Resolved Computer reboots repeatedly just before welcome screen

@Smart
I not only clean the system I had replaced the cpu fan and power supply a little while ago which considerably increased system performance so I know exactly what you are talking about. I will take another look though.

@Tanya
You have given a lot of information for thought and action. I will try my best to answer your requests as I go through you response.

1. The hard drive I used was a formatted one but I am presently using the one from before I was able to achieve a successful installation but with this present problem. Wouldn't you say that the fact that I am running perfectly in Safe Mode that it most probably would point to a Driver Issue?

2. What is IMHO just to be sure? As it relates to the Audio Drivers the OEM is VIA Realtek AC'97 as pointed out by the mother board manufacturer which is Biostar (P4M800-M7 A Version 7.0)

3. I want to add that before I installed the Win 7 TP I was using XP SP3 without any problems at all. What I know happened is when I started to experience hangup etc I scanned for viruses and malware and it moved aspects of Win7 TP and then my real problems began. What I believe I should have done was allow those files to go back where they were and try to uninstall the Win 7 TP and then scan again but I never did that and I'm pretty sure I had remnants of Win 7 TP on the system.
I also believed that I had major installation issues because I was trying to install the same Windows directory but after I renamed it the installation went perfect into a New Windows Directory. I believe that because I did an update way back to SP3 and everything went well that now I have done basically a clean install that I'm encountering the driver issues that I didn't before.
Your thoughts and this would be greatly appreciated.

4. I appreciate your tip on installing software and I will follow that from now on.

5. I will read through those posts and update respond accordingly.

6. My computer specs are:
Intel P4 3.2GHz,
1 Gig of RAM at present but I usually use 1.5 Gig (haven't put back in the other slot yet)
I gave the mother board ealier which have built in LAN, Audio and Video.
250 GB Hard drive (Western Digital)

My update is as follows:
1. I disabled WFP in order to overcome my overwriting issue with the USB drivers and that proved successful. My USB issues have been solved so far since I haven't encountered no restarts putting in or pulling out USB devices.

2. Since then I got a couple hangs and a few reboots, I check the dump file logs and they all pointed to 2 drivers: i8042prt.sys and portcls.sys
I am presently going to get drivers off another CD to replace those and see how the system behaves.

Your thought would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I think we are very close to solving this issue.

 

Most likely. Safe Mode disables all non essentials.

In My Humble Opinion

I don't understand "...it moved aspects of Win TP... "
I think that some parts of WIN 7 TP are still there as you say below

Windows 7 TP was never "formally" uninstalled?

If the windows 7 TP files have been moved around I don't think you can successfully uninstall it.

I still don't think it is a clean installation.

If "2." (right above) does not solve it, I would completely format the drive (or get a new one)
Are you running win XP SP3 now?

What is this other CD? (Is it XP SP3?)

I still would recommend formatting the drive (all of it). Or using a new HD just because IMHO the drivers and whatever else *might* be from any of the OS (notably WIN 7 TP).
If it was me at this point, I would format (again) and reinstall making certain that added programs (drivers, etc.) are new ones (download them from the OEM Web sites).
I just think it would be easier in the long run...
I look forward to hearing about the results
Tanya

 

To answer your questions:

The other CD I am talking about is a XP SP3 CD - I have 3 of them.
I am running XP SP 3 now.

Update:

Up till present it seems as if I have corrected the Audio Driver issues since I used VIA Vinyl '97 Driver instead of Realtek - so far so good.
I am still getting the i8042prt.sys error which obviously have to do with the mouse and /or keyboard - in this case I believe the mouse. Sometimes the system reboots while I am using the mouse or it sticks and I have to reset. I have one more driver version to try for this one to see how it will behave. Failing that I will try using a USB mouse and see if it is a hardware problem with the mouse.

If the problems persist I will take your advice and reformat the drive and start from scratch. I honestly don't want to do that but I just might not have a choice.

 

Update:

Well, I went through as much checking where this whole driver issue was concern without success. What eventually happened was the system was still unstable.

