Strange crash in Windows XP

Jasconius

I was on my computer last night, with Firefox open and started getting a USB connect/disconnect sound in quick succession. My Audio program (Realtek HD) started popping up

"A jack has been pluggin in"

"A jack has been unplugged"

Very rapidly. It was choking the computer, then after about 10 plug/unplugs it generated an error "there was a problem installing your hardware, blah blah blah". I quickly unplugged the audio jack then pop, the computer did a soft reboot.

Then it was crashing on Windows startup, it would get to the XP splash screen, and just as it was loading to the interface it would once again reboot itself.

I unplugged all of my USB cords and my audio cord and started up after powering down for 30 seconds. The computer was able to start up into windows. I started plugging in my cords one at a time, starting with the audio one.

It did the same thing, except much slower. After it had seemed to become stable I plugged in my USB mouse (Microsoft Mouse), it chocked on it, after about 10 seconds of choppy use it became stable, and at that instant, another reboot.

Now it's blue-screening when I start up Windows normally, but I can't read the error, because it reboots immediately.

Not sure what's wrong/what I can do, I don't mind re-installing Windows but I NEED to preserve the data on that drive.

Any ideas?

Ruckus

There's a repair option when you boot to the windows xp cd. It reinstalls all the basic OS files but without wiping the harddrive to scratch.

Jasconius

Whereabouts would that option be? I've had to use the CD before to solve yet another problem, but I saw two things:

1) Automated system recovery (is that it? Don't know what it does)

2) (can't remember the name of this option) Put me to command prompt with a limited set of commands such as format, partition, etc.

Ruckus

Jasconius wrote: »

Whereabouts would that option be? I've had to use the CD before to solve yet another problem, but I saw two things:

1) Automated system recovery (is that it? Don't know what it does)

2) (can't remember the name of this option) Put me to command prompt with a limited set of commands such as format, partition, etc.

1) No

2) This is the "Recovery Console". It's not for you.

The option you're looking for is beyond that stage, you continue on as if you were doing a fresh install, except the installer scans the disk and notices that there's already an XP installation. Then it asks you if you'd like to repair that installation or make a new one.

That's the repair I'm talking about. Oh, and after you do that you'll have to reinstall any patches, hotfixes, and/or service packs that aren't included on your Windows XP disk.

Fristle

I wonder if this is a hardware issue? Like maybe a short or something that would make it go crazy thinking devices were attaching/un-attaching. I would try maybe removing the sound card and seeing how that went.

embrik

Boot into safe mode.
Before the XP Splash screen, start tapping F8 like crazy, until you get a boot menu. Choose safe mode. Once you're in, you can go to the system control panel, click the advanced tab. Click the settings button next to "Startup and Recovery". Then uncheck the checkbox for "Automatically Reboot". Then you can reboot, and you should be able to read the blue screen error message.
A repair install of Windows seems a bit drastic at this point. Fristle has a better idea about removing the soundcard.
If it's onboard, try loading up the bios and disabling the onboard sound, if you can.

Jasconius

Too late!

I went home that night, unplugged everything again, as I did before to get it to boot up.

I got into Windows, started plugging devices in one at a time. Poof! Vegetable.

Seems like motherboard failure, it will not post or even output to video at this time.

Ruckus

Look at your motherboard for any capacitors that look like they've blown their caps, are significantly domed, or are actually leaking, most likely near the CPU socket.