SOS computer keeps rebooting.

  • Thread starter Thread starter ZenMasta
  • Start date Start date
Z

ZenMasta

I was watchin a movie clip on Hulu today and next thing you know my computer
reboots. During boot up it prompted to start in safemode etc. I tried
normally and
also last known boot but it gets passed the windows splash screen it just
reboots again.

I tried using safemode but it doens't make any difference.

The last thing I installed today was windows update, ie8 and some other
"critical" patch, and an update to flash player for IE.

I am familiar with other reboot scenarious where win will keep rebooting
cause of a blue screen but I'm not seeing a blue screen. And I can't even
boot into windows to disable the automatic restart on system failure even if
that was the case. Any ideas??


This is killing me, everything has been working just fine and I even
rebooted once or so after the windows update.
 
Hi "ZenMasta"

I feel your pain..
I too have been suckered in to the "ya better load the latest security
patch" trap
and/or
WinWoes will blungeon you in your sleep if you don't upgrade IE.
Actually, without the latest and greatest IE - the application that scans
your computer for updates complains...
As you just found out though, getting all the latest fixes - ?may? actually
fix sumthun some where...
But,
It can, also, cause problems greater than what the fixes were supposed to
fix....

Welcome to the wunnerful world of WinWoes.

What say you and me take an oath.
If the damn thing works - don't fix it.
We'll both be alot happier.

You are really screwed here.
Without a bootable disk, you can't get the reboot loop to stop.
No body gets real for real boot CDs, DVD's etc.
Everything comes preinstalled.
All the maintainence updates download off the web.
When it all tanks there is no square one to return to.
You can't even rebuild your system from scratch.

hmm...
Desperate times call for desperate measures.
As screwy as it sounds... you may still be able to thwart to loop.

Plan A
What you are going to have to do is really piss off the machine.
WinWoes has about 17 different degrees of "off."
Most of them are just kinda offs - not really off... (standby, power down,
sleep mode)
Just because the screen is dark, the computer is dark - and, nothing lights
up on the keyboard - that doesn't mean that the critter is actually dead.
What you have to shoot for is a completely dead off...
Try pulling the plug.
Recently with all my fixes, updates, and upgrades my machine would lock up...
The only way to unlock the keyboard was a complete power down.
Ya may have to leave it off for 15 or 20 seconds.
If there is a printer, back up drive, externally power USB device - shut
them all down.
You don't want power to back feed from any other device.
If you are lucky - the system is intializing from a false state.
The the external devices can't provide enough power to run the pc... but,
they can trickle enough power back in to confuse the CPU - it's may not know
where to start in the boot cycle.
If it's a laptop, pull the battery.

Plan B
Check and make sure the removable disk bays are empty.
Try opening and closing the disk bays while the loop is cycling (assuming
Plan A failed)
This can trip the boot cycle in to looking for a bootable disk.

Plan C
Stick a non bootable disk in your boot drive.
That should break the loop.
It'll have to stop long enough to complain.

Plan D
Hit F2 has the reboot cycle goes by...
Maybe a side trip thru the BIOS will reveal sumthun.

Plan E
Keep trying Safe Mode...
Simple is supposed to be better...
I used it a time or two.
It dumps you to a devestated desktop - but, that can be better than nothing.

BTW
The problem may not be related to the WinWoes updates and patches..
Probably, - but, not definately.

Hulu is running some copywrite protection on some video files.
The FLVs in the latest HD may not play at all.
If you are running share ware to crack the encryption, you may be looking at
a manifested conflict between WinWoes and the Kamikazi code in the shareware.

If these machines were designed by sane people, simply turning off the
machines would clear the problem.
Unfortunately, since USB and Plug-and-Pray came along, went a systems
crashes significantly in can effect stored values for all those danging
external hardware devices.

Hm..
Plan F
Unplug everything non- essential... even the network connection...
This will throw a world of hurt to the system for missing hardware devices.
Kind of a do-it-yourself safe-mode.
Without having to deal with loading all the peripheral drivers, maybe it's
let you get to the desktop.
If you make it, try restarting a couple of times.
Then add peripherals one at a time.

If you ever get back online, try running some diagnostics and/or
maintainence applications.
Advanced System Care
IObit 360
Desktop Maestro.
Windows Cleaner.
Anything to sniff out the psychotic conflicts.
 
