No virus but Windows keeps rebooting

[FrauW]

Hello all,
For one of my end-users (Windows 2000) whenever they get the screen saver and try to log back into the system, the computer reboots without warning. I have checked their system and their registry for this BLASTER worm virus (which had the regular rebooting as a symptom) however the virus is not present (which I also expected because I had already installed the worm removal tool and the patch). Sometimes, the user doesn't even get the normal screen saver and instead her monitor powers off. Then when they press any key, the system also reboots.

IDEAS?

Thanks.

 

[CooterBrown]

Did you get this resolved? I'm having the same problem except that I don't know if it is a virus or not cause I could never get the pc to run long enough to check the registry. I've formatted and reinstalled win 2000 pro a hundred times and it keeps rebooting or locking on the startup screen (white screen with blue status bar). I've disconnected all hardware including the cdrom, floppy, drive, modem, memory to try to illiminate any hardware disfunction but still the same thing. Do you think it is a hardware failure? Shouldn't a format and restore kill any viruses?

Please HELP
Coot

 

[computerhighguy]

Sounds like a hardware issue Cooter. Try a BIOS update.

FrauW, does it do it on a single screen saver or all screen savers?

 

[moderations]

Hi all, I am having the same problem as well, I finally got rid of it by reinstalling the OS without partitionaing and reformatting (Please refer to my posts thread616-682754 However, with the successful reinstallation, I now have this extremely annoying "windows installer" pops up for every application that I run as well as when I click on a link on a web page, sometimes it fires off up to 3 times, the title of the dialog box says "windows installer" and the details says, "the feature you are trying to use is on a CD Rom or other removable disk that is not available", Insert the "Nero-burning Rom" disk and click ok. The message seems to be blown out of proportion, what has this to do with my application being fired off? Fact: I never reinstalled all the application after the successful installation of the OS though. It seems to me that the CD rom driver was not properly installed on the OS installation. Resolution to eliminate of this extremely annoying dialog box from anyone is highly appreciated.

 

[computerhighguy]

Pretty simple. Uninstall Nero and leave it off. Should take care of the issue.

 

[CooterBrown]

HighGuy, Can you please explain update bios? I have an IBM NetVista. In the Bios, I can't even config the boot order. What do you mean by update BIOS?

 

[imstillatwork]

Bios is a piece of software sitting on a chip. it is updateable to a newer version. Check motherboard manufacturers web site for your motherboard and check the versions available.

 

[LawnBoy]

Cooter,
a format will not get rid of any virus that has found its way into your boot sector. Use FDISK, delete all partitions, then recreate them. Then format.

 

[bcastner]

FrauW,

The only reliable information would be in the event logs for the System. Control Panel, Administrative Tools, Event Viewer. Look for incidents around the time of the reboot.

 

[Tech4U]

To avoid automatically rebooting on error:

Right click My Computer and go to properties.

Click the advanced tab.

Click the Startup and Recovery button.

Uncheck automatically reboot. This will give you a blue screen upon error which may help you discover the source of the problem.

 

[tutmoses]

Not sure if this is your issue, but I've had Win2000 Pro randomly reboot on me a few times on different AMD processor systems. Turned out to be a problem with the USB ports and putting in a PCI USB card solved it.

 

[FrauW]

Wow.. thanks all. One thing I have noticed is that this problem is triggered most often when the user is working in Microsoft Office.. for example Microsoft Word. I also had this problem happen to me. I was working in Word and tried to save and all of a sudden the system completely shut down. I was thinking of uninstalling and reinstalling Office but many of your suggestions point back to Hardware. Has anyone experienced this problem with relation to Microsoft Office?

Oh.. one thing I did do is to go to the power settings and check Never Turn Off Monitor.. never helped.

 

[FrauW]

.... other question.. could it be that the user's partition is not big enough? I had recently resizing it leaving the recommended minimum in order to prevent users from saving junk on their SYSTEM drive. We are using a network and nothing should be saved locally. Additionally, the users have another partition where we usually save system images.

 

[FredWagner]

You may be onto the problem - if they have a lot of apps open, and then it tries to go into sleep mode, and store things for reboot, and there isn't enough disk space - could be the cause. Make the partition bigger and see what happens, and maybe cut the users a little more slack!
Another possibility is an app - I installed a screen-reader package that said it was good for W95/98/NT on a Win2K system, it would stick in a reboot loop except for Safe mode. Same package loads nicely on XP. The earlier suggestion to Uncheck the automatic reboot on error should help you check the event log afterwards to see what is happening.

Fred Wagner
frwagne@longbeach.gov

 

[FrauW]

I followed bcastner's suggestion. The local Event Viewer for this user was filled with EventSystem warnings (EventID 4100) tracing back to from before I even resized the partition. I researched this out on EventID.net and saw a suggestion to run the following from the command prompt:

regsvr32 "%systemroot%\system32\mobsync.dll" /u
(apparently unregisters mobsync dll and client side caching - whatever that means).

FredWagner - I will also enlarge the partition just a bit. But these people are so ready to start saving junk like pictures of their family and pets. :-D
By the way, I had changed the energy setting of the Monitor to never turn off...FYI

 

[FredWagner]

If part of the problem is due to the customers saving non-business related photos or music on their PCs, then a strongly worded memo from management (draft it yourself for their editing/approval) might solve the problem. That sort of help solved my problem of people loading Gator and Napster and that sort of thing here....


Fred Wagner
frwagne@longbeach.gov

 

[olderthandirt]

One suggestion, check the registry in RUN or RUN ONCE. I had a young lady load an app that was attempting to find a DLL on start up. The DLL did not exist so Windows 2K would immediately shut-down, it took a while to find this little annoyance.

 

[pbxman]

boot to safe mode and disable antivirus or services you dont need. i just had this problem lastnight ant my VPN client was causing it on startup. its software-based.

pbxman
Systems Administrator

Please let Tek-Tips members know their posts were helpful.