# Windows Fails to Load - Repeating Reboot



## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

It seems I basically have the same problem as: this thread. But unlike this person, I don't have an XP disc. Laptop didn't come with one, it's got everything stored into a separate hard-drive. 

I turn on the computer, it asks me how I want it to load (I've tried last config., normal, and safe-mode - the last one gets stuck on a file and restarts also), then it goes to the windows loading screen, takes forever, then flashes a scrambled blue screen, and restarts the entire process.

I've had this problem last December, only a month into it's opperation. The last time I didn't have much on my computer so I had no problems with erasing the memory and starting at factory set-up. But now I have over 30GB of unsaved and irreplaceable data so I really don't want to erased it. (The computer uses the F buttons, like F8 or F12 will erase everything.)

Is there anything I can do about this that won't erase my computer's memory?

Also, could the problem lie with the AMD 64 Turion processor or is it just a coincidence?


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Hi Hidders and welcome to TSf ! :wave:

Pressing F8 at startup should only bring some menu where you'll be able to choose to start normally, or in safe mode or in some other modes. Try "last known good config" there and tell us how that goes. If there's no changes try "safe mode".

What brand and model is your laptop ? You should test its hard drive for errors but since we can't go into the device manager to learn about the drive's model we'll have to learn it from the laptop manufacturer's website.

There should also be some BIOS utility you can enter. Try repeatedly pressing del during startup. If del doesn't work then check this site or search for a message telling you which key to press to enter setup. If we're lucky there'll be an hardware monitor or PC health screen in the BIOS. If so tell us about the cpu temp, fan speed and voltages it reports. Try leaving the computer in the BIOS for an hour and tell us whether it also reboots there.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

Thanks for your help.

I tried the F8 way but it is exactly the same as letting bring me to the screen. Safe-mode still gets stuck on the Mup.sys system32 driver file.

I have a Compaq Presario V5000. I already tried the short and long tests at the PheonixBIOS screen, both fail immediately. There's also nothing to check computer health. I'll try the BIOS for an hour and get back to you.


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Which presario is it ? There are more than 20 in the V5000 serie.
http://h20180.www2.hp.com/apps/Look...&h_query=Presario+V5000&submit.x=0&submit.y=0

Contact HP's technical support and tell them about the starting tests failing. To access HP's contact page go here and choose your country. Click support and troubleshooting then click contact HP on the next page.

If you want to get your data back while the computer isn't booting you'll need to take the drive out of the case following the manual instructions and use a 2.5'' to 3.5'' IDE adapter to hook the drive in another desktop. Alternatively you can buy an external usb enclosure for 2.5'' IDE drives and hook it to any computer that has an usb port. Hopefully the drive will be detected fine and you'll be able to backup all your data. You may need to take ownership of the files and folders before you can access them from another computer. With XP Home you'll need to start in safe mode and log as an administrator.

Wait until you get an answer from HP before you do that in case they know of the problem and have an easy fix that won't require you to format the drive.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

That's all it says on the bottom. It's strictly a V5000. 

I'm on XP Media Center Edition 2005.

Is the IDE adaptor something I could get from Walmart or would I have to go to a more specialized store? And what's the cost for something like that? If I find nothing out at the sites you gave then I'll do this. I just really want to get those files saved somewhere.

Thanks for this advice, even if nothing happens with fixing the computer I really appreciate it.


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## kellywright (Aug 6, 2007)

I'd suggest booting off some bootable CD (like Hiren's Boot CD, it's free and you can download image anywhere on the web, but you'll need another PC or laptop to burn it onto spare CD/RW). It will give the option of moving your data to some partition where all the data will be safe.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

Kellywright: Thanks! I don't think the disc would work since I can't even load the computer up what-so-ever. So I won't use the disc right now but I will, without doubt, use it after I set my system back up.


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## kellywright (Aug 6, 2007)

*Hidders*,
guess I wasn't apt enough to explain my thought.
When you boot from a CD, it doesn't matter in what condition the operating system is. There's even a possibility to make a bootable CD which loads just like normal Windows XP (that is, with GUI). Of course, the settings of the installed OS are not loaded. But this gives you a nice option to copy files from hard drive to, say, and external USB drive.
But booting from CD must be enabled in system BIOS and it should come first in the list of choices.
You may consider http://www.ultimatebootcd.com which lists the tools included in the current build. File manager like Volkov Commander will copy necessary files to either another partition or device.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

Kellywright: Okay, thanks for explaining it to me.


