reboot cycles with blue screen

n88tr

This afternoon after classes I come back and start up my tower. It gets done loading xp I think and right before the login it flashes a black screen with some text and a blue screen for like 1/2 a second and then reboots itself. happens over and over. I have the option to go into safe mode or 'last known settings' but neither helps.

online research has shown me it could be
1. failing memory sticks
2. failing power supply

I just upgraded my power to 750 watts about 4 months ago. never had this issue before.

looking into creating a boot floppy, that's new to me too.

any ideas/help greatly appreciated.

win xp pro sp2
western dig 500 gig primary
western dig 320 gig secondary
750 watt antec power
ati 4770 hd graphics
2 gig ddr2 800
viewsonic vp201b 1600x1200 res monitor

BadgerBaiter

Can you hear any beeps?

n88tr

no beeps

will try some of those suggestions and get back to you

Snader

Is the 2GB a single strip or 2x1024? If it's two strips, try booting on one (and if that fails, the other). Do you still have the old PSU? Toss it in and see if that works.

edit: of course you should try all solutions from this thread in order of least effort.

Psyk0

If it keeps rebooting and no BSOD, it's because you didnt specify "no reboot" on error...which would've helped trace the faulty hardware. Boot into safe mode, go to control panel>system>advanced>settings:

under system failure there's a box that says "automatically restart" uncheck it.

Now reboot, let XP do its thing and take note of the BSOD error message, share the symptoms and we'll have a better chance of finding out.

Did you install new software recently? hardware upgrades?

I wouldnt bother with boot floppies and windows built in repair just yet (never worked for me anyway) a restore point would be a better idea, or restoring the whole disk partition.

n88tr

tried the xp repair mode with the cd but i didn't have an admin password but it still requires one? no clue what to do there. I ran ophcrack .iso to make sure there is no password and there isn't one.

afterwards I removed 1 memory stick [each one is 1 gig] then ran it, same bsod flickers for 1/2 a second and some black screen with grey text.

put that stick back in and removed the other one. still problem exists.

cleaned off dust, very little in there, and all fans are working, nothing obstructing fans, etc. Things are plugged in tight.

Thinking of a brand new xp install. I will lose a few custom maps I made for some games but nothing major. But if it's a hardware problem then a new install won't help any I don't think.

Thinking of running home and picking up my old powersuppy, 450 I think.

I could try to video tape the error and then frame by frame find it maybe?

Any ideas guys?

AlecMoody

try a linux build that boots off a CD (knoppix is a good one)
If its not a hardware problem you can at least recover your files before formatting and reinstalling.


I think almost any piece of hardware can cause BSODs so you cant really rule out the motherboard or the CPU. The fact that it boots windows and the problem happens in the exact same place every time makes it sound a little more like a software issue.

n88tr

downloading knoppix now
I think my university is blocking utorrent because I'm only getting 1 kb down. Started out at like 300 kb and I was pleased but now it's slowed way the heck down. Most likely to get this done over the weekend when I can be on a strong wireless connection.

Gonna run home now and savage parts from a spare computer just to be sure I have backup parts if I need them.

While looking at my motherboard [was bored] online I see I have the capacity for 2 more gigs of ddr2 memory. I read that I shouldn't mix and match memory brands even if they're of the same type like ddr2 240 pin, like my mobo supports. My current memory is 2 sticks of 1 gig Geil. I found the same stuff online at newegg but newegg's Geil memory sticks are blue and mine are red. Do you think that matters any?

Thanks so far guy you've been super helpful.

Snader

In case that download doesn't work, I've tossed a copy of Ubuntu 9.04in Dropbox which should also be able to boot off of CD. Let me know when you have it and/or I can take it off again.

n88tr

Downloading that too.

Probably leave it up overnight please.

mortalhuman

could be:
corrupted system files - try safemode, note the last file it tries to load before the bluescreen, let us know what it is

bad mobo, bad cap, check for buldges in capacitors.

other than that, some driver issue maybe. I had the same problem and it was my mobo.

