pc keeps rebooting

Scruff

have a windows 2000 pc here that all of a sudden started rebooting itself last thusrdsay. After i first noticed it i managed to start it in safe mode and run a virus scan which turned up nothing. left it off then for the weekend and i couldnt get even log in in safe mode or i could but it would restart after a few mins.

Plugged out all extra hds, the cdrom, all pci cards, replaced memory and psu but still nothing.
Tried booting from the windows 2000 cd and it seemed fine. Did a repair installation and it worked fine the 1st time. turned off computer and booted from hd instead and same thing is happening all over again.
any ideas? should i do a complete reinstall of the o\s?

Zombienosh

i wud........

Sysiphus

1) Anything in the logs?
2) tried stinger no www just vil.nai.com/vil/stinger - nice free tool for latest trojans and viruses.

3) also use micro world e-scan in conjunction with stinger above.

4) Ventilation, PC not overheating??

How long does it (ahem) stay up for? Check waht processes are running and watch them.

Does it just power down imediatly or does it go through a graceful shut down and reboot ?

Scruff

forgot to mention i ran spy bot as well and it didnt find anything. i guess thats the same job as stinger?

cpu temp seemss to be 49-56C , have case open atm so ariflow shouldnt be a problem....

nothing graceful about it at all, the monitor just goes black and then ye hear the beep as it restarts.

Sysiphus

Stinger is purly A/V butvery good at finding pernicious little threats, eScan is a/v and spyware.

Have you tested you PSU? or tried another one? When it reboots is it a single beep or a series?

Definetly sounds more hardware than anything else. What the PC or is it a generic??

Scruff

how do you go bout testing the psu?
well its definitely hardware cause it wont complete the reinstall of win2k cause it keeps rebooting!
tis only a genric p3 700. bit long in the tooth so i shouldnt be too surprised its finally kicked the bucket.

Sysiphus

Disconnect all perifs, only leave the system board connected, power up and see if it still powers down, or try it in another pc.

But it is powering down like that, I could send you out a generic PSU to test it if you want, where are you (PM me if wish)??

LegacyUser

Sounds V. familiar to a problem I have with my desktop pc. Not a virus .. just a hosed cpu or its overheating.

kenmc

I had a similar problem cept it was a dead grafix card.....
try another one of them and see....

Hobbes

right click my computer -> Advanced -> Startup and recovery.

There should be an option "automatically restart". You can click that off so it won't keep rebooting.

But the rebooting is saying there is a problem.

Right click my computer -> Manage -> Event Viewer.

Look at the System + Application logs. They should mention what is causing the problem.

Eldarin

I'm only after noticing your original post. You have already removed and changed the memory. Ok then i'm ****ing stumped. You can ignore whats below then.

This might sound stupid but have you put any new memory in lately. I had an issue before where I was sold pc100 instead of pc133 sdram. It caused my machine to go a little loony to say the least. Also if you havn't the ram thats in there could be balls'ing up. If there's a memory address error in it the pc will boot and after a while do a very not so graceful exit from windows.

I can't see a total reinstall sorting out your problem. If you have an onboard graphics card I'd rip everything bar the hard drive the cd rom and one slot of memory out and work your way up from there till you find out whats causing it. Also do you hear any beeps prior to the shutdown. I ask because if your not hearing beeps its not the CPU or Graphics Card. Both are or have processors and will give you beep warnings when they are in trouble.

waterboy99

One likely cause of sporadic system reboots could a malfunctioning power supply fluctuations the voltage would cause reboots.

The powersupplyis not prividing enough power to the system.

test ur power supply

Scruff

hobbes, if only you'd replied sooner before i'd tried to do a full win2k reinstall..i'll know the next time.

So how does one go about testing ones power supply?

waterboy99

you can a power supply tester for about 15 euro or test it with a digital mutimeter