HP Pavilion a6120n reboot loop

[roont]

I have an HP Pavilion desktop thats stuck in a reboot loop. When it gets to the splash screen it will reboot. Originally it started with getting a windows stop message that was 0x0000007b (inaccessable boot device). I was unable to get into safe mode either. I booted from XP CD and tried to run chkdsk, I had originally wanted to use the /f /r however the /f option was not available from that cd. I then pulled the hard drive out and connected it to another PC via USB case so that I could run the chkdsk with the fix option as well as run a virus scan. which btw came up clean.

now Ive seen these reboot loops before and from my experince the 7b STOP message is easily fixed by a chkdsk and then fixmbr and then fixboot.

However this one is still rebooting on me. I've tried looking up HP support but was unable to find anything other then what I had tried already.

I unfortunatly dont have the exact specs with me but I will be able to get them shortly.

Thanks TR if anyone is able to offer suggestions it woulod be greatly appreciated.

[roont]

another thing I found very strange was that it was getting stuck in the reboot loop when booting from CD as well?? I've personally never seen that happen and have a suspition it may have something to do with it, but i dont know what.

If I change the sata controller mode in the BIOS, there are 3 options. RAID, IDE and AHCI,

I can only get it to boot from CD when set to IDE, despite the fact that the CD is plugged in with SATA.

[riviera74]

Two things: have you tried to run a system restore and/or fix MBR? If so, you may have to reinstall XP. If that fails, nuke and pave; if that fails replace the HDD.

[roont]

did a fixmbr and fixboot,

the strange thing is that its happening when its booting from CD too? wouldnt that mean it might not be the hard drive?

[riviera74]

Does BIOS even SEE the HDD? You may have to look inside the PC to look for loose cables and the like.

[roont]

Hey, thanks for the suggestions.

yes, the BIOS sees the hard drive OK. I had opened up the case and checked all the connections when I pulled the hard drive out to connect to a USB case so I could run chkdsk. Im starting to think theres nothing wrong with the hard drive at all. Is there any other components that could cause a reboot loop like that?

Im headed back there tonight, what I want to try is to take the drive out completely. Turn it on, boot from CD and see if it still keeps rebooting on me. that would mean that there is something else wrong entirely.

Overheating maybe? it was a LITTLE dusty, but not overly so. think i should bother disconnecting the heatsink/fan/cpu and trying to reseat those? with new thermal paste of course.

[riviera74]

This may seem weird, but what about your power supply? I have heard cases where weird-looking hardware issues are because of cheap and/or crappy power supplies.

[Rakhmaninov3]

nuke and pave

Hah I'm gonna remember that one

[roont]

ok. so i pulled out the hard drive and tried to boot from cd, and i still get the 0000007b error. \\very strange. so im thinking its not the hard drive at all.

[roont]

well.. i ran a windows repair, and all seems well again. computer was able to boot without any problems.

thanks again for all your help TR!