Been a member here a about a year but been busy so just saying hello!

[AtomRat]

Yeah that certainly sounds sector based..probably made a clicking too chewy? I used to wear a BSOD tshirt all the time when I was younger :lol:

Bad sectors can usually be skipped over, byt once ur harddrive has them, starr backing up. Sometimes the head on the harddrive can get stuck as well and some careful surgery 'can'...'can'..fix it. I'd only do this if the info wasn't too important.

Gold Seeker - one extremely easy opyion is to take out your drive with the data you want saved and take it to a friends. By plugging it in you have to be careful not to erase the data by mistake..but should be something that can just happen accidentally.

If you have the money, this sort of backup process through a pc repair bloke shouldn't bee too costly. You can buy external terrabytes for under $100 now

..to think off and on ( 1 and 0 ) would cause soo many problems for us all ..lol

 

[Gold Seeker]

XP

 

[AtomRat]

Ok. As a process of elimination, when its booting in BIOS ( before it loads windows ) hit the F8 key until a menu pops up. If it beeps don't worry.
What you should find is start in Safe Mode. Enter that and tell me if the pc still reboots, or if its happy to sit there in Safe Mode.

I'm pretty sure its F8. If nothing happens, make sure F Lock is on if your keyboard has an F in a square. With F Lock off..it won't be able to register F keys.

 

[Gold Seeker]

It will start in safe mode.

 

[AtomRat]

Leave it on for an hour just to be sure. If it stays on we know its just windows xp startup fail

 

[AtomRat]

Did it stay on Gold Seeker?

 

[Gold Seeker]

I was leaving for work shortly after you posted about leaving it on, just got home from a 12 hour day, I got it running in safe mode and I will update in an hour or so.

 

[GaryO]

The problem I'm having is that the computer keeps rebooting before it gets completely booted, it will boot and load Windows, but before all of the startup programs gets loaded it will reboot itself, all of this happens over and over until I just power it off manually, it's an old computer but if it would just stay booted for a few hours I could transfer all the contents of the hard drive onto an external hard drive to save all of my files from the last 10 years or so, needless to say I should of been doing backups over the years and I wouldn't be in this situation!

Sounds like the motherboard capicitors , normally when they are on their last legs you will notice various ones starting to bulge at the top.

Welcome to the forum

 

[Gold Seeker]

Thanks for the welcome Garyo.

AR the old computer has been running in safe mode for 1 hour and 25 minutes now seemly fine.

I just wish I knew what to do in safe mode to resolve the issue, even though it's an old computer it's been the best computer I have ever had for many years now, but mostly I would like to save all of my files/photos, gold research data, etc.!

 

[AtomRat]

That's a good sign mate

 

[AtomRat]

Bit of a simple one..but have you tried 'Last known working configuration' in the F8 options?

 

[AtomRat]

If that doesn't work let me know and we will go onto the next step.

I will pre-warn it can make windows have some problems which we can fix later. As long as you don't use 'System Repair' and accidently format the pc you will be ok.

The main point of what we have figured out is that your harddrive is fine. If you want.. you can stop right here and take the pc to a service bloke and ask him to copy all your photos and data to a brand new drive ( or a friend? )..if you can't get access to either ill have to guide you through but only possible if you have a secondary pc. Not the one that's having issues with wondows right now.

 

[Gold Seeker]

Bit of a simple one..but have you tried 'Last known working configuration' in the F8 options?

I think I have tried that, but I will try again.

I could probably fix the issue if I had an XP disk, but the computer came new with XP pre-installed and no XP disk.

It's getting a little late here in the USA and I will have to hit the sack in an hour or so and we have a freeze warning tonight, got the make sure my animals are good for the night, if I have enough time I will try the "Last known working configuration" option and update the results.

 

[GaryO]

your computer is acting up but has not yet failed you, symptoms of a faulty capacitor include:

Difficulty turning on your computer, frequently having to hit reset or restartInstabilities (hangs, seeing the Blue Screen of Death, etc.), especially when the symptoms get progressively more frequent over timeMemory errors, especially ones that get more frequent with timeSpontaneous rebootsIn case of on-board video cards, unstable image in some video modesFailing to complete thePOST(Power-On Self-Test) or rebooting before completionNever starting the POST; fans spin but the system appears deadPower system malfunctions, fluctuations in system voltage, possibly with an increase in CPU temperature as the core voltage risesIn the case of Dell Optiplex GX270s, often a Thermal Event is brandished in white on a very dark computer display when rebooting.

The problem I'm having is that the computer keeps rebooting before it gets completely booted, it will boot and load Windows, but before all of the startup programs gets loaded it will reboot itself, all of this happens over and over until I just power it off manually, it's an old computer but if it would just stay booted for a few hours I could transfer all the contents of the hard drive onto an external hard drive to save all of my files from the last 10 years or so, needless to say I should of been doing backups over the years and I wouldn't be in this situation!

Sounds like the motherboard capicitors , normally when they are on their last legs you will notice various ones starting to bulge at the top.

Welcome to the forum

 

[AtomRat]

Ok mate. Hit they hey and will work on it again tomorrow.

We work work on the process of disabling startup services to make windows run again using MSCONFIG.

I'd consider it a bit minor at this stage GaryO than calling a mobo replacement just yet. Processing the eliminations

 

[AtomRat]

In fact, as GaryO is suggesting. May as well check those capacitors for bulges too just to see how they are going