HELP! My computer reboot's like crazy!!!

[PCGUY112887]

OK. I was just on my other computer looking through the CPU section.. and IE crashes on my. I am like great... and let it sit there for a min to see if it would come out of it. Then, it just reboots it's self, and right after it displays the 'Gateway' splash screen on startup, it just restarts again, and again, it's a never ending loop! My computer was fine before but now wtf I can't start it up!!! I haven't done anything out of the ordnary, and it's not overclocked (gateway locked)

PLEASE help!

 

[PCGUY112887]

What exactelly happens when your hard drive fails? The hard drive was getting hot and makeing some odd clicking sometimes (a post in cooling about it)... could that be it? I mean, would it just sudnelly die then not be able to start back up?

Anyone know how good Maxtor is about RMA's? It looks like it has a 1year warranty... (i bought this hard drive and put it in my gateway machine...)

EDIT - Now I don't think my hard drive is dead. I removed the power from both of my hard drives and I still hear the odd clicking noise (must be a fan or something...)
Anyways, is it possibal to somehow get corrupted somehow? And now it won't boot? Are there are tools that I can boot to that read NTFS so i can copy some files over to my other hard drive? I have most of it backed up.. there is just a few things I don't have backed up..

 

[Mr.Radar]

Is your CPU overheating? It sounds like your CPU fan may be failing.

 

[matttaylor]

It definately sounds like a fan, seeing as there are no other moving parts once the HDD was unplugged. Check the temp on your cpu, and check the cpu fan as well. If you have another XP machine move the HDD to it as a slave or on the secondary IDE and copy the files.

 

[SewerBeing]

I have had that problem before, and all it took to fix was a nice format and reinstall (try some of the other suggestions before trying mine).

 

[PCGUY112887]

Well I think I finally got it to boot ( have been sitting here for like 15min and it's about 1/2 way done)...
I know the CPU is fine, it was reading like 45*C load before this happens. I definatelly think there is some HDD corruption. Sad thing is, I don't have an other XP machine, or 2000, only 98

 

[matttaylor]

good luck with it, i know what you're going through.

 

[PCGUY112887]

Well, I started copying files over and it just crashed and turned off again...
I tryed to do the Windows XP repair thing (when you boot from the install disk and hit R for repair) but it just brings me to a dos window.... I didn't know what to do so I used the only command I know (dir) on C: and it said there was an error reading the drive. There has to be SOMETHING I can boot to and copy files on an NTFS partition with...
I am thinking about putting windows 2000 on my old computer just to get my files , but I don't want to till I know if there's anything I can just boot to.

 

[matttaylor]

do you have partition magic? THere are some utilities that could help you.

 

[PCGUY112887]

Ah, I do have it. Also, I can boot fine into windows now. A few files that I try to copy say "Disk Error" and when I try to run a disk error check, it just comes back saying it can't read the drive (the one where it has to check the disk on bootup). I think a format will fix this, but could this be caused by a bad drive? It has been fine till now.

 

[matttaylor]

Try running a disk check and tell it to scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors. See if it finds anything. It sounds like the boot sector may be damaged.

 

[PCGUY112887]

I just said that I did try that
And it said it coulden't read the disk. Anyone know of any other programs (that run in windows) that will check a disk for errors? I want to format this computer, but I was wanting to wait till I had my new computer built (just waiting on memory).

 

[Strages]

First thing, the repair that you were in was the wrong repair mode for what you were trying to do, you need to bypass that first repair console and follow the setup like normal until it asks you to repair the windows install it finds. That is the correct repair you were looking for.

Second, the Repair Console (where you were) may be exactly what you need to determine the problem. When you are at the repair console, bring up your main HDD with the command (most likely C:\) if it's not already on it. From there you can type "help" and it will bring up a list of all the commands you can run. Instead of typing help to bring up the command list, you can actually try fixing the Master Boot Record by typing "fixmbr." There is another "fix..." command that I can't remember at the moment, but it will be listed in the "help." Another very useful command is "chkdsk" - this will check the disk for errors, use the "/?" notation after "/chkdsk" (looking like "chkdsk /?"), this will bring up all of the possible options for chkdsk. Basically you'll want any option that will search the drive most thoroughly and will also attempt to repair whatever it finds. This should help you determine - to some extent- your problem.

 

[PCGUY112887]

Ah thanks! Althought, I may have bigger problems....
A few min ago I decided I better put the side of my case back on. It's about 1/2 way on, and sudnelly the computer just turns off. I am like oh ****!!! I remove the side and look in, and everything appeared fine, nothing was bumped, etc. So I put the side on again, and close it all up. I go for the power button, and notice it's glowing amber... I have never seen my computer glow amber so I push it, nothing, hold it in, nothing. So I went around to the back of my computer, unplugged it, and plugged it back in. Came to the front, hit the button and the amber light came on, same thing coulden't do anything. Repeated that, and I still got the amber light. I was like WTF??

So I remove the side of the case, press the button, and it works and it started going it's rebooting thing... I yell a few times, then on the third reboot it starts windows....
and here I am

EDIT - And remember how I said my drive was heating up? Well with my side off earlier, it went all the way to 48*C. But I just realised, that's my second hard drive getting that hot, not my master HDD. So for now the slave is off just so it doesn't get so hot.

 

[Strages]

Kids, this is why we don't buy Gateway computers. Or Dell. Or Sony. Or any other OEM manufacturer because, to but it nicely, they blow. They blow in every derrogatory sense of the word.

Just say No.

 

[Kendan]

Fisrt off please run a drive diagnostic program from the drive manufacturer. It does not run in windows! This will tell you if the problem is the hardrive. You can get the link from this thread : http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?t=127203
or if you do not have a floppy drive you can use the one included on the www.ultimatebootcd.com (great tool) Once we rule that it is or is not the harddrive we can move on and troubleshoot the problem and not play the ohh it might be this but never test it and then go back and forth of what it could be game. You think it might be something then test it to see if it is. Some things can not be tested as easy as harddrives so that is a great place to start for your problem.

 

[PCGUY112887]

Ah thanks for the link. Last night I ran the disk check (chkdsk /R) and I let it go all night on my C: When I woke up, it said it had found errors and could not recover them. So I went on and did my F: drive, and it found errors and could fix them. I did "fixmbr" and it said it didn't recognize my MBR, and give me a big warning and I wasn't sure if I should do it, so I didn't. Then I used "fixboot" and it said it would rewrite the boot sector, and I wasn't sure if I should do that either so I didn't. I am going to run the maxtor powermax right now.

EDIT - I downloaded it, ran the thing and it put it on a floppy, and when I try to boot from the floppy it says something like "Can not boot into DOS! Press enter to retry" and I tryed 3 times with no luck. So I am downloading the Ultimate Boot CD and will try that.

 

[Kendan]

Which one did you run? you do not copy it onto a floppy. you run it and it makes the floppy Same thing goes for the UBCD you use nero to burn the image to a CDR which is different than copying the .iso to the CDR.

 

[PCGUY112887]

lol yes I know I let it make the floppy, i'm not THAT big of a noob
And I tryed powermax, because it's a maxtor drive in question.

 

[Kendan]

Was it a brand new floppy? The floppy or the download could be carupt.