pc reboots itself

[sambo]

Please somebody help before i go insane i have a pc running xp pro 512mb and have had no problems up until 3 days ago where it will reboot itself no matter what i'm doing, today it is rebooting to the welcome screen turning off a blue screen flickers on for less than a second and then it reboots itself again.

The only things i have done different was to install a router so that my 2 kids could have internet in there rooms could this be the problem and if so how do i rectify it when the pc wont stay on long enough for me to do anything.

Would really appreciate your help on this one as i'm not very technical.

 

[TechPro]

Hi Sambo.

Does this happen everytime the computer is turned on or only when you do something particular like open an Internet page or click on the start button?

Lets try a few things to see if we can help you out.

1. Start your computer.
2. When you see the "Please select the operating system to start" message, press the F8 key.

3. When the Windows Advanced Options menu appears, use the ARROW keys to select Last Known Good Configuration (your most recent settings that worked), and then press ENTER.

If that doesnt work do the same again and then select Safe Mode instead of Last Known good Configuration.

See if it goes into windows without rebooting.

If you get that far we need to get windows to display that blue screen you mentioned, this will give you an error message and from here we should be able to solve the problem.

By default windows xp restarts itself when it encounters a serious error.

To stop this do the following when windows loads do the following:

Right click My Computer choose Properties, Advanced, Startup and Recovery then untick the "Automatically restart" tick box.

Restart your computer and see if you are presented with a blue screen, note everything thing down and then post this information here.

Hope that helps.

Please let us know how you get on.

 

[sambo]

Thankyou very much for replying but i have tried last known configiration and safe mode and both times the damn pc is rebooting back to the windows advanced options.

On rebooting to normal windows i get a 1 second blue screen error but obviously can't take note of it anything else you can think of please i'm desperate here lol.

Forgot to mention this is happpening just when i turn the computer on although early on yesterday it would happpen after a 10 minute interval whilst i was browsing the net i think i remember running an avg virus scan at the time and also deleted a divx that had myteriously appeared on my start up screen and i assumed the kids had installed it.

 

[TechPro]

Do you have a boot disk like:

UBCD 4 Windows

Just make one quickly and see if you can boot the computer using the boot disk this should help, because you can rule out a hardware fault if you can get it to boot with the disk.

Or download

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

and do some hardware tests:
memtest
Hard Disk test

If its a software fault you could try doing a XP Repair install using the XP Disk.

 

[sambo]

I'm afraid i dont have neither but have a brother who is burning me an xp disc to do a repair but was wondering instead of waiting could i download the boot disc to my daughters pc and burn off a disc for my pc.

Thanks for your help again

 

[TechPro]

Yes you should be able to make the boot disk on any pc providing it can burn a cd.

 

[sambo]

Hi there me again i now have a xp pro disc as my friend has just brought me one down so i will attempt a repair and if i get stuck i'll be back lol.

 

[TechPro]

OK Good Luck!

 

[sambo]

Thanks for all your help much appreciated but have now finally got my pc back up and running i managed to get to the BSOD and read that it was an unmountable boot volume so set pc to boot from cd rom inserted xp disc and ran a repair on it and is now all back

So i am now a very happy bunny indead would you suggest anything for me to do now such as scans etc i'm currently running an avg virus scan then plan on running spybot then ccleaner and disc clean up etc.

 

[sambo]

Still need some help i'm afraid.

After getting back up and running i left spybot running and i could see that it had found problems but as i walked over to the pc it turned off and didn't restart until i turned it on myself this has now happened twice tonight any ideas please.

 

[Stealth]

Smells like PSU trouble. You might want to take it for a swap, the PSU is either faulty or not powerful enough.

 

[sambo]

Well the latest is i ran a ada aware scan last night withthe customised options recommended from another site and this is the scan results.

