Computer keeps restarting and then freezes up

[deviatevdp]

When I start up my computer after letting it sit for about 10 min it
goes to the desktop no problem. Then about a min later it restarts
itself. When it starts up, I get this message: "We apologize for the
inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent
hardware or software change might have caused this." It gives me 5
options (3 Safe Mode options, Last Known Good Configuration, and Start
Windows normally) and I have chosen each one and each time it will
restart before I get to the desktop and sometimes before I get to the
logon page.

I tried booting into Safe Mode and it hanged at mup.sys and then
restarted after a few sec. I tried starting into Safe Mode about 5
more times consecutively and it always stops at mup.sys. I tried
running off the Win XP disc but when the setup is checking my hardware
configuration it restarts. I can't get to the Recovery Console or any
Setup options. I tried running Memtest86+ to check my RAM, but when it
gets to the 5th or 6th test, the computer restarts. When I ran the
Memtest86+, I only had my motherboard, video card, CPU, RAM, and
Lite-On CD-RW Writer plugged in (hard drive was unplugged).

One more thing, if I start it up and not choose any of the 5 options,
it will automatically choose "Start Windows Normally" after the 30 sec
countdown timer reaches 0. If I let it reach 0, the computer will load
up and not reach the logon page. It will restart before it gets to
that page and it will keep doing this until after 3 restarts. After 3
restarts of just letting the computer load up on its own, the computer
will freeze. It will turn off/standby the monitor and turn off the
mouse. The other components will still be on (keyboard, ALL fans
inside case, CD-RW Writer, and hard drive).

I was thinking it may be the CMOS battery but I don't know for sure. I
wanna do that LAST if I have to.

If anyone can suggest something that may help please do. I will
greatly appreciate it. I've been going at this for a few days and I
will continue to Google for more solutions. Thanks.

These are the components that I currently have connected into my
computer:
Windows XP Pro SP2
ECS Elitegroup K7VTA3 Version 5.0 motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2200+
1x512MB Kingston RAM DDR PC2700
GeforceFX 5600 Ultra
Lite-On CD-RW Writer
Western Digital 80GB hard drive
keyboard and mouse

 

[Chris Hill]

When I start up my computer after letting it sit for about 10 min it
goes to the desktop no problem. Then about a min later it restarts
itself. When it starts up, I get this message: "We apologize for the
inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent
hardware or software change might have caused this." It gives me 5
options (3 Safe Mode options, Last Known Good Configuration, and Start
Windows normally) and I have chosen each one and each time it will
restart before I get to the desktop and sometimes before I get to the
logon page.

I tried booting into Safe Mode and it hanged at mup.sys and then
restarted after a few sec. I tried starting into Safe Mode about 5
more times consecutively and it always stops at mup.sys. I tried
running off the Win XP disc but when the setup is checking my hardware
configuration it restarts. I can't get to the Recovery Console or any
Setup options. I tried running Memtest86+ to check my RAM, but when it
gets to the 5th or 6th test, the computer restarts. When I ran the
Memtest86+, I only had my motherboard, video card, CPU, RAM, and
Lite-On CD-RW Writer plugged in (hard drive was unplugged).

One more thing, if I start it up and not choose any of the 5 options,
it will automatically choose "Start Windows Normally" after the 30 sec
countdown timer reaches 0. If I let it reach 0, the computer will load
up and not reach the logon page. It will restart before it gets to
that page and it will keep doing this until after 3 restarts. After 3
restarts of just letting the computer load up on its own, the computer
will freeze. It will turn off/standby the monitor and turn off the
mouse. The other components will still be on (keyboard, ALL fans
inside case, CD-RW Writer, and hard drive).

I was thinking it may be the CMOS battery but I don't know for sure. I
wanna do that LAST if I have to.

If anyone can suggest something that may help please do. I will
greatly appreciate it. I've been going at this for a few days and I
will continue to Google for more solutions. Thanks.

These are the components that I currently have connected into my
computer:
Windows XP Pro SP2
ECS Elitegroup K7VTA3 Version 5.0 motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2200+
1x512MB Kingston RAM DDR PC2700
GeforceFX 5600 Ultra
Lite-On CD-RW Writer
Western Digital 80GB hard drive
keyboard and mouse

Look first at the mainboard. Are the caps bad? If not, try a
different power supply. Caps are small can-looking things on the
mainboard with either a / or an x in the top of them. Bad ones bulge
or leak.

 

[Mxsmanic]

When I start up my computer after letting it sit for about 10 min it
goes to the desktop no problem. Then about a min later it restarts
itself. When it starts up, I get this message: "We apologize for the
inconvenience, but Windows did not start successfully. A recent
hardware or software change might have caused this." It gives me 5
options (3 Safe Mode options, Last Known Good Configuration, and Start
Windows normally) and I have chosen each one and each time it will
restart before I get to the desktop and sometimes before I get to the
logon page.

