Computer restarts when laoding windows

[Guest]

hi,

today i reformatted my computer and reinstalled windows xp during the
windows installation my comp kept restarting. so i took a look inside and
there was a bunch of dush in the cpu fan so i cleared that out and then the
install went fine.

I then installed all the drivers and such needed for all the hardware on my
computer. after that i tried to install world of warcraft ( a game) during
the installation my comp restarted. it booted up fine after that and i tried
to install it again. once again the comp restarted. after the thrid time i
gave up for a bit then came back to try again. during the install it
restarted again only this time when i got to the windows loading screen my
comp restarted. and it kept restarting. i put in a bootable disk with a few
utilities such as memeroy testers and stuff like that. every time i ran
memerory tests my computer restarted or just turned off. after a few tries i
tried loading the fail-safe bois settings.with that my comp just froze at the
first screen ( bois screen?)

i then took the little battery out of the motherboard for about 15 mins and
then put it back in. my bois setting were reset and my comp booted up fine. i
guess i am asking what would cause this behavior and do you think that i
should replace my RAM. i am afraid to try to reinstall world of warcraft.

thanks

 

[Guest]

I think you had a whole bunch of gremlins run around for a particular dance
in your system. -None of the things you did have anything to do with each
other - you could probably safely install your game, it was just chance that
something came loose, and then looser and looser untill you finally opened
your computer and accidentally unloosened it (Check everything again).

 

[cquirke (MVP Windows shell/user)]

On Sun, 24 Sep 2006 16:50:01 -0700, blazer

today i reformatted my computer and reinstalled windows xp

Why? IOW, what problem were you trying to fix?

during the windows installation my comp kept restarting.

By duuuuhfault, Windows will restart on system errors, and all
duhfaults apply when you are "just" formatting-and-reinstalling.

This is totally useless when the error arises during boot.

Also, it makes it harder to tell the difference between a system error
that triggers the restart (e.g. bad RAM, overheating) and a hardware
condition that causes the restart directly (e.g. bad mains or PSU).

So the first thing to do - if your boot process ever completes - is to
disable the "automatically restart on system errors" setting.

The zeroth thing to do is to check the hardware using suitable
diagnostics (e.g. MemTest86, HD Tune) before considering "just"
re-installing Windows.

http://cquirke.mvps.org/reinst.htm refers

so i took a look inside and there was a bunch of dush in the cpu
fan so i cleared that out and then the install went fine.

OK... were any caps bulging or leaking?

See http://cquirke.mvps.org/badcaps.htm

I then installed all the drivers and such needed for all the hardware on my
computer. after that i tried to install world of warcraft ( a game) during
the installation my comp restarted. it booted up fine after that and i tried
to install it again. once again the comp restarted. after the thrid time i
gave up for a bit then came back to try again. during the install it
restarted again only this time when i got to the windows loading screen my
comp restarted. and it kept restarting.

Nature is trying to tell you something :-/

Up to the point the system collapsed into restart loops, your desc
made me think of a bad optical drive and/or installation disk. An
infected installation disk could cause problems after the attempts to
install it have been abandoned, else it looks more like other bad
hardware is starting the slide into bit-rot.

These are the cases where posters first claim "erinstalling Windows
fixed it!" and then come up with "Windows is so flaky, I have to
'just' wipe and re-install every few months".

i put in a bootable disk with a few utilities such as memeroy testers

Now we're getting somewhere... I usually do this:
- boot off a MemTest86 CDR
- swap this CDR for a different boot disk
- leave running for 12-24 hours

One of four things will happen at the end of this day-long test:
- PC's still running MemTest86 and shows no RAM errors
- PC's still running MemTest86 and shows one or more RAM errors
- PC's still running MemTest86 but has crashed in some way
- PC's now running the boot disk was left in instead of MemTest

Only the first is an acceptable result. The last indicates some
glitch that caused the system to spontaneously restart - and that's
something you really need to know. Unless someone manually restarted
the PC, pressed Esc, or cut mains, you have a hardware problem that
may not show up as a nice test result, but can still mess you up.

every time i ran memerory tests my computer restarted or just turned off.

Nature's now shouting at you! Listen up!!

Most likely would be bad mobo caps, bad PSU, overheating (it's not
only CPUs that cook up) or other more nebulous bad hardware.

MemTest86 doesn't run devices other than CPU, so the overall current
draw should be low. OTOH, it pushes the "bread and butter" parts of
the CPU wquite hard, as there's no idle loop as there is in XP. So
this mileage suggests CPU-level overheating or power starvation, and
the latter is often caused by bad mobo capacitors.

i then took the little battery out of the motherboard for about 15 mins and
then put it back in. my bois setting were reset and my comp booted up fine. i
guess i am asking what would cause this behavior and do you think that i
should replace my RAM. i am afraid to try to reinstall world of warcraft.

As above. Any installation done through the lens of bad RAM or other
hardware is likely to result in a more corrupted code base than the
one you sought to replace - so yes, pin down the hardware issues
first, before wasting more time at the software level.

Software stands on hardware! If hardware's bad, software collapses
:-(

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