I cleaned the hard drive and installed XP SP2 since of heard of issues regarding SP3 and rebooting issues. The installation went well and it got to the desktop for the first time. I started to use the system, obviously looking to install drivers and so forth and there it went again rebooting in my face.
I must add here that when I stick back in the other hard drive which I spoke about earlier, the system had rebooting issues which definitely led me back to thinking hardware problem(s). Nevertheless I was able to clean the original hard drive.

After the system starting rebooting after the present installation of SP2 I decided to upgrade the BIOS which I thought was the solution because after that the system appeared to be running smoothly. Then the problem started again. I thought is was windows updates or drivers so I did a system restore right back and the problem persisted.
What convinced me that the problem is hardware is that I turned off the system and when I turned it back on the hard drive led would remain lit but no signal was going to the monitor which I obviously round strange and when I turn it off and turn it back on it would boot up and reboot during the boot up stage over and over. I pulled out the RAM and on one occasion it the power led did not light up and the system hanged before any signal went to the monitor. I knew then my problem had to be hardware related.
I know the problem isn't solved cause since I got it to boot up I haven't turned it back off but I believe the issue is the power supply because I have put back in all the RAM, which I thought was giving the problem, and the system has not given me a problem since and it has been running for almost 18 hours now. I will purchase a new case and power supply to give more ventilation to the processor and install and see if everything is good.
The same system that was rebooting is now seemingly stable and I have done nothing except turn it off and then turn it back on (realised the startup problems regarding the leds etc), turn it off and then back on.
I have installed windows updates, installed a few programs etc with no problems at all. I was even able to make this post on the same computer in Normal Mode.

I am really looking forward to hearing you'll thoughts in light of my update.

I will update when I setup the system with new case and power supply.

Regards

Len

 

Complete format? So there was nothing left?

Re: the other HD (cannot find ref to it in thread right now) - is it working okay in any other system?
How "clean" did you get the original hard drive?

Should remove all the dust (etc.)

You might want to take a look at these:
5 Star Support Forums - Spontaneous reboots
http://www.5starsupport.com/ipboard/lofiversion/index.php?t1011.html

Solved: Computer dead- Is there a simple way to test Power Supply? - Tech Support Guy Forums
http://forums.techguy.org/hardware/583336-solved-computer-dead-there-simple.html


Power Supply Test - How Do I Test the Power Supply in My Computer? - PSU Test
http://pcsupport.about.com/od/toolsofthetrade/f/powersupplytest.htm

Will be interested to hear....

 

When I say I cleaned the hard drive, I didn't do a full format because I didn't want to clean off my personal files and programs. What I did was deleted the old windows folders. Renamed the Program Files folder, user folder and deleted all hidden files etc. When I was finish all I had on the drive was my personal files and setup files for programs to reinstall.
From my experience that would prove to be quite efficient in terms of preparing a harddrive for installation/reinstallation.

I didn't have another system to put the other hard drive in so I had put it in this system in order to clean off the original hard drive. That hard drive has SP3 installed on it.

I have purchased a new case and power supply so I will set that up some time today but I can say that presently the system is working without any problems at all. It has not rebooted since I last posted and it feels great. As we all know, there is nothing like the feel of a clean OS installation. Nevertheless, I will endeavour to find out what could have been the problem which caused the constant rebooting. Actually, I am kindda prolonging the move to the new case etc to see if the problem will will reoccur.

Should I create a restore point and try doing the SP3 update from Microsoft and see how it goes? A part of me wants to know if that could have been part of the problem or the problem.

Your thoughts.

 

Hi

What I would do is: (and I dread ever having to format) buy a new harddrive and install whatever version of windows you want on it (trying to be consistent) and use the new drive as boot drive.
I would set the current drive as slave (a good way to keep your files.) IMHO files can be kept this way; programs usually cannot (b/c of the shared files etc. requiring the os)
So I would have the current drive set as slave (only for storage).
(I have not had much luck dissecting os's and even if I had a working system, I would assume that there might (likely) be issues in the future relating to the current situation e.g.several os's).

But, if the same problems re-occurs, you would still have the drive (that you have now) untouched and you could set it back to master.

Having 2 drives could also act as a crude test for the psu (being an extra).