Does this happen even if the computer has not been touched? Or does
it happen once you begin to work on it? And are you saying that it
takes ten minutes for the machine to come up when you turn it on?

A machine that mysteriously reboots by itself after running for some
period is often overheating. Take a look inside the cabinet and make
sure that any and all fans are running, particularly the fan over the
CPU.

I tried booting into Safe Mode and it hanged at mup.sys and then
restarted after a few sec. I tried starting into Safe Mode about 5
more times consecutively and it always stops at mup.sys. I tried
running off the Win XP disc but when the setup is checking my hardware
configuration it restarts. I can't get to the Recovery Console or any
Setup options. I tried running Memtest86+ to check my RAM, but when it
gets to the 5th or 6th test, the computer restarts. When I ran the
Memtest86+, I only had my motherboard, video card, CPU, RAM, and
Lite-On CD-RW Writer plugged in (hard drive was unplugged).

This sounds like a hardware problem. If it only happens after the
computer has warmed up (that is, the machine boots when first started
after a long period of being off, but then starts to restart itself
after a while), it's probably an overheating problem.

Boot the computer and enter the BIOS configuration pages (the BIOS
will display the key that you have to hit to do this as it comes up).
Let the computer sit in the BIOS for a while--however long it usually
takes for it to start misbehaving in Windows. If the computer
restarts spontaneously while it is sitting in the BIOS, you have a
hardware problem. If it does this only after the machine has warmed
up, it's probably an overheating problem. Some BIOS menus will allow
you to check the temperature of the motherboard and CPU as well, along
with fans speeds; check these to make sure that the fans are turning
and that the temperatures are in the normal range.

One more thing, if I start it up and not choose any of the 5 options,
it will automatically choose "Start Windows Normally" after the 30 sec
countdown timer reaches 0. If I let it reach 0, the computer will load
up and not reach the logon page. It will restart before it gets to
that page and it will keep doing this until after 3 restarts. After 3
restarts of just letting the computer load up on its own, the computer
will freeze. It will turn off/standby the monitor and turn off the
mouse. The other components will still be on (keyboard, ALL fans
inside case, CD-RW Writer, and hard drive).

This again sounds like overheating, almost certainly the CPU. The
warmer it gets, the sooner it restarts, until finally it refuses to
boot at all. Turning the machine off and letting it cool to room
temperature allows it to boot again, until it warms up, and then the
same behavior repeats.

Athlon processors can be seriously damaged by overheating because they
have no internal protection against it, so check the CPU temps as soon
as possible. In some cases, a CPU may be damaged and will thereafter
start to misbehave more and more even after the overheating problem is
fixed, which requires replacement of the CPU (and possibly other
things, if they were damaged by heat as well).

 

[deviatevdp]

I checked the motherboard and nothing seems to be out of the ordinary.
The caps are in place and not bent or anything...

I eventually let the computer cool down to room temp and started it.
It went to the desktop without me seeing the 5-option screen so I was
glad. It stayed at the desktop for maybe 2 min then restarted itself.
I let the computer start by itself without me choosing an option. It
didn't even get to the 5-option screen before it restarted. I let it
start again and this time it went to the 5-option screen and the timer
went to 0 but right when the screen changed the computer restarted. On
the next restart it froze before it got to the 5-option screen.

I let it cool down again after about 5 min and started it. I went into
the BIOS and let it sit in the "PC Health Status" menu where the CPU
temp is shown. The Current CPU Temp was 48C when I first loaded up.
It's at 61C right now and it hasn't restarted yet.
I have had it on for about 20 min now. I am assuming that I need to
make the CPU work in Windows to see if it is getting into high temps.
But for now it's staying in BIOS quite nicely.

It takes about 1 min for my pc to completely boot up to the desktop. I
am letting it sit for about 5-10 min so it can cool down. All the fans
are running, including PSU, CPU, case fans, and video card fan.

I am going to clean out the heatsink on my processor because I can see
a little buildup between the fan and the processor. Hopefully that
will work. Thank you for the quick responses.

 

[deviatevdp]

New development.

I went into BIOS and chose the option "Load Optimized Defaults". I
then chose to Save and Exit. When I choose that option, the screen
will turn black then immediately turn off/standby and the system
freezes. I have to turn the pc off myself by holding the power button
down. When I turn it back on, it will load up straight to the desktop
without seeing the 5-option screen. It will eventually restart after a
few min. When it is starting up again I go into the BIOS once more. I
choose the "Load Fail-Safe Defaults" option and Save and Exit. Again,
the pc freezes. I have to manually turn it off.

I am wondering if this particular aspect of the problem has anything to
do with my CMOS battery. I don't want to take it out to reset the
BIOS, but it looks like I might have to.

