My Computer just keeps on looping
Hi Hughus,
Your problem is definitely related to some damaged or corrupted windows boot files. There are some ways to solve this problem, but first I would recommend you backing up your system before so you can protect your files.
1) If you have PC hardware knowledge, open up the computer case and unplug the hard drive, then plug it in another computer as slave, and back up your data to your preferred option (DVD, another Hard drive, USB memory, etc.). I can guide you through this, just let me know.
2) Burn an Ubuntu live CD, Google “Ubuntu live CD download” click on the first link and download it. Insert it in your CD-ROM, restart the computer, and the computer should boot to the CD menu. Click on (Try Ubuntu without any change to your computer”) and it will boot properly in a way that won’t affect your files. Once on the main desktop screen (looks familiar to windows desktop), choose “places” and then “computer” in the menu. Now, you should see all your computer drives, just select the one containing your windows files and back it up. You can search in Google “Ubuntu live CD for dead windows” and click on the first link. If some error appears or you can contact me.
Now that you have your back up, let’s do the real job.
If you have a “Windows XP Recovery CD” that should have been included when you purchased the computer. Grab it, and put it on the CD-ROM. And Original or unmodified Windows XP CD also works.
1) Restart the computer, and wait for the CD to boot (At some point, it might ask you to press a key to boot from the CD) press any, and it should boot to a blue Screen with White letters containing the following:
-To setup Windows XP now, press ENTER. (See solution 2 below)
-Repairing a Windows XP installation using Recovery Console, press R. (See solution 3 below)
-To quit press F3.
PD: You’ll be referred to this menu in some cases below.
2) Press Enter. In the next screen press F8. Now you will see your windows installation path Highlighted, press R to start the repair process. Now it will begin the process, just be patient as it would take a couple minutes to accomplish the task. The computer will restart and everything should be working fine.
3) If by any reason, the computer doesn’t start properly after doing the previous steps, assuming you have inserted the CD again and have reached to the page with the menu described above; press R to enter in DOS mode.
A blank screen with white letters will appear. It will ask which windows installation you like to log on, press 1. Then it will ask you for the administrator pass, write it if you had one and press ENTER, if you don’t know about any admin password, just press ENTER. Now you will see something like “C:windows>”, write “fixboot” and press enter. It will ask you if sure to write a new boot sector, write “y” and press ENTER. After a successful message, write “fixmbr” and press ENTER, and again it will ask you if you are sure…, write “y” and press ENTER. After a successful message, write “exit” and press enter to reboot your system and it should boot properly.
4) If none of the above method worked, then your hard drive needs to be formatted as the window is really damaged. To do this, just restart your computer until you see the menu described before.
Press ENTER, then in the following screen press “esc”. Another screen will show you your partitions, by default, the window is installed in the “C:” partition. Select this partition if there are more listed and press ENTER. A new screen will appear asking for the type of format that we will do, select NTFS (fast) and press ENTER. The computer will be formatted and then rebooted. After this, as the CD will try to boot again, asking you to press any key to boot from CD, DON’T press any key so Windows installation will begin by itself. Better to have the windows serial key on hand because it should ask you for it at some point. After the installation is complete you will have a fresh install so now you restore or copy back all your files that you backed up.
I’d recommend keeping your antivirus update because there are some viruses that can damage your system files. Another recommendation could be preventing your computer for suddenly shut down, always try to turn off your computer by clicking, “start” and “shutdown”, this will prevent further damaged.
It's well known that installing unknown apps from the internet or devices with the wrong drivers, can also cause malfunctions in your computer.
E. Sanchez