MRU LIST
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[0]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\Desktop.ini
obj[1]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\eDigitalResearch.doc.lnk
obj[2]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\My Pictures.lnk
obj[3]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\R-Wipe&Clean.lnk
obj[4]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\Rwcpopup.hlp.lnk
obj[5]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\screenshot.bmp.lnk
obj[6]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\shenises profile off heats.doc.lnk
obj[7]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\The medication used for A.doc.lnk
obj[8]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\Welcome to December.doc.lnk
obj[9]=MRU FileReference : C:\Documents and Settings\sam\recent\wireless.rtf.lnk
obj[11]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\comdlg32\opensavemru\*
obj[12]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\recentdocs\.bmp
obj[13]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\recentdocs\.doc
obj[14]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\recentdocs\.hlp
obj[15]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\recentdocs\.rtf
obj[16]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\recentdocs\Folder
obj[17]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\office\8.0\common\open find\microsoft powerpoint\settings\save as\file name mru value
obj[18]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows media\wmsdk\general computername
obj[19]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\office\8.0\common\open find\microsoft word\settings\save as\file name mru value
obj[20]=MRU RegReference : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\microsoft\windows\currentversion\explorer\comdlg32\lastvisitedmru

COMETSYSTEMS
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[14]=Regkey : interface\{760aca60-79c3-4875-9d19-b14a5b3fea77}
obj[15]=Regkey : interface\{883ea659-ed80-46f9-9ed2-83327f67789f}
obj[16]=Regkey : interface\{b64c73d7-459e-4816-91f9-1348f8e36984}
obj[17]=Regkey : typelib\{0ab5b0d8-2b74-4c1c-8fa4-e52550b8b45b}

WIN32.TROJAN.DOWNLOADER
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[18]=Regkey : S-1-5-19\software\classes\software\microsoft\internet explorer\toolbar
obj[19]=Regkey : S-1-5-20\software\classes\software\microsoft\internet explorer\toolbar
obj[20]=Regkey : S-1-5-21-602162358-1993962763-1708537768-1003\software\classes\software\microsoft\internet explorer\toolbar
obj[21]=Regkey : software\microsoft\internet explorer\toolbar

TRACKING COOKIE
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[22]=IECache Entry : Cookie:sam@msnportal.112.2o7.net/
obj[23]=IECache Entry : Cookie:sam@tribalfusion.com/
obj[24]=IECache Entry : Cookie:sam@overture.com/
obj[25]=IECache Entry : Cookie:sam@247realmedia.com/

WIN32.P2P-WORM.ALCAN.A
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
obj[26]=Regkey : software\microsoft\downloadmanager
obj[27]=File : C:\WINDOWS\system32\bszip.dll
obj[28]=File : C:\WINDOWS\system32\cmd.com
obj[29]=File : C:\WINDOWS\system32\ping.com
obj[30]=File : C:\WINDOWS\system32\regedit.com
obj[31]=File : C:\WINDOWS\system32\tasklist.com
obj[32]=File : C:\WINDOWS\system32\tracert.com


On turning the computer on this morning i got the bios screen stating that my cpu frequency had changed and to restart it and change frequency also my time and date settings had changed

Any ideas please.

 

[Blues]

On turning the computer on this morning i got the bios screen stating that my cpu frequency had changed and to restart it and change frequency also my time and date settings had changed

Any ideas please.

sounds like the cmos battery is dying on you but this I don't think will cuase restarts.

 

[TorontoRepair]

It might be a virus

One of my customer had the same type of problem.
I used XP repair and the computer seemed fine for a few minutes and it rebooted again.
I ran antivirus, antispyware, hardware diagnostic >> nothing wrong!
I decided to back up the data, do a low level format and reinstall windows. And it worked.

Good luck!

 

[tkrabec]

I definately sounds like a Hardware issue.

1st under mycomputer (right click) properties -> advanced -> Startup and Recovery:
tick the write and event to the system log
un-tick the automatically restart
this should keep the blue screen on the screen long enough to get the code.
typically the 1st 0x######## is all that is needed but the codes in the braces() can also help. If you can get that post it here

Then BACK UP ALL DATA YOU CAN

Then I'd run memtest86 from memtest86.com, memory issues can cause this type of issue, run it for 12 to 24 hrs if you can.

I'd also run checkdisk /p in recovery console until there are no more errors.

I'd also look at replacing the powersupply if you are still having problems

-- Tim Krabec

 

[TorontoRepair]

Computer restarts

When you use a boot cd, does your computer still restarts after a few minutes.