[Enlu]

Ok, 2 days ago something weird happened. not 1 but 3 of my PC's suddenly will not get past the basic window's logo start up. I turn them on, then immediately after the window's logo pops up the computer suddenly crashes and restarts.


It also does this in Safe Mode, Safe Mode with Networking, Safe Mode Command line, Last Known configuration, ETC.


all my computers are always on UPS powersupplies. But as a troubleshooting I pulled out an old tower of mine and hooked it up. When I mothballed it it was working fine. However it also has the exact same problem. None of the mainboard items appear to be damaged, the bios appears fine. But I can not get Windows to get past the intro logo on any PC in my house.

[LincolnSpector]

That's weird! Okay, here are a few experiments you might try:

# Boot into another environment from a CD or flash drive. Puppy Linux is an especially easy-to-set-up Linux-on-a-CD program.
# Unplug the network and try booting.
# Take one of your PCs to another location and try booting it there.
# I'm tempted to suggest borrowing a friend's computer and seeing if that works, but as your friends might be wise to refuse to help, that might not be a workable idea.

Let us know the results.





Lincoln

[coastie65]

Hi enlu, Welcome to the forum. The one you pulled out of mothballs, did you plug that into the UPS? If so, have you tried to plug into the wall socket? If not, try plugging the PC into into the wall socket and see if will boot. If it does, than I suspect a problem with your UPS. coastie65

[mphenterprises]

Enlu said:

all my computers are always on UPS powersupplies.

Hi Enlu and welcome to PCWorld :-)




Okay, I am not sure if your situation is as cut & dry as this; however, let's look at your situation like this:

- All three computers are connected to an UPS (Uninterruptable Power Supply)

- All three computers will not get past the Windows logon screen


Assumption:

The likelihood of all three computers failing simultaneously is slim to none at best. Therefore, your UPS may be causing this situation. As Coastie suggested, connect each computer temporarily directly to a wall outlet. If each computer boots normally, you have found your issue. The very worst case scenario is that the UPS failed and each computer has suffered an Operating System failure. This is so unlikely that I could barely complete the previous sentence. Try the test and post your results.

[Enlu]

Guess I should've meantioned this first.


3 different UPS powersupplies. After the first one went bad I switched power supplies. After which I attempted the Window's repair CD to start up. After which I replaced it's internal power supply. After which i switched out hard drives. After which I switched out processors and ram. After which I did a visual inspection of the mainboard for damage points or otherwise. After which I then pulled another computer out.


The first two computers were working fine earlier in the day. Was running a game on the laptop fine, and the other one was running Java.


On all three computeres I can access the Bios fine and the boot directory fine. it's just at the Window's initial logo that the whole system crashes and goes into a restart loop indefinately. Additionally, all are XP pro computers that are acting up. My Window's 98, ME, Mac OS X 10.4.9, Mac OS X 10.5 and even my oldest Window's 95 computers are acting normally.


I've never seen this problem before personally. Not even when I was tech support for my base in the military.

[mphenterprises]

Okay, that makes more sense. Yes, this is definitely more information than initially provided. It appears that this situation is much bigger than your Discussion title first indicated. I have changed your Discussion title to give a clearer indication of your question. For future reference, please be as descriptive as possible in both the heading of your Discussion as well as the post itself.

If I counted correctly, you have eight (8) computers and three (3) of them fail to boot successfully, correct? I gather that you do not have them all networked, do you? If you do, try to remove the three computers in question from the network. If you do not, well, you are right, I have never seen a situation where a third of a collection of independent computers fail within a short period of each other.

[smax013]

Enlu said:

Guess I should've meantioned this first.

3 different UPS powersupplies. After the first one went bad I switched power supplies. After which I attempted the Window's repair CD to start up. After which I replaced it's internal power supply. After which i switched out hard drives. After which I switched out processors and ram. After which I did a visual inspection of the mainboard for damage points or otherwise. After which I then pulled another computer out.


The first two computers were working fine earlier in the day. Was running a game on the laptop fine, and the other one was running Java.


On all three computeres I can access the Bios fine and the boot directory fine. it's just at the Window's initial logo that the whole system crashes and goes into a restart loop indefinately. Additionally, all are XP pro computers that are acting up. My Window's 98, ME, Mac OS X 10.4.9, Mac OS X 10.5 and even my oldest Window's 95 computers are acting normally.


I've never seen this problem before personally. Not even when I was tech support for my base in the military.

Just to make sure that I got it correct, you have tried booting to a Windoze install CD correct? If not for that, then I might suspect some sort of malware that maybe completely crippled Windoze XP. But, if it won't boot from a Windoze install CD, then it would have to be some SERIOUS malware that can write to the BIOS/firmware of the computer. Have you tried Lincoln's suggestion of booting from some Linux CD or maybe an old DOS disk or older Windoze install CD.