Intermittent Boot Problem - Win XP Pro

Hi Guys,

Looking for some advice for this irritating, but not (yet) fatal problem.

New machine - 2000XP cpu, 256 mb ddr, 60gb hdd, Geforce 4 graphics, running Windows XP Pro with Service Pack 1.

I built the computer for a friend and it has been runing fine for about three weeks booting first time, every time from the hard drive. Suddenly during the last few days, it started to give the error message "Invalid system disk, replace disk and press enter"... on booting. Turning the computer off and restarting would sometimes cause it to boot straight through or sometimes get the same message for up to 12 times before booting through to Windows.

The boot sequence in the BIOS was set as:
1. Hdd 0
2. Floppy
3. CD rom

It was suggested that the cause could be a CD left in the drive after shutdown and the computer was looking to boot from that despite the boot sequence settings. I had this checked and yes, he has a habit of leaving music CDs in the drive. Removing these on startup seemed to resolve the problem...for a couple of starts only and then it was back to the intermittent problem.

I got him to change the boot sequence to:
1. Hdd 0
2. Disabled
3. Disabled
but this has not cured it. On occasions it boots through first time and runs smoothly, then without warning it goes back to this problem and can take up to 12 attempts before it boots. Once in Windows, the computer runs perfectly.

I don't know if there is any other BIOS setting which might affect this or whether it could be a software issue. (I don't know what other software has been loaded recently). It is just strange that the system booted and ran without any problems from new for a few weeks before this problem started. There have been no hardware changes since building the system.

Any suggestions or advice would be appreciated. I can get things checked with my friend and then get back to you with the results.

Thanks

 

See if the motherboard has a clear CMOS jumper. if it does then clear the CMOS and see if that works any better.