Problems on startup

[Excessium]

When starting up my computer it freezes/restarts. I use Windows XP and I don't know what is going on. When I start up my computer it goes through all its normal functions through the start up phase. It loads my virus protection and all but a few seconds after it loads all of them up the computer will freeze and I see a red rectangle in the top left of my screen. My computer then restarts and it goes through this over and over until I turn off my computer. Any clue whats up?

 

[raybay]

Likely a bad hard drive, or failed memory module.
Tell us more about brand, model, and age of computer, hard drive configuration, and memory configuration

 

[Excessium]

Likely a bad hard drive, or failed memory module.
Tell us more about brand, model, and age of computer, hard drive configuration, and memory configuration

Well I built the computer in January of this year so I can't tell you the model of the computer but the hard drive was made by Samsung and it model number is HD5021J if that helps at all. It is a 500GB hard drive with a Sata setup. As far as memory goes I have two gigs of RaM. Also about a month earlier I was having a problem where my computer would freeze about ever 30 seconds for 2 seconds and I would hear a loud noise in my earphones. I talked to someone about it and they said it might be a hard drive problem, so I turned my computer off just in case it was a overheating problem and it fixed it. Hope this will help diagnose my problem. If you have any more questions feel free to ask and thank you for your help so far.

 

[LookinAround]

First order of business...
1) have you tried starting in Safe Mode? tell us if it hangs in safe mode or not
2) Regardless of 1) above you should run chkdsk /r (click here

 

[Excessium]

It works in Safe Mode and I ran chkdsk twice with both of its options either for your computer to fix your problems or to scan and recover them. When I told it to fix my problems it went all the way through and my computer restarted only to have the same problem again. Then with the second option of to scan and recover what it could it finishes and still does not work. I will run it many more times just to make sure.

 

[LookinAround]

Windows runs minimal software and drivers in Safe Mode. Since you can boot safe mode (not normal mode) it seems something in your normal startups (whether a program or a driver) is likely the source of the problem.

Chkdsk repairs hard drive file corruption but since it didn't work the first time, that's not likely the source of your problem (i.e. no need to continu re-running it)

You might see this link and try:
> Booting into Last Know Good Configuration OR
> Trying to do a System Restore to see if a saved restore point might give you back a working system

Another thought of something to try: See this link to use msconfig tool. Use it to limit what starts up in Normal Mode boot up. (you can use it to allow all Windows stuff to start but limit all your application program startups.)

Turn off all your application stuff other then your antivirus. See if you can get Normal Mode to boot that way. Then it's trial and error to find what's starting that;s causing the hang

BUT EXTRA WORD OF ADVICE: If you haven't done so yet, make sure all your personal files and folders are backed up! To guard against worst case...

 

[Excessium]

YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR HELP!!! If I or my friends need help I know where to go. I had to restore to last Wednesday to fix it and on the day my computer messed up a driver was downloaded..