Topic: Computer won't boot

[Canuck]

My brother's computer won't boot up. He was having problems attaching an image to an email, so he decided to reboot and when he did it wouldnt boot into windows.

It comes to a screen with Safe Mode, Safe mode with Network capabilites, restart using last known working configuration etc.. when you select any of them it starts to load into windows and the computer restarts prompting you with those messages again. (It also spits about a bunch of messages something along the lines of multi disk (0).../Drivers/filename)

Weird thing is, I tried another hard drive, and it seemed to be doing the same thing! What could be the cause of this? Why would I get the same errors with a different hard drive?

What can I do to figure out what is going on?

Suggestions?

Thanks

[ober]

Probably not the HD.  Could be RAM, motherboard, even PSU.  Only thing I can suggest is to start swapping out hardware with spares.

[KnuckleBuckett]

How about resetting the mobo and replacing the battery?

I doubt it is memory.

[KnuckleBuckett]

what're batteries for?

They keep your mobo settings (time, HDD count etc) from being lost during a power down.

[Canuck]

Update...

Tried a CMOS battery, didnt work.

I took out one piece of RAM, and it booted up properly. I put the second piece of RAM in to see if I would get the error, but it booted up properly again. I also switched the slots the were originally in.

Could it be that they just became unset somehow? Wouldnt there have been a beep code?

Thanks

//Edit:

I installed the demo of http://www.ntfs.com/boot-disk.htm
It booted off the cd, copied some files over, and didnt allow me to do anything else since the demo ran out. Maybe it installed some windows files that were corrupt, so moving the ram was just a coincidence?

[ober]

Who knows... sounds like a fluke.

[KnuckleBuckett]

Dirty memory connections.  Use a little isopropyl on the connection pads if it happens again.