Constantly Restarting

[marshahu]

I have another machine of the following spec:

MSI Socket A Motherboard MS-6712
AMD Athlon XP 2000+
1GB of OCUK PC3200 RAM
Hitachi 80GB ATA Hard Disk
Hitachi 40GB ATA Hard Disk acting as spare storage
LG DVD ROM 16x
Aopen 16x DVD Rewriter
Standard Issue Floppy Disk Drive
HIS Radeon 9550 256MB AGP Graphics Card
Realtek ALC650 6 Channel Sound
Belkin Wireless 54g Card
ESS 56k Modem
17in C72 IBM CRT Monitor


I know some of the detail is a tad excessive but I want to leave no stone unturned.

Recently the computer has simply not been working. It keeps intermittently restarting itself. Sometimes I would get as far as the logon screen and the moment I click on somebody's name, before the sound even plays, the monitor would just show an Out of Range Message before restarting itself. On other occasions its logged in, loaded a couple of things including the Catalyst Control Center, then the moment I attempt to even open an Internet Window it would .... yeap you guessed it, show Out of Range before restarting. Sometimes it would tease me - it would let me go into a website, open iTunes and listen to several songs from there or even open and manipulate some files for about 5 - 10 mins tops ... and then when I least expect it - Out of Range.......Restart again.
Sometimes on restarting it would be delayed and I could hear the hard disk "initialize" - it made a clunk sound before speeding up again.

On some occasions the restart doesn't even finish the boot up procedure as it halts saying Keyboard error even though my PS/2 Keyboard is plugged in and fully working. Only way I get around this is to turn it off completely and then back on.

My suspicions are as follows, the first one being my prime suspciion, last being my hazardous guess

My RAM
My Hard Disk
My Graphics Card
My Processor
My Motherboard (I hope not)

I am testing my memory using a thorough Memtest. I tried removing the 40GB Hard Disk from the system to give the main one more room to breathe as my case is one of those bog standard ones which dont leave much room for two hard disks to breathe - they are practically sandwhiched on top of each other!!

Until I can RMA my RAM or get hold of some other RAM to test the computer with, are there any other suggestions as to what is causing these problems[/list]

 

[edklite]

what happens in safemode?

 

[marshahu]

Is more stable than in normal mode but when I try and run a virus scan or do anything intensive like surf the internet then it does exactly the same thing.

 

[Wonderwill]

What's wierd is that mine was restarting just recently but stopped when I updated my video card driver. Try it and see if it works.

 

[sturm]

"Out of range" means the signal coming from the video card is beyond the monitors capabilities.
Try removing the drivers completly and reinstall with the origional cd. See if problem remains.
Is the graphics card overclocked? If so take it back to stock.
Can you try another graphics card to test?

 

[marshahu]

I have managed to update the drivers to catalyst 7.4 although that didnt stop the restarting.

I tried removing and re-seating the memory modules - that seems to have done the trick for the time being.

 

[Poonam]

It's hard to identify the problem, could be a fault in RAM too. Also there is some possibility that a malicious software is causing it. Did you try Windows Repair?


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[marshahu]

I dont think there was any malicious software on the PC - I did do a check and the virus scanner couldnt complete because of the restarting problem!! However during the time the PC behaved itself it didn't flag up any potential offenders nor did it show symptoms of being infected.

That was one of my options that I was considering doing if the problem continued but I didn't want to risk losing all my files and everything and having a half baked installation of Windows.

Surely a repair is just the same as reinstalling Windows XP right?

 

[edklite]

no repair keeps all your apps and stuff and you don't need to download and install and configure everything, but install its all fresh.

any chance of uploading a dump file we can look at?

 

[marshahu]

I see - so a repair basically keeps everything the same way it was before but just installs fresh system files. My family also use this computer so I am hoping to do something which will be indistinguishable to the average user.

Do excuse my ignorance but what exactly is a dump file

 

[edklite]

never be embarrassed to ask questions.

dump files are basically files you can set your XP to create when there is a failure, they will dump the memory files and analyse them. the reason for your problems will be in those dump files, and expert can read them and figure out what it is.

now I'm no expert but from time to time it has helped solve others problems.

if you like we can tell you how to set that up, or if you like you can just do a repair and see if that does it for you.

what ever works for you

 

[marshahu]

I choose to take up your offer and set up this dumping procedure so that the experts can pinpoint the problem.

