new york
    edited May 2004
    no, no.....this has happened to me before. it's your video card. the AGP440.SYS file should give you some clue that it's agp related. Your video card is causing the continuos loop. You need to yank it and install a different card.

    I used a pci video card instead of an agp, and the continuos loop stopped. You will, most likely, have to re-install winXP again...but once you get it working, you can replace your secondary video card with your primary one, update video card drivers, and you should be in business.
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited May 2004
    ryko wrote:
    no, no.....this has happened to me before. it's your video card. the AGP440.SYS file should give you some clue that it's agp related. Your video card is causing the continuos loop. You need to yank it and install a different card.

    I used a pci video card instead of an agp, and the continuos loop stopped. You will, most likely, have to re-install winXP again...but once you get it working, you can replace your secondary video card with your primary one, update video card drivers, and you should be in business.

    Done. Just basically reinstalled the OS and the restored the data from backup. I'll still need to install the apps as I go along but at least it's back up.

    Not really sure what caused the issue. I never did anything with the video card solution mentioned above as orignally when I got the data restored it was working fine. It was only when I went ahead and restored Veritas "system restore" that it crapped out again.

    Thanks to everyone who responded... I do appreciate the feedback.

    Ocomik

    www.ocomik.net
    www.ocomik.net/blog/index.html
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited May 2004
    ryko wrote:
    no, no.....this has happened to me before. it's your video card. the AGP440.SYS file should give you some clue that it's agp related. Your video card is causing the continuos loop. You need to yank it and install a different card.

    I used a pci video card instead of an agp, and the continuos loop stopped. You will, most likely, have to re-install winXP again...but once you get it working, you can replace your secondary video card with your primary one, update video card drivers, and you should be in business.

    this isn't necessarily true. my machine has some kind of wierd hard drive issue, i think its a very large bad sector on my wd2000jb. the point is, that as long as windows was on that drive, every once in awhile a file or two in windows would bork and somehow get deleted. the solution to this is, almost always, to do a repair install, or, ideally, a clean format and reinstall. i know that isn't too informative since you've already fixed your problem, but i thought i'd add in my tidbit of info
  • csimoncsimon Acadiana Icrontian
    edited May 2004
    try a different vid card ...sounds like the dreaded "infinite loop" again.
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited August 2004
    My laptop was kind enough to begin exhibiting the identical symptoms, as described in my first post, today. Understand these are two different systems - one is a desktop and the other is a laptop.

    The only similiarities between the two incidences is that I was forced to do a hard reset on each system.

    I'm currently in the process of running a chkdsk /r on the drive and will keep everyone posted as to a resolution to my problem.

    Just thought I would pass it along (argghhhh!)
  • TheBaronTheBaron Austin, TX
    edited August 2004
    chkdsk /r and a repair install almost always fixes problems like these for me
  • GobblesGobbles Ventura California
    edited August 2004
    oCoMiK wrote:
    My laptop was kind enough to begin exhibiting the identical symptoms, as described in my first post, today. Understand these are two different systems - one is a desktop and the other is a laptop.

    The only similiarities between the two incidences is that I was forced to do a hard reset on each system.

    I'm currently in the process of running a chkdsk /r on the drive and will keep everyone posted as to a resolution to my problem.

    Just thought I would pass it along (argghhhh!)

    .. your systems were probably writing to disk when you shut them down. Next time be a bit more patient..
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited August 2004
    TheBaron wrote:
    chkdsk /r and a repair install almost always fixes problems like these for me

    chkdsk /r did it for me...

    Goobles: As sure as I can be regarding the disk writing issue both of these systems were hung for extended periods of time with no drive light activity... My laptop was probably hung for close to 20 minutes before I had a chance to get back to it. I would guess that nothing was writing to the disk subsystem at the time of the forced system shutdown. Let me know if you think differently.

    Thanks everybody for the feedback.
  • ze_merovingianze_merovingian de+roi+, via highland park, via MTL
    edited September 2004
    I am having the same problem with my Dell laptop... "prime" told me that it could be my harddrive (again, replaced after only 5 months in '02) or my motherboard...?!?!

    I tried a chkdsk... then defragging... niether helped. As a matter of fact my Diskkeeper no longer works due to the problem... I was able to work on it a little last Sat. until it crashed and loops forever now... gone through every mode via F8, nothing... same result. BUT I did notice after trying to create a boot disk (floppy) that I could not find BOOT.INI file.
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited September 2004
    I take it that you are no longer able to get to the desktop in any mode; safe mode included?

    A continuous boot can be caused by:

    1) virus placing a shutdown command in the startup folder. Windows boots...sees the startup menu...executes the command and then reboots.

