PC resets at desktop

[chadwick110]

BACKGROUND
I'm upgrading from Pentium3 Win98 to AMD64 WinXP. Full specs below.
I've got the new hardware in and XP installed and I've started loading
software.

PROBLEM
The PC resets after logging me in. It boots OK to the XP welcome
screen, where I choose one of my two user accounts. It loads my
personal settings, brings up the desktop and the sys tray starts
filling up. Then it resets and reboots. I think it reboots as soon as
it's finished starting up.

Obviously there are many possible causes, so I'm trying to eliminate
them one by one.

My main suspects are my old Matrox Millenium G400 graphics card and
Zone Alarm.

I think the G400 is an AGPx1 card, but the motherboard board is AGPx8.
Is it possible this is making the system unstable? Should I remove it?

Zone Alarm is a suspect because that was the last software I installed.
I've used it with Win98 with no problems and I installed it from the
same exe. It seemed to install OK, but on the reboot things went pear
shaped. Should I have disabled the Windows Firewall first?

Any help, suggestions etc gratefully received!

HARDWARE SPECS
Asus K8V-X motherboard
AMD64 3400 (retail w/ AMD heatsink + fan)
1gb PC3200 Crucial RAM
500w PSU (AMD approved)
*Creative Soundblaster Live!
*Matrox Millenium G400
*Diamond Supra internal PCI modem
External broadband USB modem

SOFTWARE SPECS
Win Xp w/ Service Pack 2
Nero 6
Norton Anti-Virus 2003
Winzip 9
Spybot Search & Destroy
Zonealarm Pro with web filtering
*hardware with asterisk is old (5 years), the rest is new.

 

[KC Computers]

BACKGROUND
I'm upgrading from Pentium3 Win98 to AMD64 WinXP. Full specs below.
I've got the new hardware in and XP installed and I've started loading
software.
PROBLEM
The PC resets after logging me in. It boots OK to the XP welcome
screen, where I choose one of my two user accounts. It loads my
personal settings, brings up the desktop and the sys tray starts
filling up. Then it resets and reboots. I think it reboots as soon as
it's finished starting up.

Are you trying to install an upgrade version of Windows XP
with your old Windows '98 hard drive installation? If so,
then that you be causing the problem and a complete install
of XP is required.

It could also be an issue with the Matrox card. We are
a dealer and have seen similiar compatibility/driver problems
with the Matrox G550 video card and Athlon 64
boards.

 

[David Maynard]

BACKGROUND
I'm upgrading from Pentium3 Win98 to AMD64 WinXP. Full specs below.
I've got the new hardware in and XP installed and I've started loading
software.

PROBLEM
The PC resets after logging me in. It boots OK to the XP welcome
screen, where I choose one of my two user accounts. It loads my
personal settings, brings up the desktop and the sys tray starts
filling up. Then it resets and reboots. I think it reboots as soon as
it's finished starting up.

Obviously there are many possible causes, so I'm trying to eliminate
them one by one.

My main suspects are my old Matrox Millenium G400 graphics card and
Zone Alarm.

I think the G400 is an AGPx1 card, but the motherboard board is AGPx8.
Is it possible this is making the system unstable? Should I remove it?

It wouldn't go in the AGP slot if it was 1x.

Zone Alarm is a suspect because that was the last software I installed.
I've used it with Win98 with no problems and I installed it from the
same exe. It seemed to install OK, but on the reboot things went pear
shaped. Should I have disabled the Windows Firewall first?

Uh huh. What are you trying to do? Build a Great Wall of China simulation
by running multiple firewalls at the same time?

 

[-Avery Anderson-]

I'd uninstall zone alarm and reboot and see what happens.
if you still have the problem,
I'd swap out the video card for a pci card.
Any old pci card will do,
and see what happens.
if you still have the problem,
the next thing I'd try is a restore point back to
when it was stable.
If you still have the problem it could be the power supply or the CPU
overheating.
If you installed anything from media you aren't sure of, you may have
inadvetanlty installed a virus. So, come to think of it, my first step
would be to uninstall zone alarm, turn off xp's firewall, load an anti-virus
program and see if it finds anything, etc.

 

[chadwick110]

Problem solved: Zonealarm. I was using what I think is a relatively old
exe to install, expecting to be able to update it from the web as I
have done previously. I guess it just didn't get on with XP.
I'm just using the Windows firewall at the moment. I guess it'll do,
but I did like the fact that ZA monitored outgoing traffic as well.
I'll pop over to their website later and find an up to date version.

David, thanks for the tip about the graphics card. That's some
reassurance. I had pretty much ruled the card out because it was the
loading of my personal settings and the appearnce of the desktop that
seemed to "cause" the reboot. I could leave the screen on the Welcome
note for as long as I wanted, so I figured the card was working.
However, I'd read on another thread that old AGP cards and new AGP8x
sockets don't always get on due to the voltage difference or something.
It seemed more like hearsay at the time, but I'm not in a position to
judge so it seemed worth asking. Also the card has two keys in the
"plug" and the socket only 1, so I guessed it wasn't an exact match.

KC, you will (I hope) be relieved to hear that although this is my
first mobo upgrade, I did read around and decided on balance that a
clean install was preferable with a full NTFS format of my paltry 40gb
IDE harddrive.

Avery, thanks. That is exactly the route I took. Except I had to
reinstall XP, then ZA (no other software) to find that installing ZA
caused the problem immediately.

So, problem solved. No doubt I'll be back here when my Radeon 9800XT
board arrives in a few days. And I'm now considering replacing the HDD
with a SATA model. On which point - is there an easy way to transfer
the contents of my existing HDD to a new one without having to
reinstall everything?

 

[David Maynard]

Problem solved: Zonealarm. I was using what I think is a relatively old
exe to install, expecting to be able to update it from the web as I
have done previously. I guess it just didn't get on with XP.
I'm just using the Windows firewall at the moment. I guess it'll do,
but I did like the fact that ZA monitored outgoing traffic as well.

Windows firewall monitors outgoing traffic too. Install an app trying to
use a new, un-enabled, port and you'll get a popup asking if you want to
allow or deny it. Or you can turn the popup off, in exceptions, and it'll
just block it (unless you manually edit in an 'exception' for it).

I'll pop over to their website later and find an up to date version.

David, thanks for the tip about the graphics card. That's some
reassurance. I had pretty much ruled the card out because it was the
loading of my personal settings and the appearnce of the desktop that
seemed to "cause" the reboot. I could leave the screen on the Welcome
note for as long as I wanted, so I figured the card was working.
However, I'd read on another thread that old AGP cards and new AGP8x
sockets don't always get on due to the voltage difference or something.
It seemed more like hearsay at the time, but I'm not in a position to
judge so it seemed worth asking. Also the card has two keys in the
"plug" and the socket only 1, so I guessed it wasn't an exact match.

It isn't that 'all' the keys necessarily have to 'match' because a card can
be compatible with more than one standard. But it does have to have a slot
for the key(s) that exist or else it won't go in the socket.

Besides, I knew the card wasn't 1x

Do a google for AGP 1x 2x 4x 8x and you can find an explanation for all the
various voltages and what is compatible with what.