Booting anything from cd or usb flash shuts machine down

My Intel Core 2 Desktop runs fine with WinXPSP3. The problem that has appeared suddenly is that when I try to boot anything from either the internal CD/DVD, External DVD or a variety of different USB flash drives 1-2gig the machine shuts down while booting. I have tried BartPE UBCD4W, @Active, Paragon boot disks and they all get to a certain point in the boot, and then the machine just shuts off. The boot disks work fine on other machines. Bios shows all boot options ok, and boot screen selection works too. Splash screen appear ok but almost instant shutdown after that.
Could you advise if this seems to be a hardware problem.
Many Thanks

 

Hello kennyboy.

I wonder if you could have a corrupted MBR.

Do you have access to another computer to try that hard drive in ?

Do you have another hard drive to try in the computer you're having trouble with ?

If you can get into the device manager, look for a yellow warning icon associated with drive and USB controllers.

 

Hello wtsinnc. Thank you for your interest. Not at all sure if it is a hardware or software problem, but will certainly try and repair the MBR. I seem to remember having a tool for such a job somewhere.
I only have a little netbook so would not be able to try the hard drive in that, but I do have a second hard drive in the machine which I could create a partition on and use, but would this determine a boot problem from cd or usb?
Excuse my ignorance if that is a stupid question.
Device manager shows no problems with USB controllers or drives that I can see.
Very grateful for any help.

 

kennyboy;

are you able to access system restore ?
If so, try it. Select a time prior to when the problem started.

If you cannot access system restore or it doesn't fix the problem, reboot and access your boot screen and click on the option "Last known good configuration".

See if that eliminates the problem.

There are other things you can do, but these are the easiest to try.

I'm going offline now. I'll check this thread tomorrow.
Good luck !

 

Hello again.

Don't use system restore as I have had problems with it before. I rely on imaging to a seperate HD usually, but of course without being able to boot outside of Windows, I can not restore any of the backup images.

I have renewed the MBR back to a standard Windows MBR and also tried last Known Good Config, with no result. I am wondering if this could possibly be a BIOS problem. I have tried various boot settings in the BIOS but no difference. Do BIos's go wrong or get corrupt? Last thing I want to do is flash it with all that risks, but I will as a last resort.
Just for interest, I did try booting with all the different UsB sticks in a Virtual Machine, and they all worked perfectly! Not sure that tells me much though. Does a VM use the same controllers as the real machine, or does it have it's own?

My next step could be to unplug the main HD and create a partition for Windows on the second internal HD and then try to boot from it. Can't actually see what difference that could make, but I'm running out of ideas.
Thanks again.

 

Have you scanned for malware; a trojan, rootkit, or virus coulu be involved here.
Try this if you haven't yet and are able to download.
http://www.filehippo.com/download_malwarebytes_anti_malware/

This is also good.
http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Dr-WEB-CureIt-Download-50008.html

Finally, before you reinstall, did you download anything or change a system setting just prior to the problem becoming manifest ?

Anyway, scan for malware if you can; it sure can't hurt.

By flashing the BIOS, does that mean you are going to refresh the current version, or attempt an upgrade ?
Before doing that, I believe I would (first) scan for malware, then attempt a repair of the OS. If that is unsuccessful, a full reinstall is probably in order.

Can't answer the question about the Virtual Machine.

Good luck !

 

Hi again. Sorry for the delay in replying.

No Malware showed up during any of the scans.
No system changes were made prior to this problem appearing. I have removed one at a time the Ram modules, and also disconnected both HD's one at a time thinking to narrow it down but same result.
Havn't considered going any further with the BIOS update or reinstall.
Did try to boot a Linux Live cd but same result also.
I would be happy to do a full re-install, but have nothing that will boot it. Even the Windows install cd fails at a fairly early point in the process.
So, at the moment, I am left with a working machine that I can not restore from an image, can not re-install Windows, can not install any hardware or software from media. It really is a puzzler, and getting a bit concerned about which direction to go next.
Any thoughts appreciated.