PC Keeps Restarting
 

Okay, Private_Ace, my future brother in law has broken his PC. As usual, SBH aka Tech Support gets called............. :dozey:

Anyway, the problem is thus. His PC keeps restarting. It gets through boot and displays a message about not starting properly last time. It gives the options as :

Start in safe mode
Start with command prompt
Start with networking

or

Start normally

I chose start normally and it gets to the Windows XP loading screen (with the logo and blue bar) and then just restarts - then back to the beginning.

If I choose safe mode, if lists a load of drivers from a folder location, hangs for a few mins, then restarts.

He's had his GFX card out and in again, and clean the whole lot out and nothing seems awray. Its an e-machines tower with XP Home and the only non-standard kit is the 128mb GFX card (but this has been in for ages). Apparently it crashed last night whilst playing CoD but apart from that - been fine.

Any ideas before we attempt a reinstall using the e-machines recovery CD ??

SBH.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

try running memtest86 first

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Could be one of many thintgs. Something over heating ie CPU, GFX card etc. Ive just had a similar fault, it turned out that the fan in the PSU had given up the ghost leading to it over heating all the time.

It could also be a virus. Its not too good that it won't boot into safe mode though!!

Also try memtest as above ^^

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Check that all the memory and cpu settings are correct in the Bios.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Probably a STOP error, and you do need that recovery CD i'm afraid, if you can't get into XP there's nothing you can do.

You do need to turn that gfx card off and remove all accessories/upgrades from the PC when you do that.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

I had a system just last week that had the same fault, I did a fresh install and all was ok, and still is.... the guy told me that his kids sometimes turn off the pc without doing the proper shutdown, I told him that will have caused the problem.

You can usually tell if its hardware or software causing the problem, I normally run Knoppix (Linux bootable cd) if it boots to the Linux desktop then 99% of the time its a XP fault and not hardware...

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Could be something like a bad driver or corrupted registry. You could try rolling the registry back by following http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=307545 or you could boot off a PE/WinbootCD and edit the registry to set AutoReboot to '0' so you get to see any blue screen that is causing the restart. What model eMachine is it?

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Does this mean that PA won't be on our server for a while? :(

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

This link may help with info for you:

http://www.techspot.com/vb/all/windo...o-Windows.html

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

If it was a driver or registry fault, it should still boot in to safe mode shouldn't it?

I would turn off auto reboot also if you can.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Not always, reread his post again and you'll see booting into safe mode doesn't work and this can still be caused by the registry. I already suggested turning AutoReboot off.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Which would do what, barring loading a BSD as opposed to restarting? Seeing as we can't load XP at all to fix it?

The emachines CD is the only way, and it's only the newer ones (v4) that DON'T wipe it. And the v4 ones tend to use HD recovery as opposed to CDs.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

It could be due to a faulty power supply. I had one of those to deal with a few months ago. I took the PC home for a long test but it would not go wrong. Took it back to the owner and it started restarting randomly again. Put a test meter on the 5v line and it was all over the place - seriously undervolt. Smacked the PSU and it jumped back to 5v (which explained why when I took it home, jossling it around, it behaved itself for a time).
Anyway, got a new PSU and all was fine.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Could bring round here and let me have a look ;) Got all sorts of spare here :) need him up and running :)

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

well if it is registry corruption then this can be rolled back to before the corruption occurred and the machine should boot. Also BSODs may give a clue as to if it's a hardware problem, not much point in doing a restore if it is. You don't always have to be able to load Windows to fix it, that's where boot CDs and the like come in. I was wondering what model the machine was to find out what version recovery it would be using.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

I think rather than spend too long looking I'll take you up on that - see PM :)

Thanks for replies. Will let you know.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Sounds like a software problem rather than a hardware one, as the rebooting is occuring at precise moments as opposed to randomly crashing/rebooting etc. I would suspect a corrupt boot sector, so it's just a case of popping in your recovery disc. Boot from the CD and perform a recovery repair installation.

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Ive had this problem. do a fresh re-install of XP (do the repair option).

Re: PC Keeps Restarting
 

Spot on. It's probably an UBV...