    Solution: If you can get into safe mode and EXPLORE ALL USERS and then delete/move any unknown startup entries in the STARTUP folder...see if that works.

    2) Try clearing and resetting the BIOS back to safe defaults and attempt 1)

    3) If you cannot boot at all to the desktop then a system restore/repair from the WINXP boot disk may correct the problem or at least give you a chance to get into the STARTUP folder or run HIJACK THIS to see if you have any problem entries.

    4) A bad component such as memory could corrupt the BOOT.INI file thus creating the loop.

    Go to our downloads section and get MEMTEST86 which boots off a floppy. Run it to double check system memory for hardware errors.

    If the hard drive is failing then the DOS chkdsk tools will have found many errors throughout the drive and listed multiple fixes but it appears that that may have not been the issue as you did not mention it.

    Hope this helps get you a step further. Let's knock off possible causes and get closer to the actual problem.
  • ze_merovingianze_merovingian de+roi+, via highland park, via MTL
    edited September 2004
    MediaMan wrote:
    I take it that you are no longer able to get to the desktop in any mode; safe mode included?

    A continuous boot can be caused by:

    1) virus placing a shutdown command in the startup folder. Windows boots...sees the startup menu...executes the command and then reboots.

    Solution: If you can get into safe mode and EXPLORE ALL USERS and then delete/move any unknown startup entries in the STARTUP folder...see if that works.

    2) Try clearing and resetting the BIOS back to safe defaults and attempt 1)

    3) If you cannot boot at all to the desktop then a system restore/repair from the WINXP boot disk may correct the problem or at least give you a chance to get into the STARTUP folder or run HIJACK THIS to see if you have any problem entries.

    4) A bad component such as memory could corrupt the BOOT.INI file thus creating the loop.

    Go to our downloads section and get MEMTEST86 which boots off a floppy. Run it to double check system memory for hardware errors.

    If the hard drive is failing then the DOS chkdsk tools will have found many errors throughout the drive and listed multiple fixes but it appears that that may have not been the issue as you did not mention it.

    Hope this helps get you a step further. Let's knock off possible causes and get closer to the actual problem.
    that is correct, can not start in safe mode either... will try your ideas, hope it works... thanx!
  • ze_merovingianze_merovingian de+roi+, via highland park, via MTL
    edited September 2004
    oh and another thing,
    the error message is very fast (less than 1 second)... suggest that I "disable BIOS and caching, blah-blah-blah"...
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited September 2004
    What I did to resolve this was to boot from a Windows XP CD, let the intial check run until you get to the installation option screen.

    Select "R" for repair, then select the installation directory you're trying to repair, enter the administrator password.

    This will get you to a boot prompt. Run "chkdsk /R". It may take a while but it worked for me.

    I'm under the impression you have not tried these particular steps to resolve your issue. Please let me know if I'm incorrect.
  • ze_merovingianze_merovingian de+roi+, via highland park, via MTL
    edited September 2004
    oCoMiK wrote:
    What I did to resolve this was to boot from a Windows XP CD, let the intial check run until you get to the installation option screen.

    Select "R" for repair, then select the installation directory you're trying to repair, enter the administrator password.

    This will get you to a boot prompt. Run "chkdsk /R". It may take a while but it worked for me.

    I'm under the impression you have not tried these particular steps to resolve your issue. Please let me know if I'm incorrect.
    -- but of course I tried the Win XP disk trick... got errors, got up and running, ran the chkdsk, tried to run Spybot, defragg and Norton... BAM, blue screen with error message... "windows is shutin' down..."

    I noticed that ALL of the problems started after I downloaded and install Windows Updates ad Automatic Updates.
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited September 2004
    ze_merovingian wrote:
    -- but of course I tried the Win XP disk trick... got errors, got up and running, ran the chkdsk, tried to run Spybot, defragg and Norton... BAM, blue screen with error message... "windows is shutin' down..."

    I noticed that ALL of the problems started after I downloaded and install Windows Updates ad Automatic Updates.

    I'm a little slow here so please bear with me... You ran "chkdsk /r" to get the system up and running and then performed another "chkdsk" again?
  • ze_merovingianze_merovingian de+roi+, via highland park, via MTL
    edited September 2004
    oCoMiK wrote:
    I'm a little slow here so please bear with me... You ran "chkdsk /r" to get the system up and running and then performed another "chkdsk" again?
    ---
    that's ok, thanx for your help.
    no-no, the XP disk ran the set-up... tried to do the repair, no haps... Windows ran as usual (like normal pc's do)... THEN I did "chkdsk"... first time pc froze and crashed at 71% complete... rebooted and was able to do all of the other stuff I mentioned earlier.
    ---
  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited September 2004
    You know...this sounds like the blaster worm. It exploits the RPC (remote procdure call) and then causes the system to go into a continuous loop.


