PC keeps re booting on its own

My daughter is having probs with her desktop PC ..................she is useing win XP pro ...............and her PC keeps re booting all the time ......

ie : - screen comes up for a couple of minutes then re-boots all by its self ...........anyone got any ideas

 

IT BOOTS UP TO A BLACK SCREEN .......................THEN IT GOES TO ANOTHER SCREEEN SAYING "TO BOOT TO LAST KNOWN CONFIGURATION THAT WORKED ".........THEN IT FREEZES AGAIN .

 

Hi Brian,

Are you saying you can't boot into Windows at all? If it crashes before you can select "Last known good" it would tend to point to a hardware failure of some sort.

Likely suspects are RAM or video card or fan motor.

Try booting to Safe Mode by repeatedly pressing the f8 key while booting. That should give you the same black screen with the Advanced Boot Options. Select Safe Mode and report back if you are able to get into a Windows session without crashing.

If you can't make SafeMode, try booting to your XP install CD, assuming you have such. You may need to enter the CMOS setup by pressing the correct key during POST (first boot screen) and put the CD-ROM at the first position in the boot sequence. If it crashes there it will verify that you have a serious hardware fault.

Also please give more system details - floppy drive? CD Burner? Do you have a full XP install CD or is it an OEM or did you not get any install CD?

Answer all those as best you can and it will help speed things along.

 

it will not go past "safe Mode" screen .........................i`m getting a task bar of sorts saying system will re boot in 30 seconds .................
The only disc I have is the windows Xp Pro installation disc.............I shut down system the re booted to windows xp install screen (blue screen ) ........then it asked me if I wanted to repair or install .
The systen first tries to boot from floppy 1st
then from ide maxtor 2nd boot
then from cd/dvd rom.3rd boot

 

Boot to the install CD and choose the repair option by selecting "R" when asked. When you get the command prompt, type chkdsk /r and press enter. It will take several minutes to complete. Perhaps it can fix" your system and make it boot properly. We must try this before going foward to other areas.

 

I managed to get to the log on screen,..... then it just re booted from scratch again .
I have tried to get it to boot from windows installation disc , but again it keeps re booting .

 

Check your fans for proper air flow with no heavy dust/lint restrictions.

Run a memory test on the RAM using a boot floppy with the test software.

If you have no RAM test software, you can get an approved one here.

Post back any results and I'll keep an eye out for you.

ps. This is sounding more like a bum power supply than anything else but let's do the other easier stuff first.

 

I downloaded ram tester to floopy disc, inserted disc and re booted system ..........it booted up ok ...........started to do it`s job by scanning system memory ,or what ever it does .........then it re -booted itself again .....there is no dust or fluff in the system , the fans work ok , the lights on the stack system light up ok,the cd-rom & dvd drives light up ................it`s just re booting/starting up over & over again.


The system just switched itself off completely ......no power at all

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

I think I have now got it sorted ...................I took power supply out of my PC and put it in my daughters ................. "hey presto" ...booted up 1st time ......no crashes .............YET!
Many thanks to all those who helped with there sugeations ........and especialy to "surferdude2 "...... who said it may be the bum power supply ..........spot on m8 .................thanks very much ................all I got to do now is go get here a atx power supply .


Just one quick question ....................the duff power supply I took out was a 300w standard supply ..................do I need to up grade to a bigger wattage.?...ie 500w

 

Size of Power Supply

Several points

1) It all depends what you are running

- if you have added a lot to the computer in the sort of power hungry peripheals - such as hard drives and cd/dvd drives
- the numbers on the power supplies are fantasy island.
a meter is attached to a test model.
the power supply is turned on once . "I think I saw 400 watts "


2) What power is necessary in a power supply
this should create some discussion.

My son had an earlier Dell mid premium range

- ended up its life with two hard drives
- 40 and a 250 gig
- came with a cd burner and dvd burner ( later dvd burner - dvd player)
- ati 9000 video card ( large fan)

all ran very nicely with no starts and stops for video editing on the original Dell Power Supply rated at 90 Watts


3) A better premium power supply with 2 distinct power channels - two diffirent lines of power - one for the motheboard and one for the peripheals can give a real whallop of extra speed and smoothness of operation.
In addition you will get a bunch of extra cords to plug things into

 

I'm glad you're on the road to recovery pestguard1.

Power supplies are generally robust and tend to be the last thing we consider when troubleshooting.

You can stick with the same size rating for a replacement if you haven't added any drives. Hard drives are the biggest drain, especially the starting surge of the motor during spin-up. That said, I'm currently running three hard drives and a burner on a 350 watt rated PS.

All the best.