Windows XP Setup/Upgrade loops endlessly

message from Bob on 01 Jun 2004

I have one system with Windows XP Home on it. It started acting flaky so I
decided to run the Upgrade/Repair from the Windows CD. Now the system goes
from the Setup screen in Windows saying, "Setup is being
restarted............." then it reboots over and over. I cannot stop it.
When I rune the machine off and back on it starts the endless loop over
again. Is there anyway to stop this? The machine has the Windows Recovery
Console installed on it but I don't know much about it. Thanks for any
help. This is my wife's machine and she is going to start hunting for
sharp objects soon.

=?Utf-8?B?bGF2YW4=?= replied to Bob on 1 Jun 2004

try this is, boot from the Windows CDROM or boot disks. Setup will copy files to your hard drive and you will then be presented with an option to press "R" to repair the installation using the recovery console or install Windows. Select the option to install Windows. When you get to the license agreement, click "agree". You will then find yourself at a screen that has another repair option if you press "R".

Windows then copy files over and then reboot. When the system reboots,at this point make sure you don't have the cd or bootable floppy i nthe drives. setup will then load the GUI portion of setup. this should hopefully then install over your previous installation,
let me know how it goes

Bob replied to =?Utf-8?B?bGF2YW4=?= on 01 Jun 2004

Ok, it looked like that was going to work. The screen said it was reading
files and preparing to install. This went on until the progress bar got to
100 percent then it rebooted. Got the CD out but now it is back into the
endless loop. I can't even get back to the prompt to install Windows. It
just keeps doing what I described in my original posting. Thought we had
it there for a minute.

Bob replied to Bob on 01 Jun 2004

Just to add a note. I can boot the machine using a Knoppix CD and it seems
to run fine. This indicates to me that it is not a hardware problem as I
first suspected. I am going to leave Knoppix running for a while to make
sure it is stable.

=?Utf-8?B?bGF2YW4=?= replied to Bob on 3 Jun 2004

hi bob,

try this, can't gurantee it will work but it looks like where the problem lies

Boot with XP CD.
Press R to load the Recovery Console.
Type bootcfg.
This should fix any boot.ini errors causing setup not to see the XP OS install.

let me know what happens

Bob replied to =?Utf-8?B?bGF2YW4=?= on 05 Jun 2004

Thanks. I will try that.

Bob replied to Bob on 05 Jun 2004

Ok. Pulled the machine out of the closet and plugged it all back in. It
now is so locked into the setup loop that I cannot even break it out to
get to the recovery module or safe mode. I decided to try running my
Live Linux Knoppix CD, boots the Linux OS from a CD, and I could get the
machine to boot into Linux and run. Interestingly though, it only runs
for a few minutes. I am running it not hooked up to my network. Broght
up the KDE X-Windows desktop and opened a game. After playing it for
just a minute or two the whole machine froze. I am really beginning to
suspect a major hardware problem here. Could be power supply or more
likely a failing motherboard. It may be time to just part this machine
out. It is a only a 500 hhz processor that served us for years so this
may be the end of its life cycle. It ran Windows XP for at least a year
with no gliches until now. I don't think it is worth pursuing any
longer. My wife seems to be happy running my laptop with an external
keyboard and external monitor. The laptop is a 2.3 ghz processor so it
is many times faster thant the old desktop. Thank you for all of your
help and advice but I am giving up on this old machine. I think it is
time to unplug the life support systems and say goodbye.

Bob replied to =?Utf-8?B?bGF2YW4=?= on 01 Jun 2004

Ok, thanks. I will try that.

Archived message: Windows XP Setup/Upgrade loops endlessly (Microsoft Windows XP)