PC Keeps Restarting

skyblueheroes · 25-10-2005, 22:05

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

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.

Wicked_and_Crazy · 25-10-2005, 22:08

try running memtest86 first

monkey2468 · 25-10-2005, 22:14

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 ^^

budwieser · 25-10-2005, 22:16

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

nffc · 25-10-2005, 22:22

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.

25-10-2005, 22:25

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...

Strzelecki · 25-10-2005, 22:26

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?

Ramrod · 25-10-2005, 22:28

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

veritas · 25-10-2005, 22:31

This link may help with info for you:

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

monkey2468 · 25-10-2005, 22:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strzelecki

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?

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.

Strzelecki · 25-10-2005, 22:37

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.

nffc · 25-10-2005, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Strzelecki

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.

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.

Flubflow · 25-10-2005, 22:50

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.

25-10-2005, 22:51

Could bring round here and let me have a look

Got all sorts of spare here

need him up and running

Strzelecki · 25-10-2005, 22:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by nffc

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.

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.