FIXMBR and FIXBOOT actions?

G4WFT

Hi,

I have a Pentium IV PC with a GB of RAM and two 80 GB SATA Quantum
disks installed, running XP Pro SP2. On Sunday it developed a fault
where it hangs when attempting to boot into XP.

I have booted from the XP CD and gone into the Recovery Console. From
here I ran FIXMBR and then exited the console. Bingo! XP then ran up
perfectly and everything seemed to work fine. Problem solved I
thought. But no, the same fault manifested at the next power-up. In
short, the PC hangs every time it is powered up. Running either
FIXMBR or FIXBOOT from the Recovery Console "fixes" it but the fault
reappears after every power-down.

Anyone any idea what might be going on? I ran the AVG anti-virus scan
routine but this returned no infections.

Any thoughts on this would be very gratefully received!

Regards,

Tim Kearsley

Pegasus \(MVP\)

"G4WFT" <tim.kearsley@milton-keynes.gov.uk> wrote in message
news:1193135932.695937.158230@q5g2000prf.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Pentium IV PC with a GB of RAM and two 80 GB SATA Quantum
> disks installed, running XP Pro SP2. On Sunday it developed a fault
> where it hangs when attempting to boot into XP.
>
> I have booted from the XP CD and gone into the Recovery Console. From
> here I ran FIXMBR and then exited the console. Bingo! XP then ran up
> perfectly and everything seemed to work fine. Problem solved I
> thought. But no, the same fault manifested at the next power-up. In
> short, the PC hangs every time it is powered up. Running either
> FIXMBR or FIXBOOT from the Recovery Console "fixes" it but the fault
> reappears after every power-down.
>
> Anyone any idea what might be going on? I ran the AVG anti-virus scan
> routine but this returned no infections.
>
> Any thoughts on this would be very gratefully received!
>
> Regards,
>
> Tim Kearsley
>

Maybe this is a power-up problem: When you first apply
power, the BIOS is unable to locate the Master Boot Record
but when you reset the PC (instead of powering it down and
up again) it will. I suggest you give it a try.

createwindow@gmail.com

Dear G4WFT,

Try giving the command chkdsk /r in a cmd prompt and reboot. This is
needed anyway based on the number of live power downs you have done.

May help.

73's


CreateWindow
http://mymessagetaker.com
The while-you-were-out message program you have been looking for!

Lil' Dave

"G4WFT" <tim.kearsley@milton-keynes.gov.uk> wrote in message
news:1193135932.695937.158230@q5g2000prf.googlegro ups.com...
> Hi,
>
> I have a Pentium IV PC with a GB of RAM and two 80 GB SATA Quantum
> disks installed, running XP Pro SP2. On Sunday it developed a fault
> where it hangs when attempting to boot into XP.
>
> I have booted from the XP CD and gone into the Recovery Console. From
> here I ran FIXMBR and then exited the console. Bingo! XP then ran up
> perfectly and everything seemed to work fine. Problem solved I
> thought. But no, the same fault manifested at the next power-up. In
> short, the PC hangs every time it is powered up. Running either
> FIXMBR or FIXBOOT from the Recovery Console "fixes" it but the fault
> reappears after every power-down.
>
> Anyone any idea what might be going on? I ran the AVG anti-virus scan
> routine but this returned no infections.
>
> Any thoughts on this would be very gratefully received!
>
> Regards,
>
> Tim Kearsley
>

Sounds kinda like Pegasus is saying.

My opinion similar. The fact you're booting to the XP install CD gives more
time for things to happen in the interim. Your PC may be under-powered to
get full spinup speed of the hard drive(s) during normal conditions where
one is booted from. If so, try disconnected the 2nd SATA drive including
its power cable. Hopefully, you don't have RAID setup regarding both SATA
drives.
Dave

G4WFT

Thanks very much guys for the replies.

One thing I neglected to mention is that when I run the FIXMBR command
from the Recovery Console it tells me that the MBR is non-standard or
missing (I can't remember the exact wording). The odd thing is that
until Sunday afternoon, when the problem first manifested itself, the
PC has been fine. The disk it is booting from is just a few weeks old
and had XP Pro installed from scratch.

Anyway, I will follow up the suggested lines of attack on this and see
what happens.

Thanks again.

Regards,

Tim.