Computer Keeps Rebooting

[countymounty]

I am working on a Gateway 500X running XP. The system keeps rebooting itself. It will boot into windows wait a few seconds and then it restarts or reboots itself and continues to to it until you turn the power off. When you boot into safe mode it will stay on but none of the programs want to work.

 

[cdogg]

Not sure what version of Windows you're running, but you can try typing sfc /scannow at the Start -> Run prompt in Safe Mode.

If that doesn't work, then you may need to reinstall Windows on top of itself to restore some system defaults, or repair corrupted system files. Ultimately, though, there might be some kind of infection requiring you to commit several hours of cleaning (using antivirus and anti-spyware apps). If that's the case, however, I would suggest just formatting and reinstalling Windows from scratch to save time.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[theo1881]

spyware, malware or virus sounds favourite for this issue, would suggest also running scandisk if possible

Laters, phat, headshape

 

[electronicsfreak]

I agree with cdogg as this really does sound like a virus, however if you can install anything from safe mode and then make it to command prompt or dos depending on which os your using, i have an antivirus you can try that might save you from formatting. I think you have a trojan though.

Solo antivirus (to run from dos, navigate to location of folder its installed in and run solclean.bat)

http://www.srnmicro.com/downloads/

 

[jlockley]

That doesn't sound like a virus. It is a virus. I can't remember which one, but it's one of the old worms. Been there, done that. Go to antivirus.com or symantec.com to do further research.

You need to start from your av emergency disk. Or set the cd as the default startup drive in the bios, then try to start from your anti virus program.

 

[buyhptoday]

With windows XP there is something that was once said that one of the XP updates would do that. I had to remove the update and then re-download the updates for this to stop.

 

[cdogg]

Yeah, 9 times out of 10, symptoms like that are virus related. But there is the occasional corruption in a Windows system file that can also cause the same behavior.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884

 

[countymounty]

I tried to do a windows R when booting to the OS CD it goes through reinstall and when it reboots into windows I get the dreaded Blue Screen of Death!! Say that errors occured and it does a physical memory dump and restarts. My guess now is to do a Re-format and fresh installation of Windows? Unless someone on here has a better idea.

Thanks for all of your help and sugestions

 

[paparazi]

Could be a bad stick of ram, if you have more than one swap around, leave just the single stick in there, try again.
Martin


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[cdogg]

If you need data off the drive first before formatting, you can always throw it as a secondary drive in another PC. Just make sure the other PC has a decent antivirus scanner in case it is infected. And if the Gateway hard drive isn't password protected, you might be able to clean it while doing this.

Like I said before, you can find yourself fighting a long fight just to wind up in a stalemate. So don't feel like you're giving up by formatting and starting over. Often, it's the wiser move...

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein
[tab][navy]For general rules and guidelines to get better answers, click here:[/navy] faq219-2884