Computer Keeps Rebooting

[Jack McAllister]

Hello
I have a IBM Ativa Celron computer.
When I start the computer and Windows comes up, the computer reboots over and over agian I installed Win98 twice, and also tried windows XP. Now I am back to Windows 98. I removed
thw video card, modem and unpluged the floppy. I also change
the setting in the bios from ecp to epp.

Can anyone help me with this.

Thanks

[John Prophet]

At what point does it reboot? What is the last thing on the screen?

Will it boot in safe mode?

JP

[Jack McAllister]

The last thing on the screen is the windows updating process and then it will reboot and do the same thing over and over
again until at some point it will just lock up. Yes it does load in the safe mode.

Thanks

[John Prophet]

ok, there are a few things you can try here.

try this.

when booting....start pressing f8..and when the menu appears..choose "logged" or "Bootlogged" (I cant remember which)

Then boot into regular windows....after it reboots...start pressing f8 again and choose safe mode.....then when in safe mode...go into c: and find "bootlog.txt"...it may be "hidden" so you may have to go to "view/folder options/view/show hidden files" to be able to see it.

Then when you find it, open it and look to the bottom and see what the last thing that loaded was.

Sometimes that gives a clue.



OR..you can try this.....press f8 when booting..choose "step by step"....then when each option shows..choose "yes"...choose yes for each one and give it a sec after you press yes...see if one of those steps makes it reboot....then try to remember what was the last thing you said "yes" to before it rebooted.

JP

[John Prophet]

I probably should have asked the standard question first....have you made any changes or installed any new programs, hardware, or drivers lately??? If so, thats where you start looking. (of course, you said you reinstalled so maybe its a moot point, lol)



Actually, maybe the first thing you should do..since it does boot in safe mode....is..

boot into safe mode
run "msconfig" and go to the "startup" tab....and uncheck all the programs you dont need...or actually, just uncheck everything EXCEPT eplorer.exe and systray.

That will let you attempt to boot into regular windows but with only the very basics.

If it boots ok into windows like that...run msconfig again and start rechecking one program at a time and try restarting again after each check...that way you may be able to tell if a certain program is messing you up.

JP

[Dax_Brandy]

maybe a program or something is creating the error. follow what john advised..you can pinpoint which part of the process creates the error.

[Jack McAllister]

Hello,
Ok, I did the “step by step” option after hitting F8. The file that was seen before the computer tried to load was msmouse.vxd.
I also did the F8 and selected the logged option and loaded in safe mode and went into view/folder options/view/show hidden files and the last thing that was loaded was videorom.bin.

This computer originally had XP home edition in it and then one day when it was turned on it went right to the safe mode and other option screen and that’s all it would do. So I fdisked and formatted the hard drive and the installed win 98 se, everything went fine at that point, then I tried to upgrade it back to XP, every thing seem to go fine there. I actually got to the desktop from XP, but when I restarted the computer again it did the same thing it was doing originally before the hard drive was formatted. I then hooked another hard drive to it and went threw the fdisk and format process again and it still did the same thing. I now have the original hard drive hook back up and I am still stuck at the desktop not loading problem.

Every time it goes to load win98 for the first time, it gets to updating process and the monitor shuts down to were the amber light comes on and then the monitor comes back on and the computer tries to reboot.

Thanks

[dr_roberts49]

Sounds like you've eliminated the hard drives and both versions of windows. I would start looking at the hardware. Something is failing to function. Start with your memory, and see if you can swap out the video card. Might even be the PSU.

Robert

[Jack McAllister]

Ok, i just hooked up another power supply and I already swapped the memory. I also took out the video card and I have the video running from the onboard video. But it still does the same thing.

Thanks

[John Prophet]

could it possibly be overheating?

If you let it sit for a while and then try it does it do exactly the same?

If you go into the bios is there a "hardware monitor" deal that shows the temps?

JP

[Jack McAllister]

I don't think it is an overheating problem, because the computer was off all night and the next day I started it up and it did the same thing.

Thanks

[redcaes]

Sorry about replying so late but I just saw your post and went through this with 2 aptiva desktop pc's with celeron chips that had the same problem. They just kept restarting , and I did everything you went through and it turns out it is none of those things . It's the motherboard.... IBM is aware of this problem and if your system is still under warranty they will replace free of charge if not, and here's the bad news your S.O.L. you need new mobo.

sorry for bad news hopefully you have warranty left I did on 1 of them but not on second one and had to buy new mobo.

You can check out thge ibm site I think I saw a couple of posts there.