Every time I turn my computer on it will go into a restart loop: on,off,on,off etc.
Like a continuous restart mechanism.

On normal bootup I reach the desktop to be met with error messages telling me my
System has recovered from a serious error. I click "DOnt send" and another pops up.
After about 10-15 seconds on the desktop it will go into the restart loop. EVen if
I click "dont send" constantly for all the popping up error messages the looping
Restart will occur. If I sit there and do nothing the restart loop occurs.
WHen I use "boot to known working configuration" the looping restart occurs.
When I use "disable restart on system failure" the looping restart occurs.
I can't boot into safe mode as the restart loop will occur.

That above is my current position with my computer.

Below is what happened up to this point.

At first I rarely reached the desktop. The restart loop started at the windows
Xp welcome screen.
I couldn't use safe mode or "disable restart on system failure".
I did however try "boot to a known working configuration" which got me to the desktop
With exactly the same error messages as now but with NO looping restart. I uninstalled two programs I thought were the problem and rebooted. I reached the desktop with the same error messages.
So I then did a system restore to a previous point and now I'm in the situation with the looping restart even when I use "boot to known working configuration" i.e. the situation described at the top.

Before the problem

I received some stuff for christmas which I'm going to describe in order of installation just in case they might give some clue to what's happened.

1st - external hard drive. Driver automatically installed.
2nd - wireless mouse. Driver installed automatically (if there was one?)
3rd - I then installed a bundled software program for added features with the mouse which I uninstalled as it was pointless.
4th - webcam software, followed by driver. ** this is where I think a problem may lie** (detail covered later)
5th - external dvd. Driver automatically installed.
6th - Two bundled programs with external dvd installed: cineplayer 2.2, easy media creator 7. ** this is the second possibility of where I think a problem may lie** (detail covered later)

Webcam details

I had some problem with this device. I put in the cd, insalled the software fine. System rebooted. Screen comes up: insert webcam into usb port. So I do. However windows automatically recognises the new hardware. Meanwhile, the original webcam screen, promting insertion of the webcam does not change at all. So I decide to go through the windows screens. But it didn't work that way. I retried several times to no avail. I tried several reinstalls, reading directly from the disk, trying to install an appropriate windows driver from a list which didn't actually go through to install. There was also an option on the cd of "Just installing drivers". It copied the files over, restarted brought up the same prompt screen and then of course the windows hardware tool automatically popped up on insertion of the webcam.
In the end I downloaded the driver installation pack from the internt. This went through the reboot process as the cd did, only this time, on inserting my webcam the windows hardware tool did not popup allowing the webcam to be properly installed.
I turned my PC off and turned it on in the morning with no reboot loop. I went onto the setup of the external dvd device.

External DVD details

Before the installation of this device I had already turned on my PC with NO looping restart. SO in theory anything done previously has not caused the problem. So perhaps the driver for the dvd is conflicting with something? Perhaps the two programs then ninstalled are the problem: Roxio Cineplayer 2.2 and Roxio easy media creator 7. I already have roxio easy media creator installed, perhaps the programs conflict? These were the two programs I uninstalled before the system restore.

Specs

Dell DImension 2400 - 512 RAM, 40GB HD, 3 GHZ pentium3
WIn XP


I hope I provided enough information
Thanks for any help
makihara

Can you get into Safe Mode, if so then remove everything that was installed in step 6.
I have had problems similar to this after installing Roxio, the way I found to get round it was to make sure Windows is FULLY patched before I installed it. This resolves the problem.

Hope this helps

Try what Curlyben mentioned: during bootup, after it shows you the amount of RAM but before Windows loads press F8. At first you can try "Last Kniown Good Configuration". If that does not work then you can try Safe Mode and uninstall any programs that you think may be causing the problem. If that does not do the trick (boots normally) then try going into Safe Mode and doing a System Restore do a point when the computer was running well. More about that here.

The worst case scenario is that you have a corrupted Registry. You would then have to put that hard drive as a slave in a second computer to save any data then format and re-install Windows.

Yeah I've already tried all that and nothing works.

So I thought I'd try a system repair, booting from the windows xp disc.

After about 20 tries the computer booted from the disc.. Only for windows setup to halt after finding a corrupted file "hidusb.sys".

So I tried again and I got to the option menu this time. I pressed enter, F8 for the licencse agrteement and then "r" for repair.

A progress bar came up saying my hard drive would be checked. This would apparently take a few minutes depending on hard drive size. It's now been 20 minutes and the things still on 0%.

Should I trun off and try again or leave it?
Has anyone heard of something like this before?

Makihara

Sounds to me that you hard drive is on its way out.
If its having problems even running simple windows commands then your pretty much stuffed.
Time for a new hard drive :(
Sorry

If this was my system I would be putting that hard drive in another computer and save any data ASAP before you lose the drive.

I already have my data backed up on my external hard drive.

What would I gain from hooking my hd into another computer?

The only thing I would lose right now would be my Outlook emails and my internet favourites and of course my general settings of programs.

I have like documents, images, programs all backed up.


My oringinal 80 GB dell hard drive completely went in the spring. So I bought this one (40GB) which is still under warranty.

I wonder why the hard drive has gone again? Any ideas?

makihara

If you already have everything backed up the there is no problem here.
You posted that it is still under warranty, time to make a claim then ;)

There are a number of things that can cause a hard drive to go bad, one of the main ones that might of affected you is a power surge when plugging in your external devices. This can cause data corruption and the hard drive arms to physically crash into the drive platters, thus killing your drive.