They were not connected at the same time were they? (as maser and slave were they?)
With SP3 and or 2 drives were there more reboots / BSOD's?

What changed since you have not had any more reboots?

Why? You used a drive with SP3 didn’t you?

IMHO I’d stick to 1 possibility and go through with it: Like if the system is still running well, likely not a hardware issue.
You *could* try the SP3 updates (if for some reason the drive with sp3 installed had not worked well) but I would make sure my files were on accessible media (like a second hard drive; a flash drive, a CD etc.)
Tanya

 

The hard drive I used was pretty much new cause it was clean and I never had any issues with it. Apparently when I used that hard and did the installation I realised that the issue was still there so that is what prompted to me to thinking hardware.
So I pretty much had the same problem, so I booted into slave mode with my original hard drive hooked up and cleaned it up before using it again.

They were connected together and I still got the BSODs and rebooting.

The only change I can honestly say was to clean up the hard drive, did a clean installation of XP SP2, all hardware components are still the same.

Update:
Everything is still up and running very well. I am using the current case and power supply but will be transferring later on. I have not turned off the system for a while and then power back up to see if I still have the issues with the LEDs etc and not booting but I will do that shortly and see how it responds.

I really appreciate everyone's opinions and support on my issue and as I go through everything I will make the final updates unless something else happens.

 

To clarify: Both drives hooked up together should stress the PSU compared to having only 1 harddrive attached. (A crude test).
Hooking up more devices, etc. should cause more errors attributable to a less than adequate PSU.
There could also be problems with the PSU when the PC is running (shorts etc.) which IMHO would cause sporadic errors.

IIRC a bad PSU will not allow the PC to boot at all. The PSU performs a self-test right away. But a defective one may allow the boot process but might show sporadic errors while running...

There is always the CMOS battery... (I've seen problems with it without the classic date and time losses / changes)
I've had missing drives etc which are found later.... due to low batteries i.e. not storing the info.(FWIW)

Anyone want to jump in here?

So what I had meant to ask was whether there were more BSODs and spontaneous reboots when both HDs were connected (assume to same PSU)?
Or were there around the same numbers?

Why?

I would do that first.

 

I see exactly what you mean cause for sure I do remember that when I had both drives hooked up it did reboot more often. I had to go into Safe Mode to perform functions.

Well I bought a new case and power supply which I had intended to do even before this problem occurred because this case is too small for my current specs in that when I bought my original system back in 1998 it was a P3, I since upgraded to a P4 3.2GHz and in this case the psu is right over the cpu and fan so I realised that it started to cause higher than usual cpu temperatures. In addition, if I want to get to the cpu fan to clean or to change I first have to remove the psu which i find in this day and age to be inconvenient.
I think it's time to give the motherboard and parts more breathing space. Obviously, this improves system performance.

I will shut it down and turn it back on to see what the effects are like before I make the change over to the new case and power supply.

Again thanks for your input.

P.S. I believe it's a failing psu because it keeps funny noises at times. Additionally, I realised that only one of my RAM chips are presently working so I guess one of them gone bad.

 

Update:

I did as I said and the problem was there where I had to reset to get it to boot right up. Anyways, since we concluded that it was hardware related I decided to go ahead and transfer the parts to the new case with power supply. Would you believe that on booting up the computer went to a constant rebooting at the point of the XP logo and would not go any further at all. Obviously, I knew now that only 2 things were left - the RAM and the motherboard.
At this stage I had no more memory to swap - all 2 of the chips seemed to have failed because each one presented the same results. I could boot into Safe Mode but not Normal Mode. Since I knew the system was working well before the change I ruled out software or drivers.
Honestly, after being at this for weeks now I went straight out and bought a new motherboard and RAM and after installation the system is working perfectly without any problems thus far.
The RAM I was using with that board was DDR so I decided to upgrade one time since I had it planned but just not at this time (guessed the time came). The new board carries DDR2 so If I happen to get some DDR I would try my hand at it again some time.

 

Yes it is. But don't mark it as "solved" right away because the problem could come back. On that note if it persists, you'll either need to upgrade your hardware or get new hardware.