laptop keeps rebooting

a friend of mine has a Compaq Armada 1750 (has Windows XP) that keeps rebooting and doesnt stop. I first thought that he had a boot virus but he mention that he did something to the Master Boot Record. We tried the Last known Configuration but that didnt work and also tried to get into safe mode or the Dos prompt but the Laptop kept rebooting after attempting to go into Safe Mode or the Dos prompt

When he mention the Master Boot Record I knew it had to be that but I cant find how to fix it with out losing all his stuff on his computer. That is why Im hesistant to to create a Boot Disk

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NPA24

Does he get a stop error number? Also I've seen this happen several times and it ends up either being a bad memory stick or the pc is overheating.

x_Danny_x

i think not cause it just reboots when it gets to start up screen each time. It didnt show no number when I looked. When we tried to get into safe mode or tried the Last Know Configuration it rebooted as well.

I cant do anything to get in to do a FiXMBR

x_Danny_x

i forgot to ask that an Emergency Repair Disk will only work on the computer that it is created from right?

I guess I can create a bootk disk to access the MBR though my laptop is from Dell and his is a Compaq so im frighten that might do something bad.

i know if Desktop Computers have capcitors gone bad it will cause reboots to happen as well but i dont think he has that problem since he fooled around with the MBR

the_alpha_geekguy

Take the battery out, unplug laptop from AC and hold down the power button for 10 seconds.

if you have XP-2k, check and see under Device Manager->Advanced->Performance-> uhhh.....forget which button (haven't used XP in a long time - i think last one - in 2k it's the "startup and Recovery" button) and make sure that "Automatically Reboot" is not checked.

go to the manufacturer's website and look up and known issues with your laptop.

scan for viruses etc.

Silver Bullet

If you just want to repair the Master Boot Record then Boot to the Windows XP installation disk and go to the recovery console. From there you will choose the Windows installation you want to repair, enter the administrator password. At the command prompt, type fixmbr and press enter. I think it will ask if you are sure that you want to do this, choose yes. It will happen very fast. Then reboot.

If he does indeed have a corrupt MBR then that should do the trick. Let us know.

x_Danny_x

Take the battery out, unplug laptop from AC and hold down the power button for 10 seconds.

if you have XP-2k, check and see under Device Manager->Advanced->Performance-> uhhh.....forget which button (haven't used XP in a long time - i think last one - in 2k it's the "startup and Recovery" button) and make sure that "Automatically Reboot" is not checked.

go to the manufacturer's website and look up and known issues with your laptop.

scan for viruses etc.

okay, i will try this. I hope if removing the battery and holding the button 10 seconds will allow the rebooting to stop and go into the Desktop. If not then I will try what Silver Bullet already mention.

ebkrantz

If the fixmbr does not work(i have seen it work alot before). I would do a fixboot in the recovery consloe, this will right a new mbr.

jim_stasz

It could be some service failing at boot and the recovery function of that server is to have the system reboot.

x_Danny_x

we tried both fixmbr and fixboot. we got to the Dos version at least and that is were we tried it.

say, is it possible to create an Automated System Recovery disk? Laptops come with one but he losts his. Is it possible to create one?

Silver Bullet

If you are certain that you ran that from the recovery console and that did not change anything then you need to run the IDE DPS Self Test from the BIOS. This will rule out the hard drive having failed. To enter the BIOS, Press F10 on boot.

Post the results of this test.

x_Danny_x

hmm, now that you mention it, not too sure that we ran it from the Recovery Console! Will check again!

beefy

not to be funny but your supposed to be an mcsa..

x_Danny_x

I tried everything that an MCSA would of done when it came to the basics! I came for some extra support before I moved to heavier troubleshooting. I have access to the forum and people who are smarter than me so Im using it.

this is for a freinds computer who has a compaq computer! commands are generally different and I have to be cautious with this thing cause it is an old laptop

Silver Bullet, we again tried the recovery console and the fixboot and fixmbr didnt work.

Im going to do what you just said and also test for the capicitors and other hardware issues.

ebkrantz

Do you have another hard drive that you can put into the computer and see if it is the hard drive? What os is this?

RussS

The first thing I would do is to remove the hard drive and slave it to another machine and make a backup of the data. Next I would boot the laptop with the UBCD and run the appropriate tool on the hard drive to check if it is sound. If it comes up as OK I would then boot to the CD and do the SECOND repair option.

