Short while ago, I had a problem where my PC wouldn't boot. It would start loading windows XP (showing logo and the scrolling bar) then reboot instantley, this would continue indefinatley. Eventually ended up having to format the HD and start again.

I think this happened because I did a forceful shutdown on the PC(holding the power button) as it was shutting down. It was taking ages and appeared to be getting nowhere. But I also remember that after this, when I booted it up again I went into BIOS first and made a small adjustment to fan settings. Then when I booted up again the above occured. Since then I have been afraid to go into BIOS, as I am not sure wether it may happen again if I change settings. Logic tells me BIOS should not do this, and that the PC messed up because of what I did, but nontheless I am afraid to go into BIOS. Am I crazy? :confused:

What changes did you make to the fan? speed I guess? turned off the alarm/powerdown?

if as a result of that something was damaged by heat that may cause your problem. has the machine been working ok since since format?

In which case it sounds to me like power off corrupted a critical file somehow.

Yeah all I changed was the temperature at which the fan kicked in to high. PC has been running fine since the format. So is it just my paranoia? Should be perfectley safe to into BIOS.

I also thought that the powerdown most likely corrupted a critical file.

It's unlikely that a file was corrupted especially if you're using NTFS as it's a journaling file system and is able to correct any errors encoutered/created writing files.

It's possible BIOS changes caused the problem - depends on exactly what you changed.

I've never broke an OS yet (apart from Linux) by cutting the power and not shutting down properly in 20 years.

But would the BIOS changes (fan temp settings) corrupt a file needed to boot windows?

Nope and if the machine is behaving now it's highly unlikely there was any permanent damage caused by raising the fan kick-in temp.

Windows does from time to time get it's self in a pickle by what seems to be it's own accord unfortunately - you can nearly always sort it out if you want to sit there all day playing but sometimes it's just easier to do what you did and reformat.

Ah good, so safe to go into BIOS.

Well the problem was I didn't get the chance to try and fix it, it simply would not boot windows. Not in safe mode or anything. The recovery CD went straight to format, with no other available options :(

It's always worth installing the recovery console - can get you out of pickles like that

Stick XP CD in, open up a command prompt (start -> run -> "cmd" -> ok) then type "d:\i386\winnt32.exe /cmdcons" replacing d with your CD drive letter. Do it before you update to SP2 or it won't work and becomes a git to do.