Re: Setup Restarts Automatically

From: Dan Seur (click_at_casta.net)
Date: 08/15/04 

Date: Sun, 15 Aug 2004 19:53:49 -0400

Serverguy - It does sound like a hardware problem, and not easy to diagnose.

Could 'look' like software if the load on the CPU or RAM or PSupply is a
factor; it might actually occur as certain processes kick in. Or if a
drive has a surface problem, as certain processes are loaded but bit
errors are not detected.

- Dicky power supply (or wall current) can cause those symptoms.
- A mismatched or partially bad or failing RAM stick could.
    Mismatch=timing problem and instant suicide, no footprints.
- A bad spot on a drive could, when the loaded bits are invalid.
- A bad video card... Etc etc.

If you have another similar machine around, you could try swapping parts
to narrow things down. There are freebie HDD diagnostics from
manufacturers, and a pretty good freebie RAM tester ("ramtest", I think).

ServerGuy wrote:

> This has been an ongoing problem for about 3 months now
> and i am out of ideas other that it may be the power
> supply in my computer. Here are the specs:
> 420 Watt TurboLink Powersupply
> 3.0 GHZ 800 FSB Pentium 4 Processor
> ATI Radeon 9200 128 MB AGP 8x Graphics Card
> Tv Tuner Card (Forget Name of Manuf.)
> Philips 5.1 Surround Sound Card
> SIIG IDE Expansion Card 2 Slots ATA133
> 4 Neon Fans 4 Pin Power Supply
> 1 Cold Cathode W/ 4 Pin Power Supply
> 3 120 Gig Hard Drives
> 1 CD-RW/DVD-R Drive
> 2 CD-RW Drives
> 1 Zip100 Drive
> 2 Floppy Drives
>
> Here Is The Configuration:
>
> Master 120 GIG And Slave 120 GIG connected to main IDE
> slot in Motherboard
> CD-RW and Secondary CD-RW Drive Connected to Secondary IDE
> Slot on Motherboard
> 3rd 120 gig HDD connected to slot 1 on IDE Expansion Card
> CD-RW/DVD-R Connected to Slot 2 on IDE Expansion Card
>
> The Problem:
> 3 Months ago i was having some problems with windows, it
> would restart unexpectedly when i was just sitting there
> not touching the computer. So i look to see what it could
> be. I find nothing out of the ordinary so i suspect i may
> have a virus. I scan with 3 seperate virus scanners and
> none of them find a single thing. I scan with adaware and
> spybot search and destroy. They find nothing. I scan the
> registry with RegCleaner and System Mechanic. THey find
> nothing out of the ordinary. I do a scan disk and it finds
> nothing. At this point i still suspect it is a very bad
> virus. So i try to save all my things to my secondary 120
> gig to format the hard drive. I use my universal boot disk
> and delete the partition on the main 120 gig then format
> it using FAT file system. THen using the XP setup disk i
> format it again using NTFS and start installing XP. Now i
> am thinking i fixed it but then as it gets done copying
> the setup files and booting up into the visual setup area,
> before i get to any screen to do anything it restarts. I
> try the setup many more times and format it many more
> times. I get the same thing every time. By this time i
> have formatted my 120 gig probably a total of 30 times.
> When it happens for the 31st time i figure i have another
> bad 120 gig. So i use the 3rd 120 gig and format it using
> the xp setup disk. it then copys the setup files and does
> the excat same thing. By the time i get done trying the
> 3rd 120 gig hdd i have probably formatted it 12 times. I
> then suspect that one of the cards or cdrom is bad. So i
> take everything out of the computer leaving only 1 floppy
> drive the graphics card (since the motherboard doesnt have
> a built in graphics card) a single cdrom and my 1st 120
> gig hdd. I try setup again and it does the same thing.
> I try this probably another 3-5 times and try another hard
> drive and another cdrom and another floppy drive. I put
> the setup cd in and try it once more. It does what it has
> always done. By now i am thinking it is the mother board.
> so i go buy a new one. the new one is infact better than
> the old one. I put the new one in and put everything back
> in the way it was before all this crap happened. leaving
> the 2nd 120 gig unhooked so i dont accidentally format it
> loosing everything i have. i put the xp cd in and lo and
> behold it does the excat same thing. Now im not only
> confused but angered. I think a while and come to the
> conclusion that it is the CD it must be bad. So i take the
> xp cd out nad pull out my trusty windows 2000 pro cd i put
> it in the master cdrom and boot it up. it gets to the
> visual setup screen but when ever it gets to one of 2
> points it will retart for no reason. the first point is
> when it sets up the network devices, and the second point
> which is past the first one which it will occasionally
> reach is when it installs the start menu items. about 30
> seconds from being done. Then once it restarts now it will
> stay on the very first screen when it detects the devices
> on the mother board. (the motherboard can support
> everything i put on it including the dual floppy drives, i
> have looked every peice of it up in the windows and mother
> board manufacturers compatibility lists.) Now i do no know
> what to do. It may be the power supply cannot support
> everything but it even did it when the minnimal items were
> hooked to it. the graphics card is compatible with
> everything because i only started having this problem
> probably after about 7 months of having XP installed on
> the computer. I do not have any clue now as what could be
> the problem and am now going to try and install Red Hat
> 9.0 to see if it has the same problems. if it goes fine
> the windows is going to get one of those nasty letters. if
> not then your support sucks any way and help me.
>
> ServerGuy