Majestic_Lizard

1) TRY THIS FIRST:

A) TEST THE HARDWARE WITH A FRESHLY FORMATTED, REPARTITIONED HARD DISK (FAT32), BUT NOT THE ORIGINAL HARD DISK. I believe I still have copies of the major drivers for that computer somewhere. I got them off of the HP/Compaq site, which was not that easy to navigate if I remember. I would recommend (as a test) taking out the hard disk, and connecting a cheap reformatted one and then installing windows 98 on it. If that OS runs without the same problems you can pretty much tell that its not the hardware and that there may be something screwy with master boot record on the original hard disk.

IF STEP A WORKS TROUBLE SHOOT WITH ORIGINAL HARD DISK. Make sure you have backed up all data and have copies of the drivers off of the HP/Compaq site. If this works and you get a working installation of Windows 98 (even without the proper drivers, this was just a test) you will then know its not the hard ware. Then you can begin to trouble shoot on the original hard disk. Personally, if I were you I would wipe the damn thing and install 2K or 98SE and then reinstall the drivers. XP with Service Pack2 is just not going to run that well on that sucker.

C) IF STEP A DID NOT WORK; CHECK THE RAM IF IT STILL KEEPS REBOOTING. Lets say you have a cheap 1 to 3 gig reformatted, repartitioned hard disk (not the original). You also have a win98 start up disk. So you attempt to install 98 on it (shouldn't take too long if you have the maximum ram for the computer). Then you either install it successfully, but it starts constantly rebooting like it was before or you can't install it because even when you try to boot to DOS with the start-up disk it still constantly reboots. If that is what is happening I'd then check the ram. Check both bays with each dim individually alone and see if you can get it to boot that way.

D) CHECK THE FAN ON THE BACK OF THE LAPTOP. If the above test with the ram makes no difference and the ram turns out to be good, the CPU is probably overheating and may actually be damaged. It could also be any number of problems, including capacitors that have leaked out due to either age or too much heat. This model has an internal power supply, not an external AC adaptor.

2) SOME THINGS TO TAKE INTO CONSIDERATION:
A) BE AWARE OF DESIGN FLAWS FOR THAT MODEL. There were some problems with the model such as no standard bios. It had something like a bios on the original hard disk (I know it sounds ridiculous), but if you reformat the hard disk the computer will still work, but with no way to access the bios. Another flaw of this computer was that the fan on the power supply (built in to the computer) had a real loose connection, which could cause it to overheat. This model does not have an external AC adapter, it is internal. MAKE SURE THE FAN ON THE BACK IS BLOWING.

NOT A GOOD OPERATING SYSTEM TO HAVE ON THAT DINOSAUR. That is an awfully slow computer to be running Windows XP Service Pack2 on. Those things only ranged from 300 to 400 MHz and were officially only able to handle 192 megs or ram. I can't see you having anything but problems with an OS on it like that, its just too much OS for such a limited machine, especially if it has service pack 2 on it. Laptops also tend to use shared resources among components. Not that it can't run XP. It definately can run XP, but only if it is set up just right. I had Windows 2K on mine and THAT was running incredibly slow so I downgraded to Windows98SE and it ran considerably faster and was much more responsive.

C) MAY BE TOO MANY APPS AND DRIVERS COMPETING FOR RESOURCES UPON BOOTUP It may simply be that there is too much trying to load in the initial stages of boot up for the limited resources to handle. In fact, I have encountered laptops that were behaving similar to what you are describing and that was exactly what was wrong. When the OS installation was fresh the computer functioned fine, but after applications were installed and various drivers and applications started competing for resources upon bootup the computer eventually couldn't boot up properly. This can actually screw up the boot sequence enough to where it can't even start in safe mode.

D) MAY NOT BE WORTH REPAIRING. Its a Compaq. Back in the days of that model Compaq was making lots of lemons. You are looking at a computer you can replace on ebay for $100 to $200 (if you are savy shopper). I wouldn't recommend trying to replace the mother board because even if you get a motherboard for that EXACT model you may get one that was made for a slightly different form factor and won't even fit in the shell. There are soooo many revisions to laptops.

E) SELL PARTS ON EBAY IF ALL ELSE FAILS. At this stage (assuming all the above have been tried) I would recommend to your pal that he part out the computer and sell the ram, hard disk, CD-Rom individually on eBay and gauge on the shipping. Then he can sell the laptop minus the parts and mention that it doesn't boot and has no ram or hard disk but that the LCD should still be good (again, on eBay).

http://h18002.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/10012_div/10012_div.HTML

Silver Bullet

RussS wrote:

Next I would boot the laptop with the UBCD

I was just last night trying to remember who it was that had suggested this CD on another topic sometime ago. I wanted to recommend it but wanted to give credit to you as well. Excellent recommendation. That is a cool tool.

