Windows Keeps Restarting

[LouisG]

A friends having a problem and i think i might know whats wrong but would
like to hear other suggestions.

He's running a p4 2.0ghz with 1024 megs of ram a cd player and a cd
rewriter , and a 128 mg video card.

Recently his machine has been acting up ,, not making it past the post
screen and then when it does it gets to the Windows Xp screen and then
reboots on its own.

This just started on Friday ,, the only change to his machine was a
complete format and new install of Xp along with upgrading the ram from
256 to the now 1024 and replaced his 64 mg video card with the 128mg card
, and installed all updates including sp2.

I'm leaning towards a not powerful enough power supply ,, but was
wondering if anyone else had any suggestions?

All are appreciated ,,and yes i have done a search of previous posts and
have collected some ideas , but most really don't seem to help or apply
to his situation.

Thanks, Gord

 

[Haggis]

A friends having a problem and i think i might know whats wrong but would
like to hear other suggestions.

He's running a p4 2.0ghz with 1024 megs of ram a cd player and a cd
rewriter , and a 128 mg video card.

Recently his machine has been acting up ,, not making it past the post
screen and then when it does it gets to the Windows Xp screen and then
reboots on its own.

This just started on Friday ,, the only change to his machine was a
complete format and new install of Xp along with upgrading the ram from
256 to the now 1024 and replaced his 64 mg video card with the 128mg card
, and installed all updates including sp2.

I'm leaning towards a not powerful enough power supply ,, but was
wondering if anyone else had any suggestions?

All are appreciated ,,and yes i have done a search of previous posts and
have collected some ideas , but most really don't seem to help or apply
to his situation.

Thanks, Gord

what size power supply is in the unit ?

video and RAM seated properly on board....(faulty ram?) try running a
memory checker to test (memtest)

correct video drivers.....

 

[Ron Bogart]

In

A friends having a problem and i think i might know whats wrong but
would like to hear other suggestions.

He's running a p4 2.0ghz with 1024 megs of ram a cd player and a cd
rewriter , and a 128 mg video card.

Recently his machine has been acting up ,, not making it past the post
screen and then when it does it gets to the Windows Xp screen and then
reboots on its own.

This just started on Friday ,, the only change to his machine was a
complete format and new install of Xp along with upgrading the ram
from 256 to the now 1024 and replaced his 64 mg video card with the
128mg card , and installed all updates including sp2.

I'm leaning towards a not powerful enough power supply ,, but was
wondering if anyone else had any suggestions?

All are appreciated ,,and yes i have done a search of previous posts
and have collected some ideas , but most really don't seem to help or
apply to his situation.

Thanks, Gord

If they added memory and video card, possible that the video card doesn't
have the correct drivers loaded and is bombing out. What happens if you
boot into safe mode and uninstall the video card and then reboot?

 

[LouisG]

what size power supply is in the unit ?

video and RAM seated properly on board....(faulty ram?) try running
a memory checker to test (memtest)

correct video drivers.....

it's a P4 case , so i assume its at least 350w right?? i know i had a
problem like this with my P4 case and had to put in a 400+w power supply.

I haven't tried upgrading the drivers for the card , but the whole thing
was working fine for about a week and a half before this problem arose.

thats why i figured maybe the power supply was getting overloaded and not
working properly to support everything.

 

[LouisG]

In

If they added memory and video card, possible that the video card
doesn't have the correct drivers loaded and is bombing out. What
happens if you boot into safe mode and uninstall the video card and
then reboot?

wouldn't that be a problem though right from the start , i mean right
after the card was installed?? this machine ran fine for about a week and
a half after the upgrade to the card and memory.

he tried booting into safe mode and nothing happens ,,can't go anywhere
,,i had it over here after he started to complain about it not booting
properly and not having keyboard support ,,he was using a usb keyboard
and i brought it over to my bench and hooked it up , but with a ps2
keyboard and it booted fine about 5-6 times ,, he picked it up took it
home and it booted once with his usb keyboard and then wouldn't boot
again , he tried a ps2 keyboard and it booted to the xp screeen and then
started it's looping.

I just got the machine here and i tried the following ,, boot to safe
mode ,nope ,,remove one stick of ram at a time ,,nope ,,take out video
card ,,nope ,, removed both cd rom's ,nope ,,,,,,

anything else to try or could it still be the power supply ,,its a
260watt supply ,, but you would think with all the power hogs taken out
that it would still boot it okay.

Gord

 

[Alex Nichol]

This just started on Friday ,, the only change to his machine was a
complete format and new install of Xp along with upgrading the ram from
256 to the now 1024 and replaced his 64 mg video card with the 128mg card
, and installed all updates including sp2.

I'm leaning towards a not powerful enough power supply ,, but was
wondering if anyone else had any suggestions?

That is possible. But such an upgrade is going to add very little to
the power consumption. Also if he upgraded the RAM by adding modules,
rather than say by replacing 256 with 2 new 512, then they may well be
insufficiently well matched - windows is fussy on matching.

 

[LouisG]

Well i figured it out i think ,,,i ran the windows repair ,,got into
checkdisk and it found and fixed a improper file. I then ran fixboot and
rebooted ,,,i got into windows ,,though it said it couldn't find the
profiles that had been created ,, but then i was able to use system
restore and got it back to the date that we did all the updates ,,,seems
this kid had been adding programs out the whazzo and maybe one of them
corrupted something ,,, but bottom line ,, i had it booting over and over
again for about 10 times with no problems ,, and i haven't heard back
from him yet.

Well it wasn't what i thought it was , but at least it was another
learning experience for me on the road to learning more about these crazy
boxes!!

Thanks to all for the ideas and help.

Gord