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Kellywright's solution should work too. Better to save the data you recover to another physical drive though, not just another partition on the same drive, as if your drive is failing you don't want to even *try* to write some data on it. First thing is only read the data from that drive and save that elsewhere.

Ultimate Boot CD or Bart PE would be able to give you access to your computer booting on the CD. From there you can save all the data you can access to another usb drive. But there may be some problem here if you find you can't access the c:\documents and settings\insert your user name here\ folder 'cause you can't reset the ownership of a folder using one of those CD's.

Best solution I believe will be to hook the drive to another computer as I said earlier. A 2.5'' to 3.5'' IDE adapter in inexpensive as you can see. An external USB enclosure costs around 10$, up to 20$ for a good model with an AC adapter. Not sure that they'll have that at Wal-Mart but you'll find what you need on newegg or you may ask at your local computer shop. Make sure your drive is a 2.5'' IDE drive first. You may want to get some help from someone who already has opened a laptop case 'cause you don't want to break anything.

Would be better if we could find the exact model of your laptop so that we can look for proper instructions as how to open it and find out about the drive brand and model. Search the bottom of your computer for the product number : 
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...&product=212728&lc=en&dest_page=product&cc=us

edit : and I'll ask that this thread be moved to laptop support section where you'll have better help.


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

Noticed the 2.5'' to 3.5'' IDE adapter I linked to in newegg is not available anymore. Here's a link to another one. Else scroll down under the usb or sata adapters or make a search for 2.5'' to 3.5'' IDE and you'll find the adapters you'll need.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

That was the plan, since I have so much data to save it'd be better to get it hard copied this time. But next time I'll have either the Hiren or Ultimate Boot CD ready. I'm also thinking that backing all of my files up every week on an external usb hard drive would really help in the future.

If I can't find an adapter at any of the more local stores I think I'll just order from CompUSA. They have a *Cables to Go Go!Data USB 2.0 to IDE Drive Adapter* for $30 and it already has the usb cable so that's nice. 

I've already checked my hard drive's size and it's a 2.5". I spent all last night checking up on how to safely remove the drive and use an adapter. (Don't want to ruin it, I want to save it.) Before last night I didn't even know what an internal hard drive _looked_ like.

I actually think this thead is closed seeing how I received 2 great solutions and I only wanted one. But if anyone else has any other answers I'm such someone else out there would appreciate it.

Thanks to justpassingby and kellywright! Your ideas are a life saver!


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

I'd give the Ultimate Boot CD a try first. See if it can find your drive correctly and you may be able to recover your files without needing to take it off the laptop. Save your files on an external USB drive. Only problem you could have is if you get an access denied error when trying to access your documents in c:\documents and settings. In that case you'll have to hook your drive to another computer to take ownership of that folder (see post #4)

Laptops drives use a 44 pins interface (the 4 more pins are use to provide power instead of the molex plug I believe) so the Data USB 2.0 to IDE Drive Adapter won't work (you need a 44 pins female plug).

This will work : USB 2.0 Aluminum Enclosure For 2.5-inch Hard Drives

Would still be better to use a regular IDE interface over an USB one when recovering files from a broken hard drive as the power provided by an USB port is less reliable than that of a molex plug. Plus if the drive is a 7200rpm one (rare for laptops drives) it might not work at all with an USB power plug if the enclosure hasn't got its own power cord. Here's a 2.5 inch to 3.5 inch IDE Hard Drive Cable Adapter.

What's the brand and model of your drive ? Check the sticker that's on the drive itself.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

I'm going to buy this adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812119151
I'll try it and see what happen since it's inexpensive.
Hard Drive - Brand: Momentus 5400.2; Model: ST98823A


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

I looked into the enclosure you gave and am unsure if I need a separate cable to hook it up to another laptop via UBS. Does it come with it's own cable hook-up or will I have to go buy one? Okay, I'm really dumb, I'm reading the overview on a different one since the first didn't have anything and can't really understand it. I put my hard drive in it and plug it in another's computer's USB? Is that it? Same as a USB adapter, just faster?


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

That drive is from Seagate so I'd run the Seatools for Dos utilities on it before you do anything else to see what it's got to say about it. Go to this page and click download Seatools for Dos. Follow the instructions to create the diagnostics boot CD. You'll need to burn some .iso file using a burning software that can burn from image files (most burning softwares can do that). Then enter the BIOS at startup to set the boot device priority to CD-rom first in order to boot on the CD. Here's the user guide on how to use it. Run the short and long tests (don't know if the tests the Phoenix Bios ran were the same, maybe).

