Lifebook S6210 cycles when start up

[GDief]

I have had this laptop for 8 years now. It worked perfectly for many years but then started to cycle when start up. It would look like it would completely boot up, then it would start the cycle again. Sometimes it would only do this two times, other times several. I am running XP. A year ago I decided to install Ubuntu to see if this would be any better. It worked flawlessly for a year now, but my son now wants XP back on. So I completely reinstalled XP without any problems. I did all of the updates etc. It ran great for two weeks, now all of a sudden it's cycling again. This time it simply won't boot up and stay booted. It just cycles. HELP!!! I can get into the bios and think I can get it to start in safe mode, but what do I check from there?

[sabrex]

please run the system diagnose tool in my signature below it sounds very much like the hard disk has bad sectors but run this to confirm get back to me with the DIFS code it gives you.

If you need an ISO burner (to make it bootable) use this link for active@iso
http://download.cnet.com/Active-ISO-Burner/3000-2646_4-10602452.html
(you cant just copy the iso to a disk otherwise you cant boot from it!)

[GDief]

I assume that I'll have to run this in safe mode or ? Do I need internet access or can I run it off a disc or ? I am not familiar with the ISO boot disc. What do I need to do with that ? The computer is in Germany, I will need to do the testing via another computer there or that one. Prior to doing this I guess I should find out if there are any hard drives available for replacement.

[sabrex]

If you have another machine you can then prep your bootable disk. Active@iso app is easy it just needs you to browse to the file and then click burn. you then put that cd in the faulty machine reboot and tap f12....choose the cdrom drive (ODD) from the boot list.

it boots from the cd

you have two choices ...run a quick test (5 mins)
or run a Full test (recommended)

If comes back with a long difs code post it here.
This is done to CONFIRM a hardware fault excists and where so dont go replacing the hard disk until you run this