    Blaster Worm Removal tool - READ THIS


    It's worth a shot.
  • oCoMiKoCoMiK Oswego, IL
    edited September 2004
    ze_merovingian wrote:
    ---
    that's ok, thanx for your help.
    no-no, the XP disk ran the set-up... tried to do the repair, no haps... Windows ran as usual (like normal pc's do)... THEN I did "chkdsk"... first time pc froze and crashed at 71% complete... rebooted and was able to do all of the other stuff I mentioned earlier.
    ---
    When you have attempted to boot into Safe Mode can you tell me if the system is stopping on a particular file and then restarting? If so, which file is listed on the screen?

    I'm just trying to determine if I'm taking you down the wrong course.

    Also you mentioned that when you attempted to do the "Repair" (NOT automated system recovery) option it was "no haps". Did the system just restart during the process? How far along did you get? Were you prompted for the location of your Windows directory?
  • ze_merovingianze_merovingian de+roi+, via highland park, via MTL
    edited September 2004
    MediaMan wrote:
    You know...this sounds like the blaster worm. It exploits the RPC (remote procdure call) and then causes the system to go into a continuous loop.


    Blaster Worm Removal tool - READ THIS


    It's worth a shot.
    ---
    :mean: darn it!!!
  • swaggs21swaggs21
    edited March 2005
    Sorry to bring this thread back from the dead, but I am having the same problems as stated above, and I would like to rule out my MB before I go and get a video card to try.

    Here is the setup
    Gigabyte KV8T800 V1.0 AMD 64 3000+
    ULTRA 1.5 gb (512 x 3) 3200
    SEAGATE BARRACUDA 80GB SATA HDD
    WD CAVIAR 8OGB IDE HDD
    FX5600 256MB VC
    SB AUDIGY2 SC


    I never had problems with this system till about 5 months ago, it was a super-fast, reliable computer.

    I started having problems with the infinite boot thing, only I was getting IRQL errors at first, and then it would reboot after the Windows XP boot screen.

    After I saw this, I took my secondary WD drive and put XP on it ti make sure it wasn't a virus or a bad sector on the drive. The re-install went fine, reset the bios to boot frome the WD drive, and it would get to the same screen, go black, and then reboot.

    At this point I thought, has to be the video card. So I took an old video card I had laying around, NVidia 64MB AGP 4x. Put it in, got to the same screen, reboot. I am not sure since it was a 4x card that it would work correctly with an 8x slot.

    This is where I am at right now. I would like to get the computer up and running. I have run all the necessary memory and chkdsk tests, and everything came back fine.

    I am a software guy, I only play around with hardware when I get a chance. This is a machine that I built and I would like to get it back up and running...


    Thanks!!
  • HateboyHateboy
    edited January 2006
    anyone notice a pattern in this thread

    I am a technician and the only time i get this problem is when i use the Western Digital 20GB drive
  • swaggs21swaggs21
    edited January 2006
    Hateboy wrote:
    anyone notice a pattern in this thread

    I am a technician and the only time i get this problem is when i use the Western Digital 20GB drive


    Mine was the motherboard, forgot to post it up :p
  • siudawgssiudawgs
    edited January 2006
    What I did to resolve this was to boot from a Windows XP CD, let the intial check run until you get to the installation option screen.

    Select "R" for repair, then select the installation directory you're trying to repair, enter the administrator password.

    This will get you to a boot prompt. Run "chkdsk /R". It may take a while but it worked for me.

    I have a similar problem and followed the above mentioned directions.

    However, I do not know my Administrator password.

    Is there anyway around this problem or am I destined to completely reformat and lose everything?

    Thanks
  • sdgcansdgcan
    edited January 2006
    I was having the loop da boot problem when I built my daughter's computer a few weeks back...I had just finished off a fresh install of XP and decided that I would install Avast's free AV instead of that over bloated pig called Norton...anyway I get Avast installed do the reboot and everything is looking good until about the 3rd reboot at which point it starts looping :banghead:

    After about an hour of cursing and hardware checks it turned out to be Avast AV that was causing the problem :scratch:
  • profdlpprofdlp The Holy City Of Westlake, Ohio
    edited January 2006
    siudawgs wrote:
    ...However, I do not know my Administrator password...
    Try leaving it blank, as in typing nothing at all. :)
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