Any luck with the Ultimate Boot CD ? This version is different from the one kellywright advised above as it will allow you to boot in an OS similar to Windows from which you'll be able to verify if your files are still there on the drive and copy them to an external USB drive. Here's the instructions on how to create that CD. Note that you'll need to borrow some XP CD from a friend if you want to try this one. If you can't do that then kellywright's version (here) should work too but from a dos like interface.

The Rosewill adapter you linked to in post #14 will work (this is a link to the manufacturer's website where you can download the instruction guide).

The enclosure I advised should come with all the needed cables. The USB adapter and enclosure are actually exactly the same systems except that with the adapter your drive electronics will stay exposed. No big deal with that, just make sure you don't spill coffee on it. I'd go with the adapter as it can be recycled to use an old 3.5'' drive as an external drive later.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

Okay, I'll go with the adapter for now.
I can't download anything over 5MB from the computer I'm currently using due to very-very slow speeds and random freeze-ups. And since UBCD is nearly 90MB... Well, that's out of the question for the time being. I'd have to go to the local library or something. The Seatools iso is a small download so I might be able to get and use that with no problems. 
Plus with the second UBCD, I don't have anyone I know that uses the same XP OS I have. They either have Home or Professional. 
I'm not sure if this computer is able to burn things anymore, the owner says that they never got it to work right. But maybe they just didn't know what they were doing.


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## kellywright (Aug 6, 2007)

I think it doesn't matter what kind of XP OS you'll be using to make a UBCD, any XP Pro will do since the files are needed to have a desktop environment instead of a dos one. But if you have no option to burn it then that's another trouble.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

Okay, made the Seatools disc and inserted it. It checked my avaible drives and said "no hard drives found". So I took out the hard drive and reinserted it just in case it was loose and ran Seatools again. Same answer. Then when I quit I get some "write violation" DOS page... Grrr, now I remember why I hate DOS.
Even though there was no doubt in my mind it's nice to know that the problem truly lies with the hard drive. So this probably means that a boot CD might not even register. ... And ... Since the hard drive is appearing to the computer to be dead at the moment it might not work as a USB unit. :bheart: Hope shattered, that will suck...


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

justpassingby said:


> ...
> The Rosewill adapter you linked to in post #14 will work ...
> The USB adapter and enclosure are actually exactly the same systems except that with the adapter your drive electronics will stay exposed. ...


Oh! Did I mention that the adapter comes with this nifty rubber case to put the hard drive in? That's why I chose it.


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## justpassingby (Mar 11, 2007)

A boot CD will always work, you can even boot a computer whith no hard drives at all with such disk cause it sets all the files he needs to use in the RAM. So you can boot your laptop with such a CD without any hard drive and go surf the web provided it has the correct drivers for your network adapter.

Could be the drive dying, but if it can still show the windows loading screen it means you should still be able to read some files from it. Could be the IDE controller on the motherboard dying, but since this is a laptop we can't really try to hook it to another controller. Could be the power supply failing when Windows is trying to power some devices. Could be some weird overheating problem but in this case you wouldn't be able to stay in the BIOS for a long time either.

Hooking the drive in another computer will definitely help. Only problem is that using an USB interface you won't be able to run SeaTools for Dos on it when it'll be hooked on the other computer as it only works with IDE or SATA interfaces. Let's just pray that the drive gets detected in Windows directly.


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

Well, I already know this was caused by overheating and high CPU usage over a long period of time. It took me a while to compare the two occurances of this happening. The first time was while I spent about 2-3 days straight making VCDs, and this time I was online downloading via utorrent. (Sorry for not mentioning this sooner but I just hadn't put the 2 together; I think I've learned my lesson this time.) So I know nothing is really dead. I just have to bring it back to factory settings after I copy my files and it will work in my laptop. 

I think my best bet is adapter hook-up. I am and will be praying on this. Something tells me it'll work out this way.



What does a non-destructive recovery do? I've never used it before; would that be something to try?


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## Hidders (Aug 6, 2007)

I have purchased this enclosure:iMicro IMBS25A-SI 2.5" USB 2.0 External Enclosure and it should arrive some time next week. The price went back up on the adapter I was looking at so I decided to try looking at the enclosures one last time and this one seemed to have zero complaints.


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