XP randomly goes into reboot loop

[swana2k]

Recently built myself a new system Athlon XP 3500+, ASUS AV8 delux
motherboard, 1gb RAM. Sound system had no probs
Then got a wireless router and the motherboard has built in wireles
so i wanted to setup a home network which i did, again all no probs
As my comp was now newly connected to the net I updated windows an
AVG etc... when they were complete i had to customarily reboot. Thi
is when i first hit a reboot loop.

Couldnt solve it so formatted and reinstalled XP (figured it was dow
to windows updates
So as i said i figured it was the windows updates so I dloaded al
apart from the most recent. Rebooted & installed. All good n
probs, so i figure ive cracked it...

Spend another hour or so installing apps i use, customising it all ho
i like it. numerous reboots after installations still no probs
Watch a video in media player.... installed cuteftp which i hadnt don
previously so this cant be the prob. rebooted again to complet
installation, windows loads up with the jingle then reboots lik
someone has just turned off the power

No error messages, no blue screens, just power off and on again. No
its stuck in a loop again like this!! Now this seems pretty random t
me and I've now come to conclusion it must be a hardware prob?
The systems not overloaded power wise by the way

I cant boot up in safe mode either cos the standard keys dont seem t
work F8 selects the boot device on my system and the pause/break ke
has no effect

How the hell do i break the loop and isolate the prob?! All the guide
Ive found involve changing settings in windows which i cant get too?

I pretty sure its not a software issue, its not like I installe
something and then the system loops. There are no glitches in th
actual boot sequence it performs the POST actions fine, XP startu
screen fine. Its so odd

Ideas anyone please!!! I'm not reinstalling everything for the 3r
time for it to randomly hot again

 

[Rich Barry]

You could try disconnecting a few devices that are not needed for OS
functioning. Then try a Repair Install.
You could possibly have a flaky Power Supply or Ram. Check here for
further info on the RI
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/XPrepairinstall.htm

http://btfaq.com/cgi-bin/fom?_recurse=1&file=34#file_36
Check here for possible Network culprits.

 

[t.cruise]

If you have already done this basic thing, please excuse my suggesting it: When you first
install Windows XP, before any problems, right click the My Computer desktop icon, left
click Properties, click the Advanced tab, near the bottom of the window under the heading:
Startup and Recovery, click to REMOVE the checkmark in the box to the left of:
Automatically Restart, then click the OK button, and click the Apply and OK buttons at the
bottom of the remaining window. After doing that, hopefully instead of the rebooting
loop, you WILL get a blue screen, with details of what the error actually is. If you
cannot find a fix for the error detailed on the blue screen, post the information here,
and someone will likely have a fix or a link with information.

If you HAVE already done the above: Are you using a firewall? There are worms/viruses
that cause reboots. Some systems reboot when they overheat because the fan is not working
properly. Have you checked your RAM? Faulty memory can also cause reboots. Is it
possible that you are installing older hardware drivers AFTER the Windows updates, and
that there is a conflict between an older driver and a Windows update?
--

T.C.
t__cruise@[NoSpam]hotmail.com
Remove [NoSpam] to reply

 

[swana2k]

No i havent tried that. Wish someone had told me before!! lol

Just using the windows firewall.
As for drivers... only ones im updating after SP2 are graphics car
(geforce FX 5200 - Nvidia) and (Sound card - Creative Audigy 2 ZS)

Will check the memory too. 2 x 512Mb Corsair.

The system was stable before introducing the wireless it seems. I mea
the onboard wireless was installed but not actually active on
network.

It boots to windows and a window flashes up too quick to see and i
reboots so im thinking it may be the first startup item?? I've als
tried hitting ctl alt del quickly to see what processes are runnin
briefly