IE8 isnt a critical update nor is it required. I would get a boot disk
which can be easily found on a
bing or google search.

Craig
 
I have completely powered down the computer as well as leaving the power
unplugged for some time and pushing the power button to uncharge the PSU.

If I choose safemode, it gets as far as Mup.sys and then after about 5
seconds it reboots.

RE: Copy protection on hulu. This is a computer at my office and everything
is legit. It just happened to be a little slow yesterday.

I'm not totally SOL here because
A: I created an image of the computer about a week ago
B: I have OEM installation CD (real oem not dell/hp etc) so I can reinstall
if I had to (ie, image failed)
I would just really prefer not to have to reimage because I still have to
pull data off the computer etc.

So by bootable disk, what else do you mean besides the winXP cd? and what am
I supposed to do with it?

RE: unplugging all non essentials. I have a usb mouse and keyboard.
Everything else is integrated on the mother board, lan vga etc. We don't use
extra peripherals here.
 
Oh, I tried recovery console and chckdsk /p
it said there were one or more errors but didn't say anything besides that
so I rebooted.

AND I appear to be back in business BUT when I did finally log in
it said the system recovered from a serious error.

Firefox loaded up an MS page about blue screens and a hardware problem and
that I should reinstall drivers. But it doesn't mention which hardware.

random computer bs... the story of our lives.
 
Robbie said:
I have completely powered down the computer as well as leaving the power
unplugged for some time and pushing the power button to uncharge the PSU.

If I choose safemode, it gets as far as Mup.sys and then after about 5
seconds it reboots.

RE: Copy protection on hulu. This is a computer at my office and everything
is legit. It just happened to be a little slow yesterday.

I'm not totally SOL here because
A: I created an image of the computer about a week ago
B: I have OEM installation CD (real oem not dell/hp etc) so I can reinstall
if I had to (ie, image failed)
I would just really prefer not to have to reimage because I still have to
pull data off the computer etc.

So by bootable disk, what else do you mean besides the winXP cd? and what am
I supposed to do with it?
Click to expand...

Knoppix live Linnux CD. Go to www.knopper.net and download the iso image.
Burn it to disk using the "Burn image to disk" feature of Nero or equivalent
of Roxio. Put the disk the failed computer and set it to boot from CD, attach
your USB hard drive and reboot the machine. When the computer reboots, Linnux
will now run off the CD and you should be able to copy your data off the
internal drive to the external drive. Also, since you have a Windows XP
install CD, you may be able to do a system restore from the Recovery Console.
Check out the following KB article:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/307545
This has worked for me on occasion.
You may also have a hardware failure; if the Knoppix disk won't run you will
need to check into that.
 
I would think that it was related to hulu. The MUP driver is network
related(multiple unc driver)
Then again, you cant rule out hardware failure
 
Well, the issue is resolved I guess. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I would certainly hope it is not hardware failure. The mobo is only a few
weeks old.
 
Robbie said:
Well, the issue is resolved I guess. Thanks for all the suggestions.

I would certainly hope it is not hardware failure. The mobo is only a
few weeks old.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't say the issue is resolved.

What do we know:

1) New mobo. Level of testing unknown.
2) System rebooted under load. Possible reasons.
RAM error, CPU problem, CPU heating (or cooling problem)
3) Since the system rebooted randomly (a "dirty" shutdown if you will),
the file system needed to be cleaned up. Thus the recovery
with chkdsk.

The way I see it, the system needs to be methodically tested.

a) Memtest86+ from memtest.org (what it lacks in stressful testing,
it makes up for, in terms of the number of bytes tested). A couple
complete passes is enough, taking perhaps a couple hours at most.

b) Run Prime95 for four hours, without the program halting with an
error. (I'm running it right now, because I've made system changes
and I'm verifying stability again.) It does a calculation with a
known answer, and is able to detect when the answer is not right.
This version is multithreaded, and runs a thread per core.

http://majorgeeks.com/Prime95_d4363.html

When prompted to "join", use the "just stress testing" option.
The blended test is good enough.

It could turn out that the motherboard needs tweaking.

HTH,
Paul
 
Back
Top