MAJOR XP problems -- PLEASE READ THIS AND HELP ME!

[waharris007]

I built a new system in December and did a clean install of my XP home onto a new hard drive. When I installed it, I activated the new install online and it has never given me any problems. But, last night, during bootup, I got a message that said I needed to activate xp within three days or it would not work. So, I called the number, told the lady it was a reinstall on a clean hdd, and she gave me the new activation code. It worked fine last night.

NOW, XP won't boot at all. I turn the power on, the PC goes through startup and memory count, and then goes to the XP splash page. I get the moving green bar for a couple of minutes, then the system shuts off and reboots itself. Is this what happens when XP thinks it doesn't have a good activation? If so, how do I fix it? I can't find the activation phone number anywhere, and it costs $250 to call MS for anything without the special activation number.

My new computer is essentially a paperweight right now. Please help me. I really have no ideas here.

 

[toant103]

trying to go to safe mode and use system restore.

 

[waharris007]

I've tried all that. I can't boot up in standard, safe mode, last good config, or any other option. With every one, it reboots during windows start up. Thanks, though...

 

[toant103]

how about boot into dos and flash the old bios? Maybe play around with the bios

 

[bsobel]

Is this what happens when XP thinks it doesn't have a good activation?

No. Sounds like you have some issue (hardware or software) that is corrupting the system. The fact that you needed to reactivate indicatest that something changed, and those changes can well be file system or registry corruption. Check your overclocking (if you are), memory, drive cables, virus scan, etc.

$250 to call MS

I'm not sure where you got that, but it's not accurate. Yes they charge for support, but the $250 is not how much.

Bill

 

[waharris007]

I did add more memory last week, but have taken it out as it started acting buggy. Could that be causing this? I'm greatly tempted to just reinstall xp on a clean drive. Is this advisable?

If the memory did do something quirky, how can I find out and/or fix it??

 

[igiveup]

Well, standard troubleshooting procedures are to pull all of the PCI cards out of the system that are not required to run. Leave your vid card, 1 stick of ram (the one that you think is probably in the best shape) and one hard drive and cdrom. Your system can also act buggy if your Power Supply is flaky. Make sure you unplug all other hard drives and cdroms beside the two I just mentioned so you aren't drawing more power than necessary.

If you get it to boot then try adding a card in one at a time and seeing if it fails. Be sure to remove the card before trying another. Try all of them one at a time then add them back in and leave them in. If it fails when you get them all in I would consider the power supply suspect.

From what I remember hearing, an expired XP activation will tell you that you need to activate on the internet, after allowing you to boot into teh startup screen, but before allowing you to log in. I personally haven't had this happen, read it in an article.

 

[waharris007]

Good info. I'll try all that. Actually, I was thinking about the PS since it was actually cutting power and then rebooting before windows loads.

Thanks...

 

[igiveup]

Strangles member for leaving out information......

 

[igiveup]

You could also get corrupted files from losing power. Whether or not that would affect your registration in any way, who knows.

 

[El Norm]

This may seem simple and obvious but i just switched a hard drive and my bios hard drive setting was set to manual, so after everything to my new HD and switched the new HD to the primary boot drive, my system would boot all the way up until the screen that says "welcome" and the just sit there stuck. Doubt that is going to help but my only other suggestion is reinstall... good luck!

 

[Joemonkey]

have you tried booting up to the XP cd and doing a repair?

 

[skyking]

The looping reboot is a symptom of bad ram or controller. This is not the only thing that will do that, but I would run memtest86 as a first alternative. If it boots into memtest and runs, that is a start. If it shows many errors right away, change out the ram. If it persists, change out the proc with a friend. I have seen a flakey proc do that too. Still gives errors, with nothing but a vidcard, keyboard, floppy connected? Down to either PS or motherboard.