Re: Wierd Looping Boot...Hardware or Software?

Given Cecil's comments prompts me to suggest that you should remove the side panels on the box and check that the fans are working. Look in the Manual for a diagram showing their location. If not working the computer can overheat causing memory problems. Dust can also be a problem. The best way to remove dust is to use an Air Duster (Compressed Air in a can) available from large computer stores). If these measures fail to identify or eliminate the problem you should test the memory. See Test the RAM in the next link.
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Tshoot

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Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
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cecilw@xxxxxxxxxxx wrote:
My first guess here would be hardware, motherboard. Electrolytic
capacitor failures related to age, heat and quality issues from
certain manufacturers especially from about 5 to 7 years ago are
common, and they mess up the DC voltages, which causes random
rebooting as you have described. The symptoms can be temperature
dependent, and the problem will progress over time until the system
fails completely. There are other possible causes of your problem as
well, but the fact that the rebooting happens at different points in
the boot-up and seems to change as the system warms up indicates a
hardware problem and not a software problem, which would typically be
more consistent and repeatable in where it fails.

My 2cents worth.

- Cecil


gschultz wrote:
After the final shutdown for the day, the next morning my system
starts to boot and then drops into an odd looping reboot behavior.
It starts as far as the BIOS screens and then powers off completely.
I restart and it progresses another screen or two into the BIOS info
and powers off. I restart agan and I can finally use F8 to get a
Safe Mode start. At this point, it MAY proceed to boot, or it MAY
power off again. Finally, after five to eight loops XP starts
normally. I have no messages on screen and all apps perform normally.

What tools/resources can help me diagnose whether this is hardware or
software and what the source might be? Thanks a lot!

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Wierd Looping Boot...Hardware or Software?
    ... My first guess here would be hardware, ... they mess up the DC voltages, which causes random rebooting as you have ... as the BIOS screens and then powers off completely. ... progresses another screen or two into the BIOS info and powers off. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.perform_maintain)
  • Re: Continuous Reboot
    ... | rebooting whenever it's turned on. ... Further down is something about maybe newly installed hardware ... | 3) Running Chkdsk will sometimes find a few problems to correct. ... | the machine fails and reboots. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
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    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.basics)
  • Re: hostname doesnt stick
    ... GUI, then running "service network restart", or even rebooting, ... fails to effect the result of "hostname". ... DeprecationWarning: rhpl.log is deprecated and will be removed; ...
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