Danny, if the IDE DPS test doesn't tell you that the hard drive has failed then the UBCD is a great tool as RussS mentioned.

x_Danny_x

alright SilverBullet, I will create this CD that Russ said about. Heard about it but never did create one.

ebkrantz, it is Windows XP Professional. The laptop is very damn old as well.

Majestic Lizard, thanks for the detail explination. Very impressed and will follow those tests. I will first go with Russ and see if the CD will fix the problem.

x_Danny_x

whoah we tested it with the IDE DPS and it came with this message

"TEST FAILED. DRIVE REPLACEMENT REOMMENDED"

bogus!!!

darn

Say can the UBCD correct the hardrive or is it best to just replace it?? My friend is having alot of problems with before so maybe the parts are just getting old.

ebkrantz

Next I would boot the laptop with the UBCD and run the appropriate tool on the hard drive to check if it is sound.

I love this cd, I use it at work all the time, it is a great cd.

x_Danny_x, if the ide test failed, personally i would reaplace the hard drive, but thats just me. I do not try to repair a drvie unless its a software crash(which isnt really hard to repair).

Silver Bullet

Time to replace the hard drive!

The UBCD will not repair the failed drive but it will allow you the ability to boot up from the CD (UBCD) and possibly browse the hard drive for files you want to recover and then backup. From what I can tell from your post, you are able to boot to the splash screen. So, most likely it is not the controller that has failed, but rather has bad sectors/blocks. So you should be able to recover any needed data from the drive with the UBCD (given those files do not reside on a bad sector).

http://ubcd4win.com

That is the site you want. They have very good instructions for creating this CD.

RussS

There are a few things I ALWAYS keep in my bag of tricks and the UBCD is top of the list. The next most important disk to me is one I fronted up lotsa hard cash for, but it has certainly made me look good on many occasions and that is the Avast BART CD. You can of course build your own but I found this to be a rather cool tool. Fire up the CD builder software on my desktop and it runs the updates for the definition files and then rewrites the iso file I build from. The remote registry editing tools and cleaner on that system are a lifesaver in many occasions.

Majestic_Lizard

Now that the problem has been identified I would strongly recommend NOT putting XPService Pack2 on the new hard disk. Windows98SE or Windows2K are a better idea.

There are a lot of functions in XP that load upon booting and 128 to 192 megs or ram with a 300 to 400 MHz mobile celeron is really pushing the envelope. Especially considering that you really don't have that much ram due to shared resources for the video and audio.

By the time you have a few apps on that thing that start competing for resources upon start up, that computer will run so slow you will want to throw it out a window. If you have enough things competing for resources upon start up your computer may actually get to where it simply freazes and can't start unless in safe mode, until you remove things. (Just because the start up menu is empty doesn't mean parts of programs aren't running in resident memory upon startup).

On my laptop (same model) I downgraded to 98SE from Win2K. And I have 192 megs for ram on it. Windows98SE supports internet sharing, 98 doesn't.

On a slightly different note:

Cosmetic improvements (Make 98 look like XP):
This is good to know how to do if you have an old laptop (say 100 to 300MHZ with 96 megs of ram) that can't handle anything above Windows98 very well. Its nice to have the "look" of XP even if you don't have the functionality.

For the fun of it I ripped some of the XP icons (My computer, Recycle Bin, and most of the other noticeable ones) from a DLL. Then I put the .ICO images in the folders on the OS where the DLL file that links to those Icons is located.

Then I went into the registry and linked those commands with the new XP images. (Open HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\ CLSID) So I now have XP icons on a Windows98SE machine. The recycle bin even switches from full to empty when you purge your garbage can. This isn't recommended if you are using a machine with less than 64 megs of ram, or a machine with 64 megs of ram that is sharing ram with the video. It'll have trouble booting when the OS goes to look for the new icons upon start up.

I also created a logo.sys image that looks like the one that loads when you start Windows XP. It even has the colors that scroll back and forth. Except mine simply says "Microsoft Windows" and not "Windows XP". I made this with a program called XrX logo utiltity. So the computer looks like its running WIndows XP in classic mode.

Its nice when your in college and you don't want to look shabby next to next to people that have money.

x_Danny_x

very good info, going to bookmark this thread here. New hardrive it is then. That laptop though might be nearing the end of its life and I think he might need to get a new one.