Annorax Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Hello everyone, I have a Windows XP SP3 32 bit computer that is roughly 5 years old. Starting a few days ago, it keeps restarting on me - here is what I've found out from troubleshooting: - I don't believe it's overheating - I have a desk fan blowing on the open case and the CPU is roughly 40C and the GPU is roughly 60C. - Sometimes if I don't touch it, it will stay on for hours, but if I go to run a program (even something like Firefox), it restarts (randomly). - Once it starts restarting, it will just keep doing so over and over and won't actually boot back up again unless I wait roughly 15 minutes. - It will even reboot itself before Windows starts, on the BIOS screen, so I don't think it's a Windows/driver/virus issue. - I unchecked the "Automatically reboot" option in Windows but it keeps rebooting itself. - I try to run a "chkdsk /r" but it tells me the drive is locked (NTFS), even on a reboot. I then allow it to run chkdsk on the next reboot, but alas I don't think it gets there. The few times it has the computer has rebooted before it got anywhere far. - My hard drive seems to be intact as the few times it remains on, I've able to, over the network, copy important files off it to another computer. - I have a Kubuntu live CD that I've tried to test the memory with but it restarts before it gets too far. My only other thought is a bad power supply or bad RAM. I don't want to go out and buy new parts for an old computer unless I know for a fact that the part I am replacing is the problem. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to figure this out? I don't have a spare PSU but I suppose if a RAM chip is bad I can remove one (I have 4 DIMMs, 1GB each) and see if the computer keeps restarting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T3X4S Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Hello everyone, I have a Windows XP SP3 32 bit computer that is roughly 5 years old. Starting a few days ago, it keeps restarting on me - here is what I've found out from troubleshooting: - I don't believe it's overheating - I have a desk fan blowing on the open case and the CPU is roughly 40C and the GPU is roughly 60C. - Sometimes if I don't touch it, it will stay on for hours, but if I go to run a program (even something like Firefox), it restarts (randomly). - Once it starts restarting, it will just keep doing so over and over and won't actually boot back up again unless I wait roughly 15 minutes. - It will even reboot itself before Windows starts, on the BIOS screen, so I don't think it's a Windows/driver/virus issue. - I unchecked the "Automatically reboot" option in Windows but it keeps rebooting itself. - I try to run a "chkdsk /r" but it tells me the drive is locked (NTFS), even on a reboot. I then allow it to run chkdsk on the next reboot, but alas I don't think it gets there. The few times it has the computer has rebooted before it got anywhere far. - My hard drive seems to be intact as the few times it remains on, I've able to, over the network, copy important files off it to another computer. - I have a Kubuntu live CD that I've tried to test the memory with but it restarts before it gets too far. My only other thought is a bad power supply or bad RAM. I don't want to go out and buy new parts for an old computer unless I know for a fact that the part I am replacing is the problem. Does anyone have any advice or tips on how to figure this out? I don't have a spare PSU but I suppose if a RAM chip is bad I can remove one (I have 4 DIMMs, 1GB each) and see if the computer keeps restarting. Well you have already done the most important thing which is pull any important data off of it So, to see if you can find the culprit - its a matter of process of elimination. This means pulling all but 1 stick of RAM and see if it boots to your linux CD If that works, add some more RAM If that fails, then swap out that single stick for another one If even that fails - you need to consider that its either power, CPU, mobo Honestly - if you can rule out RAM, and HDD - the only other options will take $$ so its best to take that thing around the back shed and put a couple rounds through it to end its misery. You got 5 years out of it - time to move on. Something I always say to people - what is your time worth ? That has a monetary value too. You said you transferred things over the network - is the other computer yours ? If so - stop wasting time and trash it. If money is tight - then be like many people and learn to live with 1 computer. If that other computer is not yours -- then you are back to process of elimination. Shiranui 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anibal P Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 What T3x4s said, get anything important offit and trash it, any $300 pc you can get on sale in Best Buy will be a huge improvement over what you currently have DConnell 1 Share Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+Warwagon MVC Posted May 25, 2015 MVC Share Posted May 25, 2015 Possibly a bad PSU. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fusi0n Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 could be bad motherboard.. Have you tried taking out all the sticks of ram and putting up with one stick at a time? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goretsky Supervisor Posted May 27, 2015 Supervisor Share Posted May 27, 2015 Hello, Have you attached the hard disk drive to a known working computer and run diagnostics against it, just to definitively rule it out as being the problem? Regards, Aryeh Goretsky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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