This is probably gonna sound stupid, but . . . back in 1998 I ordered my first business computer from a local place and paid $75 for them to come out to my house and set it up. (I was still a big old n00b at that point.) The pimply-faced teenager they sent out was here for a few hours, did the deed, packed up his stuff, and went on his merry way. I was all excited about my new machine, went to fire it up, and . . . the same goofy cycling that you describe. It was a Friday afternoon and I couldn’t get hold of the company’s tech support, or Opie who had set it up. Much teeth gnashing ensued; I was neither prepared nor equipped to do a bunch of troubleshooting. Finally I just started checking through the setup instructions as if I were starting from scratch.
Step one: verify that the voltage switch on the back of the computer is set to 115 (in North America) or 230 (for Europe).
Yup, it was on 230. Flipped it to 115 and all was well. Thanks a lot, pimple boy. That was $75 well spent, when you missed Step One.
Your problem is probably more complicated than this, but it may be worth checking, in case your computer even has such a setting. (I don’t recall seeing one on my more recent machines . . .)
Ha, thats funny you mentioned that, because I took a long hard look at the voltage switch last night and decided that would be too obvious. But its all moot at this point. I just hauled the 20 pound paperweight down to Best Buy. Let them have a go at it. The guy who looked at it initially, who would have made a great Opie himself, took about 10 minutes to realize that Windows wasn’t loading at all. He explained it was probably just a problem with the operating system. I really trust his diagnosis on that one.
I’m expecting to get the remains back sometime in January.