 

[Mxsmanic]

I eventually let the computer cool down to room temp and started it.
It went to the desktop without me seeing the 5-option screen so I was
glad. It stayed at the desktop for maybe 2 min then restarted itself.
I let the computer start by itself without me choosing an option. It
didn't even get to the 5-option screen before it restarted. I let it
start again and this time it went to the 5-option screen and the timer
went to 0 but right when the screen changed the computer restarted. On
the next restart it froze before it got to the 5-option screen.

These are exactly the symptoms I've had when a fan failure has caused
the CPU to overheat.

I let it cool down again after about 5 min and started it. I went into
the BIOS and let it sit in the "PC Health Status" menu where the CPU
temp is shown. The Current CPU Temp was 48C when I first loaded up.
It's at 61C right now and it hasn't restarted yet.

That's high. Does it continue to rise (even slowly)?

I have had it on for about 20 min now. I am assuming that I need to
make the CPU work in Windows to see if it is getting into high temps.
But for now it's staying in BIOS quite nicely.

It's running rather warm, although I'm not sure what the normal temp
range is for your processor. The temperature should climb for a short
time and then stabilize as the fan accelerates to keep the CPU cool.

It takes about 1 min for my pc to completely boot up to the desktop. I
am letting it sit for about 5-10 min so it can cool down. All the fans
are running, including PSU, CPU, case fans, and video card fan.

I am going to clean out the heatsink on my processor because I can see
a little buildup between the fan and the processor. Hopefully that
will work. Thank you for the quick responses.

Overheating is still the first thing that comes to my mind, although
with the fan run and a stable CPU temperature, I'm not sure that
overtemp is the problem.

Note that Windows XP/200x/NT will keep the processor quite cool while
the system is idle (because the OS halts the processor when there's
nothing to do), whereas Windows 9x will peg the processor and it will
always be running at 100% and maximum heat.

 

[Mxsmanic]

I am wondering if this particular aspect of the problem has anything to
do with my CMOS battery. I don't want to take it out to reset the
BIOS, but it looks like I might have to.

How old is the motherboard? (Apologies if you've already answered
this.)

 

[Chris Hill]

New development.

I went into BIOS and chose the option "Load Optimized Defaults". I
then chose to Save and Exit. When I choose that option, the screen
will turn black then immediately turn off/standby and the system
freezes. I have to turn the pc off myself by holding the power button
down. When I turn it back on, it will load up straight to the desktop
without seeing the 5-option screen. It will eventually restart after a
few min. When it is starting up again I go into the BIOS once more. I
choose the "Load Fail-Safe Defaults" option and Save and Exit. Again,
the pc freezes. I have to manually turn it off.

I am wondering if this particular aspect of the problem has anything to
do with my CMOS battery. I don't want to take it out to reset the
BIOS, but it looks like I might have to.

Sounds like overheating to me. 61c is too hot for a cpu that isn't
doing anything.

 

[deviatevdp]

I'm pretty sure it's the processor because I took out the fan on top of
the heatsink to get some of the dust out. When I screwed the fan back
on and turned the pc on, it freezes right away. I obviously made the
situation worse. Everything turns on except the monitor and mouse; all
the fans turn on and the CD-RW drive lights up but freezes. So my next
question is: is my processor done or can I still fix it somehow or is
it the heatsink? I don't want to buy another one for a system that
I've been thinking about upgrading; I don't want to upgrade yet because
of financial reasons.

This is a stupid question but I need to ask. I have an aluminum or
copper heatsink (silver in color) with a 40mm fan on top. Should the
fan be positioned as to blow air towards or away from the heatsink?

When I'm in the BIOS, it peaks at 61C. The motherboard is pretty old.
It's Socket A I believe. I have a AMD Athlon XP 2200+ Thoroughbred.
No overclocking or anything. I have to be honest, I can't remember
when I bought it. I'm thinking maybe 1-2 yrs ago but that may not be a
good estimate; it could be even longer than that.

 

[Dude]

deviatevdp wrote:

http://www.hardwareanalysis.com/content/topic/31874/?o=20

I tried booting into Safe Mode and it hanged at mup.sys

I did a quick search on mup.sys
there is no pattern for fixes other than REINSTALL

Just put your bios back at default, I wouldn't mess with the parts
inside man...

burn it down and start over..it takes less than an hour.
If you have vital info that you just can't live without...well...
im not so sure even a re-install would "reconfigure" your devices

the most common cause listed at link above, was...a corrupt file.
meaning, just get a fresh copy of it, in your case you could boot
from a dos floppy, or win98 cd, or goto bootdisk.com on another pc.
make a boot disk 98se is excellent for booting from and working in dos.

but I would just re-install the os..

