Indefinite reboot cycle

[ktalai]

This happened after a power failure. The machine makes it past the Window XP Pro splash screen, the screen goes blank for about 5 seconds, it flashes some kind of message for a fraction of a second on a blue screen with yellow letters and goes back to reboot.

I've done fixboot and chkdsk from the recovery console. I believe one or more files that Windows relies on to bring up the logon screen are corrupted. I have access to the I386 directory but don't have an XP installation CD, thanks to HP and their mis-representation of the machine coming with XP pro (only installed on the hard drive).

Does anyone know what files are involved in bringing up the initial logon screen? I'm hoping to be able to just copy and expand the corrupted files from the I386 directory while keeping the drive itself intact.

BTW, I have kept up with all the updates and service releases. Any help regarding possible corrupted files or a way to turn off auto reboot from the recovery console (so that I could see the error message) would be much appreciated.


Thanks,
Kamran

[ktalai]

I forgot to mention that all methods of login in the f8 menu cause the same reboot condition so the problem is not isolated to just graphical login. When I try the safe mode command prompt login a list of files are displayed on the screen. I wonder if those are the files the OS is reading. If so the last file listed may be the culprit. Anyone knows if that is a reasonable assumption?

Thanks,
Kamran

[SH**]

I had the same thing happen to me. I had a bunch of programs running, and then had to cold power-off. Now I am stuck in a reboot cycle the same as what you described, except I don't know what to do at all. I wish I could help, just as much as I would love help.

[rajeevtuteja@ho]

while booting press f8 to got to options select autoreboot on error off when you see the blue screen it wont rebbot see the error msg and and the name of the culprit file if any given. boot from cd go to the recovery console and delete that file . alternatively boot into safe mode and uninstall the latest one to programs you installed. reboot