Computer Reboots Continuously at Startup

Hi everyone,

My desktop computer is unusable (I'm posting this from my laptop). At startup, it gives an error message that it was not shut down properly. It gives me the option to start normally or start in safe mode. No matter what I select, it just reboots itself. I'm positive the cause isn't a virus. Last night I tried to speed up the computer by disabling non-essential programs from loading at startup. I used a freeware program (that I forget the name of) to guide me. I think something crucial must have been disabled, corrupted or deleted - oops.

I googled my computer problem and found this: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?...;NoWebContent=1 It's been years since I bought my computer, so I have no idea where the XP CD is. The Windows Recovery Console isn't installed. I've tracked down a .zip of Kernel32.dll here: http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dll-files.shtml?kernel32

My question is: now what? Can I unzip the Kernel32.dll file, burn it to a CD and use it to fix my desktop? If so, is there anything special I need to do? I'm a bit confused. I'm hoping this is a problem I can fix myself (I live in a small town and it will be weeks before I have a chance to take it into the city). I'm generally comfortable with troubleshooting and am good at googling for/following instructions, but am I in over my head with this?

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Edited by mlb275, 27 June 2010 - 12:46 PM.

Help is on the way, I've asked one of our more experienced personnel to take a look and assist you .

Just a little patience.

Louis

Thanks so much, Louis, I appreciate it!

Maybe you are getting a Blue Screen of Death (BSOD) when you reboot and since XP automatically reboots when that happens you can't see the helpful (or sometimes not so helpful) message. You can tell XP to not reboot and display the message though.

The next time you see your boot options menu, choose:

Disable automatic restart on system failure

Then you can see the BSOD when it happens again. We need to know what it says.

If that is the case, here is a BSOD example showing information you need to provide:

http://techrepublic.com.com/i/tr/downloads/images/bsod_a.jpg

Send the information pointed to with the red arrows (3-4 lines total). Skip the boring text unless it looks important to you. We know what a BSOD looks like, we need to know the other information that is specific to your BSOD.

If you do need a copy of kernel32.dll, I would not download it - or any XP kinds of files (too risky for malware). There are already copies of these important files on your system in other places.

You do need to get some maneuvering room though... so make yourself a bootable XP Recovery Console CD:

You can create a bootable XP Recovery Console CD when no XP media is available by following the directions in this link:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/t/276527/how-to-create-a-bootable-xp-recovery-console-cd/

Edited by joseibarra, 27 June 2010 - 01:36 PM.

Hi Jose, thanks for your reply.

I tried to follow your directions, but didn't see any option to disable automatic restart on system failure.

However, I noticed that I did have an option to select the Windows Recovery Console - the screen flashed by so fast that I'd missed seeing it before.

Upon selecting it, I was taken to a BSOD. Where the first red arrow is in your example, there was no information. Where the second one was, it said:

Technical Information:
*** STOP: 0x00000024 (0x00190203, 0x84ADC208, 0xc0000102, 0x00000000)

I'm not sure if this provides enough information - there was no text on the screen below it. Is there some way I can find out more?

Thanks again.

Edited by mlb275, 27 June 2010 - 03:42 PM.

Hi, mlb275



Lets give this a try throughout an External Environment, which simply means you will need to burn a boot CD with especial tools. You will also need a flash drive to move information from the troubled computer to a working computer. It is the only way we can see the progress of our actions. Save these instructions in your flash drive as a text file (use notepad) so you can have access to these while in an external environment (PE).

Here is what you need to do.

• Download OTLPEStd.exe to your desktop. NOTE: This file is 93.1MB in size so it may take some time to download.
• Once downloaded, insert a blank CD in your burner and click on OTLPEStd.exe.The executable includes the OTLPE_New_Std.iso and a copy of imgburn, a program to burn .iso files. When executed, the application will extract both and start the burning process automatically.
• Once the CD is burned, boot the Non working computer using the boot CD you just created.
• In order to do so, the computer must be set to boot from the CD first
  Note : For information click here
  
• Your system should now display a REATOGO-X-PE desktop.
• Double-click on the OTLPE icon.
• When asked "Do you wish to load the remote registry", select Yes
• When asked "Do you wish to load remote user profile(s) for scanning", select Yes
• Ensure the box "Automatically Load All Remaining Users" is checked and press OK
• OTL should now start. Change the following settings
  • Change Drivers to All
  • Change Standard Registry to All
  • Under the Custom Scan box paste this in
    