TheBat

My first guess would have been the memory as well. Since it still reboots, another guess could be the videocard which has malfunctioned somehow.

Are you using a pci videocard or are you using the on-board card?

In case you are using a pci (or agp for that matter) you might also try pulling that one out and try running on the onboard videocard.

n88tr

Several things have occurred since yesterday:

1. removal of video card and booting makes a loud beeping sound and no picture of any sort. Does not like I think.

2. My laptop, left on overnight to download knoppix, I wake up and see it has turned itself off. Odd. I start it and it gets to the windows screen loading and then immediately after wards I see a quick 1 second message and red circle error symbol, "failed to terminate program error." And it restarts itself. Over and over. No chance to do anything, desktop, etc. I inserted my XP dvd to try to fix it and it reads it and then restarts itself over and over again. That blue screen comes up saying it's loading the dvd data and then it restarts itself. Over and over.

I thought my laptop was doing good! WTF is going on? My primary work station is down and this isn't good.

I am writing now from my new Asus laptop, my backup work station. Trying to fix all these problems, it's getting sort of overwhelming.

I have some old motherboards at home I could try to swap out and then a power supply but that'll have to wait till this weekend.

Any ideas why my laptop won't run? I didn't install anything, software/hardware. I've never had this problem before. The last thing I did was let it download thru utorrent the knoppix and I was also downloading knoppix thru firefox and dropbox.

Seriously need help here guys.

mortalhuman

Your laptop is now doing the same thing the tower does?! weird indeed.

XP doesn't come on a DVD, could this have something to do with the problem? :x

n88tr

I don't get a blue screen on my laptop, just that could not terminate program window flashes up for 1 second then it resets itself.

well i have the authentic physical win xp install disk. i'm just assuming it's a dvd because it's larger than 1 gig.

TheBat

n88tr wrote: »

Several things have occurred since yesterday:

1. removal of video card and booting makes a loud beeping sound and no picture of any sort. Does not like I think.

Is it just one long beep or beeps in sequence?

In the case of sequenced beeps: in what sequence does it beep (long / short beeps)

What motherboard do you have and does it have an on-board videocard?

n88tr

one long beep right after i push the power button, no on-board graphics i think. if i had any i assume I'd get some kind of picture but i don't when i unplug my graphics card.

it's a gigabyte ga-p35-ds3l

TheBat

I would try to plug in a different Videocard (PCI-E or PCI for that matter, whatever you have lying around) to see if that solves the problem (i checked and your motherboard doesn't have an on-board videocard). It's the one which is the easiest to check as well.

Otherwise the PSU would be my next guess / try.

Mark Dygert

I haven't read the thread and there are a lot of reasons for rolling blue screen restarts, but...

I had a rolling reboot with my wife's laptop a 2 weeks ago, it was caused by Microsoft Security Essentials. Turns out if you had previously installed something similar in a "recommended update" they sent out about a year ago, didn't remove it and installed MSE, it would fubar key files leading to a rolling blue screen on boot. I went through a lot of stuff and ended up flattening it. Everything is fine now. If its software related and you recently installed MSE... I would start with a rollback to a previous date.

n88tr

Talked to my uncle and his son, both worked in IT fields in previous careers. Uncle thought it was a "root kit" issue and his son thought it was a failing hardware piece. This is for my tower. I'm waiting on a boot disk my uncle swears by and I'm replacing my power supply on my tower right now. Looks like I'll have to unplug everything and move it all out of the case in order for me to remove the PSU and install a new one. Doing that now and labeling cords as to what plugs into what.

commador

I'll bet a donut its corrupt system files. I get this often at work with mobile machines. They don't have power sensing and when the batteries flatline they just shut off. Easy to fix though, a repair disc (as mentioned above) will cure it.

Snader

Sorta assumed you're all done with this, so I took down the file from Dropbox.