you can also remove the cmos battery in order to clear the cmos
configuration.
another way to clear the cmos is a jumper setting (while the machine is
unplugged)
then put the jumper back. you'd have to look in your motherboard
manual, they all have a clearing jumper setting. if you remove battery,
try not to touch both sides of the battery it can drain it.

and, finally...get rid of any usb devices you dont need, in order to
get your desktop up

Good Luck

 

[Mxsmanic]

I'm pretty sure it's the processor because I took out the fan on top of
the heatsink to get some of the dust out. When I screwed the fan back
on and turned the pc on, it freezes right away. I obviously made the
situation worse. Everything turns on except the monitor and mouse; all
the fans turn on and the CD-RW drive lights up but freezes. So my next
question is: is my processor done or can I still fix it somehow or is
it the heatsink? I don't want to buy another one for a system that
I've been thinking about upgrading; I don't want to upgrade yet because
of financial reasons.

If the CPU freezes up immediately upon turning the power on, even when
the CPU is cool, then it is probably permanently damaged.

This is a stupid question but I need to ask. I have an aluminum or
copper heatsink (silver in color) with a 40mm fan on top. Should the
fan be positioned as to blow air towards or away from the heatsink?

Most cooling solutions blow air into the heatsink rather than suck air
from it.

When I'm in the BIOS, it peaks at 61C.

That's warm but below the maximum die temperature for many AMD
processors, including yours (I think--based on a quick Google).

The motherboard is pretty old.
It's Socket A I believe. I have a AMD Athlon XP 2200+ Thoroughbred.
No overclocking or anything. I have to be honest, I can't remember
when I bought it. I'm thinking maybe 1-2 yrs ago but that may not be a
good estimate; it could be even longer than that.

Two years isn't very old.

 

[Jim Johnson]

Recently, I had a similar problem that turned out to be a bad memory
stick. Testing was easy because the PC had 2 sticks in it. I removed
one, and the problem still happened. I put it back and removed the
other, and the PC booted normally.

A long time ago I had another issue that sounded like this, and that
time it turned out to be the seal of the heatsink to the CPU. The CPU
kept shutting things down to protect itself. I had 3 duplicate Abit
NF7-S systems, and on every one, the application of thermal paste to
the heatsink had to be done just right or the computer would start to
start, then shut down.

Neither of these might be your issue, but they're good things to
check.

- Jim

 

[deviatevdp]

I recently checked my RAM by switching it with another working system's
RAM and the working system booted up with the RAM from the defective
machine.

I then switched CPU and heatsink from the inoperable system with the
working CPU and heatsink (both are Socket A, AMD Athlon XP's, different
core though, Palomino and Thoroughbred). Anyway, the working system
started fine with the CPU and heatsink from the defective machine.

I even bought a new power supply, Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W. Here is
a link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023.

That still didn't do the job. I think (at least now I HOPE) my ECS
K7VTA3 Version 5.0 motherboard is done since I've done all this work
with no results. I've ordered a motherboard (ECS KT600 Rev 1.0) and it
should arrive on Monday. I'm a little worried because if this doesn't
fix the solution then I don't know what I'll do next. I already feel
like taking an axe to my computer with the situation as it is now.

I will post some results when I install the motherboard.

I also wanna say thanks to you all for the suggestions and comments. I
really appreciate all the help and I've learned a lot more about
hardware from these last two weeks and especially from you guys =).

 

[Chris Hill]

I recently checked my RAM by switching it with another working system's
RAM and the working system booted up with the RAM from the defective
machine.

I then switched CPU and heatsink from the inoperable system with the
working CPU and heatsink (both are Socket A, AMD Athlon XP's, different
core though, Palomino and Thoroughbred). Anyway, the working system
started fine with the CPU and heatsink from the defective machine.

I even bought a new power supply, Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W. Here is
a link: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153023.

That still didn't do the job. I think (at least now I HOPE) my ECS
K7VTA3 Version 5.0 motherboard is done since I've done all this work
with no results. I've ordered a motherboard (ECS KT600 Rev 1.0) and it
should arrive on Monday. I'm a little worried because if this doesn't
fix the solution then I don't know what I'll do next. I already feel
like taking an axe to my computer with the situation as it is now.

I will post some results when I install the motherboard.

I also wanna say thanks to you all for the suggestions and comments. I
really appreciate all the help and I've learned a lot more about
hardware from these last two weeks and especially from you guys =).

You are a slow learner; buy a decent mainboard, ECS may not qualify.

 

[William J. Lunsford]

I've been using an ECS K7S5A for several years with good results and zero
problems. Perhaps I have just been lucky.

 

[deviatevdp]

I've had my ECS K7VTA3 for a while now. It's about time I upgraded
anyway. I got a good deal on the motherboard so that also affected my
purchase.

The problem was the motherboard but I don't know if it could've been
the power supply as well. They're the oldest components in my computer
so it looks like they both undid each other.