    
    /md5start
    UXTHEME.DLL
    eventlog.dll
    scecli.dll
    netlogon.dll
    cngaudit.dll
    sceclt.dll
    ntelogon.dll
    logevent.dll
    iaStor.sys
    nvstor.sys
    atapi.sys
    IdeChnDr.sys
    viasraid.sys
    AGP440.sys
    vaxscsi.sys
    nvatabus.sys
    viamraid.sys
    nvata.sys
    nvgts.sys
    iastorv.sys
    ViPrt.sys
    eNetHook.dll
    ahcix86.sys
    KR10N.sys
    nvstor32.sys
    ahcix86s.sys
    nvrd32.sys
    userinit.exe
    explorer.exe
    ntoskrnl.exe
    /md5stop
    %SYSTEMDRIVE%\*.*
    %systemroot%\*. /mp /s
    %systemroot%\System32\config\*.sav
    

• Press Run Scan to start the scan.
• When finished, the file will be saved in drive C:\OTL.txt
• Copy this file to your USB drive.
• Please post the contents of the C:\OTL.txt file in your reply.

Edited by JSntgRvr, 27 June 2010 - 07:52 PM.

Hi JSntgRvr,

I don't have a flash drive. I'll see if I can buy one this afternoon, but it may be a while before I can do what you've suggested and get back to you. Thanks.

Ok!

I really appreciate all the assistance, but seem to be having terrible computer luck today. I downloaded OTLPEStd.exe and have spent about 2 hours trying to burn it to a CD. Every time, it gets to 51% and then there's an error. I haven't burned a CD in years, but can't recall ever having a problem in the past. Frustrated is an understatement right now! Is there anything else I can do? I'm about ready to give up.

Perhaps this will be easier:

1. Please download BurnAtOnce and save it to your desktop.
2. Install it by double-clicking on the file bao0995.exe that you downloaded.
3. Click Next, accept the license agreement, and click Next until the button says "Install". Click "Install" to finish.
4. Put a blank CD in your computer’s burner.
5. Right-click on the file OTLPE_New_Std.iso, and select "burnatonce" from the menu.
6. Confirm that the box under the menu at the top says "OTLPE_New_Std.iso".
7. Click the "Write" button.
8. When the disk finishes, eject the CD.

That worked and I was able to burn the CD. Now I've run into another snag:

I followed your instructions in post #6 up until "Double-click on the OTLPE icon."

When I did that, a box came up that said "Browse for Folder - Choose Windows Directory."

I tried to expand Drive C to look for Windows, but wasn't able to.

I hit Windows + E on the keyboard to search for the folder. I got this message: "C is not accessible. The file or directory is corrupted & unreadable."

Edited by mlb275, 27 June 2010 - 08:34 PM.

If it's relevant, last night before my computer went wonky, I used Windows Live OneCare safety scanner. It didn't find any viruses, but it found several hundred useless files (I forget the exact terminology) that it deleted. I think it also did some formatting/defragmentization...? I (stupidly) blindly went along with whatever it suggested despite not really understanding it. I figured it couldn't hurt. Ha!

Well, chances are there are damaged sectors and clusters in the hard drive, or a corrupted MBR (Master Boot Record)

Lets try to run other utilities.

You will need to download and burn Hiren's Boot CD from the following link:

http://www.hirensbootcd.net/download.html

Select the HTTP Mirror



Extract the file and Burn the image to a CD and start the computer with Hiren's CD.

Select Dos Boot CD. At the menu select #9, Next, at the next window #4, NTFS Ext 2FS, Ext 3FS (FileSystems) Tools, then #5, NTFS Dos Pro. 5.0.

Follow the prompts to run CHKDSK and mount NTFSPRO.

Restart the computer to the OTLPE CD once CHKDSK finishes and try again.

Edited by JSntgRvr, 27 June 2010 - 10:12 PM.

My OTL log:

<edited>

Edited by mlb275, 28 June 2010 - 10:30 PM.

Are you still unable to boot in Normal Mode? All seems clear in that log. The HOSTS file is blocking those sites. It is part of the MVPs HOSTS file.