System reboots randomly.

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Drew" <Drew@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4367C816-CD68-4192-B8AF-0DB7CA28B7BF@microsoft.com
> This problem happened 3-4 months ago and then went away until
> yesterday. It is very random and sometimes when it is just on but
> idle, and others when it is running a program I.E. Ad-aware. When it
> comes back on it usually goes tru the motions slower, and stops at a
> screen that say (amongst others) boot from CD twice afterwhich it
> says DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. After
> doing that it will run again untilit again randomly repeats.
> Sometimes in minutes, sometime hours, many times days? I have a pic
> of the failure screen if someone can tell me how to post it.

Right click My Computer and select Properties.
Go to the Advanced tab.
In the Startup and Recovery section click Settings.
Uncheck Automatically restart.

Now it will show you a blue screen. Tell us the error message.

--
Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
http://www.fjsmjs.com
Protect your PC
http://www.microsoft.com./athome/s [...] fault.aspx
http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

"Frank Saunders, MS-MVP" wrote:

> "Drew" <Drew@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4367C816-CD68-4192-B8AF-0DB7CA28B7BF@microsoft.com
> > This problem happened 3-4 months ago and then went away until
> > yesterday. It is very random and sometimes when it is just on but
> > idle, and others when it is running a program I.E. Ad-aware. When it
> > comes back on it usually goes tru the motions slower, and stops at a
> > screen that say (amongst others) boot from CD twice afterwhich it
> > says DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS ENTER. After
> > doing that it will run again untilit again randomly repeats.
> > Sometimes in minutes, sometime hours, many times days? I have a pic
> > of the failure screen if someone can tell me how to post it.
>
> Right click My Computer and select Properties.
> Go to the Advanced tab.
> In the Startup and Recovery section click Settings.
> Uncheck Automatically restart.
>
> Now it will show you a blue screen. Tell us the error message.
>
> --
> Frank Saunders, MS-MVP, IE/OE
> Please respond in Newsgroup only. Do not send email
> http://www.fjsmjs.com
> Protect your PC
> http://www.microsoft.com./athome/s [...] fault.aspx
> http://defendingyourmachine.blogspot.com/
>
>
>

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Sat, 6 Aug 2005 11:41:08 -0700, "Drew"
<Drew@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>This problem happened 3-4 months ago and then went away until yesterday. It
>is very random and sometimes when it is just on but idle, and others when it
>is running a program I.E. Ad-aware. When it comes back on it usually goes tru
>the motions slower, and stops at a screen that say (amongst others) boot from
>CD twice afterwhich it says DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS
>ENTER. After doing that it will run again untilit again randomly repeats.
>Sometimes in minutes, sometime hours, many times days? I have a pic of the
>failure screen if someone can tell me how to post it.

Some very technical stuff in this thread not much of which seems
useful to you drew. Its normal to suspect software failiure but I
reckon your problem is more likely to be hardware related.

Check your plug!

I had the same problem years ago, months trying to figure spurious
error messages and it was a loose live wire in the plug, every time
the dog bumped the desk the pooter re-booted.

DOH!

Other causes could be overheating, duff power supply, loose
connections in the PC, MOBO failing, Memory failing. Also huge dust
build ups in the PC lead to overheating, bad connections and guess
what - random re-boots.

Check your hardware

8-)

Jonah

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

On Sat, 6 Aug 2005 11:57:46 -0700, Max <Max@discussions.microsoft.com>

>The fist thing i would do is make sure there is no CD in your drive, and no
>floppy in your floppy drive. this would make the computer thing your trying
>to boot from a removable media instead of the hard drive. also it wouldnt'
>be a bad idea to do some simple maintenece. Defrag, scan for spyware and
>viruses, run "disk cleanup" download and install registry mechanic and run
>that at least twice, and run "scan disk" to check your hard drive for errors.

Right steps, dangerously wrooong order...

"boot from a removable media instead of the hard drive" - yes, but
presence of such disks would not cause the system to spontaneouslt
reboot, whereas virtually any system error would, given the duuuhfault
"automatically restart on system errors" setting in XP

"Defrag" - i.e. read everything off HD into RAM, then write it back to
the HD? Before testing your RAM or HD? What was the other idea?

By the same token, you do not want to download and install anything,
or even run Windows, before you know it is safe to write to the HD,
i.e. that the HD is physically defect-free and RAM is error-free.

With a PC that spontaneously reboots, good RAM isn't a given.

With a PC that takes long to reboot, good HD isn't a given either.

>"Drew" wrote:

>> This problem happened 3-4 months ago and then went away until yesterday. It
>> is very random and sometimes when it is just on but idle, and others when it
>> is running a program I.E. Ad-aware. When it comes back on it usually goes tru
>> the motions slower, and stops at a screen that say (amongst others) boot from
>> CD twice afterwhich it says DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS
>> ENTER. After doing that it will run again untilit again randomly repeats.
>> Sometimes in minutes, sometime hours, many times days? I have a pic of the
>> failure screen if someone can tell me how to post it.

Sounds like your HD's dying...

http://cquirke.mvps.org/pccrisis.htm

If you use Bart PE boot CDR as your maintenance OS, download and plug
in the free HD-Tune utiliy. This shows you HD temperature, S.M.A.R.T.
history detail, and does an OS-agnostic surface scan for defects.



>------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -
The most accurate diagnostic instrument
in medicine is the Retrospectoscope
>------------ ----- ---- --- -- - - - -

Archived from groups: microsoft.public.windowsxp.general (More info?)

Drew,

In my mothers account the random re-boot only happens in her account and in
my account and another persons account it doesn't randomly re-boot. It only
happens when my mother is using I.E. and no other programs at all. I did the
samething now like what Frank Saunders said was to uncheck the "Automatically
Restart" box from the Advance Tab and click on Settings under Startup and
Recovery. Now, I hope it won't happen anymore in her account.

"Drew" wrote:

> This problem happened 3-4 months ago and then went away until yesterday. It
> is very random and sometimes when it is just on but idle, and others when it
> is running a program I.E. Ad-aware. When it comes back on it usually goes tru
> the motions slower, and stops at a screen that say (amongst others) boot from
> CD twice afterwhich it says DISK BOOT FAILURE, INSERT SYSTEM DISK AND PRESS
> ENTER. After doing that it will run again untilit again randomly repeats.
> Sometimes in minutes, sometime hours, many times days? I have a pic of the
> failure screen if someone can tell me how to post it.