computer keeps rebooting

[Guest]

We downloaded some windows updates that froze in the middle of the transfer, so we cancelled that. Then we downloaded virus updates (AVG free version), and it asked us to reboot the computer. Since then, we get the BIOS screen (where we can enter the menu) and the XP screen (where we can enter the F8 menu), the screen goes blank like the desktop is about to appear, and then the computer clicks off and starts rebooting.

I have tried safe mode and all of the other options on the F8 menu, and while sometimes a series of computer instructions begins rather than going to a blank screen (giving us hope that it is doing something else), the computer still restarts a second or two after that. We have tried rescue disks and a MSDOS boot disk (The computer is a Compaq Presario and we cannot seem to find the xp disk that came with it). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Amy

 

[WinGuy]

We downloaded some windows updates that froze in the middle of the

transfer, so we cancelled that. Then we downloaded virus updates (AVG free
version), and it asked us to reboot the computer. Since then, we get the
BIOS screen (where we can enter the menu) and the XP screen (where we can
enter the F8 menu), the screen goes blank like the desktop is about to
appear, and then the computer clicks off and starts rebooting.

I have tried safe mode and all of the other options on the F8 menu, and

while sometimes a series of computer instructions begins rather than going
to a blank screen (giving us hope that it is doing something else), the
computer still restarts a second or two after that. We have tried rescue
disks and a MSDOS boot disk (The computer is a Compaq Presario and we cannot
seem to find the xp disk that came with it). Any suggestions would be
greatly appreciated!

Thanks,
Amy

I'm just guessing, but I bet you didn't have any firewall activated while
you were doing the updates and you got infected during the process by
something relatively new but totally unrelated to the microsoft website or
updates, and that caused the freeze during the update. When you rebooted,
the virus was in control, and it is trying to shut down AVG, and that's
causing the reboots. Well, that's my theory about what and why ...

Regardless, you probably need any CD of the same XP type (Home or Pro) to
boot into Recovery Console so that you can use the
chkdsk /R
exit
command just to make sure the HDD format structure is ok.

If that doesn't do it then you're probably just going to have to bite the
bullet and go buy the *full* (not an update, and not Home) retail version of
XP Pro so that you can perform an upgrade installation to fix the system
files. You might get an XP-Pro update from Compaq/HP quite a bit cheaper
than buying it off the shelf. But you could first remove the HDD and put it
in another NTFS based machine as a slave or secondary master and try running
updated antivirus against it - that might do it, and while it's in there you
could also then do a thorough chkdsk on it that checks for bad sectors too
(takes quite a while to complete).

Be sure the built-in XP firewall is activated before you go on the internet,
even with a brand new install it won't be activated by default until they
start shipping XP with SP2 (which they are not yet doing). No firewall =
nearly instant infection.