Stuck in a Reboot Loop

  • Thread starter Thread starter gillmav
  • Start date Start date
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gillmav

I have a laptop which I'm hoping to fix for a friend with your help.

It is a Fujitsu Siemens - Amilo and the operating software is Windows XP
Media Center Edition. I don't know anything else about the laptop unless you
can tell me how to get required information from it.

The problem started after installing the latest Windows Update. It asked him
to restart to complete the installation and has since been stuck in a reboot
loop. It will not even start in safe mode. He does not have a boot/recovery
disk.

The Blue Screen of Death appears very briefly before it restarts but I am
unable to read it before it restarts.

Any help would be much appreciated.
 
Tap the F8 key just before Windows starts to boot and change the option
to Automatically reboot on failure, the computer will halt on the BSOD
when you reboot and you may be able to get useful information from the
bugcheck error message.

John
 
Thanks for the reply. The BSoD:

"A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent
damage to your computer....
Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x00000024 (0x00190203, 0x86D33178, 0xC0000102, 0x00000000)"

This means nothing to me.
 
I take it that there is no file name mentioned in the message? It's
difficult to know for certain but more often than not 0x24 error
messages are caused by file system corruption, from the Recovery Console
you can try running chkdsk /r on the disk. Be warned that there is
always a risk of data loss when chkdsk is run on a disk.

John
 
Thanks but I don't know what chkdsk is and how do I get into the Recovery
Console? Any option I select after hitting F8 just restarts the laptop.
 
No, you need a Windows XP CD to be able to boot to the Recovery Console.

Description of the Windows XP Recovery Console for advanced users
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314058

If you don't have a Windows XP cd you can download the 6 floppy diskette
set and use them to boot to the Recovery Console:

How to obtain Windows XP Setup disks for a floppy boot installation
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/310994/en-us

Or you can download an ISO file from the internet and burn it to cd:

http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
Look for: "How To Create a bootable CD to access the Recovery Console"

Another way would be to remove the disk from the laptop then place it in
a USB enclosure or use a $3 adapter to mount it in a desktop then run
chkdsk on the disk from the XP desktop.

John
 
I think I'm doing something wrong. There is no floppy drive on the laptop so
I have downloaded the ISO file to burn to CD. I have unzipped the file and
written it to a CD using Copy, Paste, Write these files to CD in Windows.

I have put the CD into the drive on the laptop and it isn't giving me any
different options. Nothing about entering Recovery or booting from disk.

I have pressed F2 and in PhoenixBIOS Setup Utility the Boot Device Priority
is as follows:
1: IDE CD: Optiarc DVD RWAD-...
2: UDE HDD: WDC WD1200BEVS-...

I presume this means it should be booting from the DVD Drive first.

Am I creating the CD incorrectly? Or have I missed something else?
 
Thank you for your patience.

I have now managed to create the CD and the laptop requires me to press any
key to boot from CD, which i do and it does. However, then comes another BSoD:

"Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x0000007E (0xC0000005, 0xF76130BF, 0xF7A5F208, 0xF7A5EF08)
*** pci.sys - Address F76130BF base at F760C000, DateStamp 3b7d855c"

I then appear to have no option but to reboot.
 
gillmav said:
I have a laptop which I'm hoping to fix for a friend with your help.

It is a Fujitsu Siemens - Amilo and the operating software is Windows XP
Media Center Edition. I don't know anything else about the laptop unless you
can tell me how to get required information from it.

The problem started after installing the latest Windows Update. It asked him
to restart to complete the installation and has since been stuck in a reboot
loop. It will not even start in safe mode. He does not have a boot/recovery
disk.

The Blue Screen of Death appears very briefly before it restarts but I am
unable to read it before it restarts.

Any help would be much appreciated.
Click to expand...

Was this user so foolish as to install hardware updates from the Windows
Update site? NEVER get hardware updates from there. Use that only as a
prompt to go to the hardware manufacturer's web site and get the new
driver from there. But then, if the host was working okay, why would
you or your friend think they needed a new version of a working driver?

Reboot. After the POST screen and just at the start of Windows loading,
hit F8 and select "Use last known good configuration" to revert back to
a prior hardware config.
 
So you can't boot to the Recovery Console? You wouldn't usually get
that kind of error message when you are booting to the Recovery Console,
are you sure that you are booting from the CD?

John
 
Foolish? I'd say inexperienced. Neither myself nor my friend knew anything of
NOT updating from what we see as the Genuine Windows site. Of course any
inexperienced user would think this the safest thing to do. This is what
Windows says to do. It offers an update, the update is done. In my
inexperienced eyes, taking the installation which Microsoft offers would be
the safest option. I must also add that until this moment I have never heard
of another option being available.

As a further point, in the hope of fixing the problem, the update may have
been SP3.

As to your "fix": I tried the option of Last Known... but the laptop just
reboots, as it does when selecting safe mode.
 
As sure as I can be with the little experience I have. I enter the Multiboot
Selection Menu and choose option 1: IDE CD: Optiarc DVD RW.

It then says to press any key to boot from CD, which I do. I then get a blue
screen with "Windows Setup" at the top and along the bottom it says "Setup is
loading files". About 10 seconds later the BSoD appears.
 
You may need to use a Windows CD with SP2, the iso image that you got is
probably from an original XP without service packs.

John
 
As sure as I can be with the little experience I have. I enter the
Multiboot Selection Menu and choose option 1: IDE CD: Optiarc DVD
RW.

It then says to press any key to boot from CD, which I do. I then
get a blue screen with "Windows Setup" at the top and along the
bottom it says "Setup is loading files". About 10 seconds later
the BSoD appears.
Click to expand...

You might try using the "Ultimate Boot CD for Windows" (it's free)...

<http://www.ubcd4win.com/>

HTH,
John
 
gillmav

Does the Windows XP CD include the SP2 update? What is the exact
description on the CD?

This KB Article might apply?
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=839641

Have you tried disconnecting all hardware preipherals except keyboard ,
mouse, and monitor?

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 
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