After all, a repair will be no use if the problem lies with the hardware! :lol:

 

[edklite]

a repair will not cost you anythign but 20 minutes

to enable dump, right click my compouter>properties>advanced>startup and recovery>setttings>make it look like this:

now if your pc crashes you should see teh dump file at your windows\minidump.

under minidump folder then there will be one or more dump files if there are crashes. once you have them upload it and lets us have a look and see if we can see but if I where you I would just do a repair

 

[marshahu]

I will probably end up doing that in the end. What will I lose when doing a repair?? From reading many workshops its is if I am reinstalling Windows and starting from fresh with no files, programs and all settings back to default, including the default Teletubies Desktop Background!!!

Have you done a repair before?

 

[edklite]

ok you must do it in these steps in this order.

1. go and find all the links you have to those workshops and delete those links and never use again.

2. pop in your xp cd

Using XP CD Boot with the Windows XP CD and at the Setup Screen press the Enter Key



You will be taken to the Windows XP Licensing Agreement. After reading the agreement press F8 to proceed.



The next screen gives you the option to do a fresh (clean) install or to repair the selected Windows XP installation. To run a Repair Install Press "R" at this time.
***CAUTION*** if you do not see the option to repair the selected Windows XP installation DO NOT choose the option to continue installing a fresh copy without repairing as that will overwrite your data and cause unrecoverable data loss.



Windows XP will copy the necessary files to your Hard Drive to begin the installation and will then reboot. You will see the message that informs you to "Press any key to boot the CD". Do not press any keys this time just wait a few seconds and the Windows Startup Screen will be displayed. Following this you will be greeted by the Windows XP Setup Screens.







When Setup has completed you should find all of your previously installed apps and settings are intact.

you don't lose anything with repair, just windows keys and you will need to install your drives again that is it

 

[marshahu]

My drives?? How would I go about installing them? Or do you mean my drivers for all the hardware (i.e. graphics, sound, printer, etc)

What happens to my service packs. My original installation disc is one of those copies prior to SP1 (the ancient one!) and I have SP2 on a separate installation disc. If my drivers are interleaved into some applications (i.e. HP Printers and their drivers are interleaved in their Solution Center, Realtek AC'97 audio is interleaved with their Sound Manager application, or in the case of my MCE PC the Audigy 2 is interleaved with Creative's heap full of software) what happens to those applications - do I have to reinstall them from scratch, and will my settings for those applications be lost.

I remember back in the days of repairing Windows Me my Audigy 2 sound card only had basic functionality because all the software and settings were corrupted! Hence the reason I'm sceptical about doing any sort of repair on Windows - past experiences have been a case of cure being worse than the disease!

 

[edklite]

sorry drivers.

just slipstream the sp2 and your drivers into one cd

do a search you will find lot of threads on slipstream

 

[marshahu]

I have already used summit called nLite to attempt to slipstream SP2 onto Windows XP PRO CD. I attempted to make one which not only slipstreams but lets me do automated installations so I dont have to hang around to tell it where I live and change the keyboard from US to UK and all that repetitive bollocks!! And so that once its installed, all the settings are nicely configured (i.e. cleartype, desktop icons, etc)

How can I test to see that I have slipstreamed the service packs correctly - I have made the ISO and burned it onto a CD. I also have a MCE 2005 slipstreamed onto a DVD (it was 2CDs) along with Rollup 2 - again how can I be assured that this will work without having to use a computer as a guinea pig before doing the real repair!

Failing the slipstream - is there no way I could just repair Windows then add service pack 2 later or will the Sp2 files cause a problem during the repair that only slipstreaming can fix?

Boy Microsoft sure no how to make life complicated!! God knows what Vista must be like!!

 

[edklite]

to test it try and install it on another drive I guess I'm not sure what to tell you, I have never used a sp1 to repair an sp2 so I don't' know if its gonna be OK or not, I'm thinking halfway thru repair its gonna ask you for sp2 CD, you maybe able to put sp2 on a second CD and put that in when it asks for it but if your slipstream is working fine then it should all be fine.