On Thu, 03 Jul 2003 01:50:37 +0000, Michael Paul wrote:

snip
This time though, during the re-boot process, the system would get
partway through the scandisk and it would crash again thus creating a
seemingly endless cycle of boot - start recovery - crash - reboot -
start recovery - crash - etc. etc. etc.

So, what coudl be the cause?



Seems like you have already have lots of good advice from the ng...

To me, it sounds like a drive failure. If you have recently installed a
new CDRW, check that all the connections from your hard drives and other
ide devices to the ide controller are firmly in place (the wide ribbon
cables). Sometimes if one of these connections is loose, it can cause
similar symptoms. Also check the power cables are all well connected.

If everything is firmly connected and the problem persists, then try
unplugging everything except the hd that XP is installed on. Try booting
in safe mode and running a thorough scandisk check on it... if that fails,
the drive is probably toast. If it succeeds, then your hd is probably OK
and it's one of the other devices that is the problem. Both the BIOS and
XP are likely to complain about missing devices during start-up; just tell
them to shut up and get on with it.

If your primary hd is OK, reconnect the remaining drives, one by one. Each
time you connect one, try booting / using the system for a while. When it
starts crashing again, you will know which device it is that is causing
the errors.

Since you have been inside the case recently, it's also worth checking
that you have not knocked any of the pci cards or memory out of place by
accident. Rare but possible.

Good luck,

Sam.