Computer turns off when xp starting up

dak

My computer won't boot up ! It all looks normal but half way through the windows xp start up screen it turns itself off?

Anyone got any ideas ? Thanks for any help!

yoyo

Try selecting "Last Known Good Configuration" on the boot menu when it comes up, if that doesnt work its possibly a hardware/software problem causing windows to blue screen, and XP has been set to auto reboot on this occuring

Nick

Duiske

I had a similar problem a few weeks back. It started with the PC shutting down randomly, and progressed to shutting down whilst booting. I thought it might be the ram, so I took it out, dusted it off and re-inserted it.
While I had it open I done the same with the graphics card. It started fine on the next boot, and have not had a problem since.
Just a couple of things you might try.

Khannie

Hmmm. The very same started happening to my mother in laws PC. I suspected a virus or botched hdd tbh. I'll be investigating it this weekend so I'll report back.

QuadLeo

I had a similar problem where somebody put an auto shut down executive file in my start-up folder. As a joke! Not very funny. Every time windows was starting it would shut down again. I think I solved it by starting in safe mode and removing the file. And a firm uppercut to my friend who done it.

dak

Haven't managed to fix it yet. The same happens even when I tried loading in safe mode at exactly the same point . I haven't been able to get the machine to boot from an xp cd as yet . I have changed the BIOS order correctly and am going to try another xp cd later. Failing that I will have to remove the hard disk and slave it to another machine to try and save the data and then reformat and do a clean XP install from stratch!

dak

Still no joy . Slaved the hard drive to another machine ! No viruses or spyware found ! Copied most files across- ran a xp repair install onto the machine which appeared to work. Rebooted the machine and same problem as before ! Computer stays on and only turns off when windows tries to load ! Any ideas ? . I checked the all connections , no obvious sign of leaking capacitors on the motherboard etc . CPU fan working also so no overheating issues ? Could it be a power supply issue ?

pdevo

did you disable auto reboot to get a blue screen it should give you a clue where to start

Khannie

Did you run a surface scan on the hdd?

Anti

If possible, test the ram and psu in another machine.

dak

Khannie wrote: »

Did you run a surface scan on the hdd?

yes- no bad sectors found !

dak

Anti wrote: »

If possible, test the ram and psu in another machine.

No problems with ram in other computer

dak

pdevo wrote: »

did you disable auto reboot to get a blue screen it should give you a clue where to start

How can I disable it ? its not an option in set up !

ed_ed

Try use the repair option on the xp installation disk.

Zorba

dak wrote: »

How can I disable it ? its not an option in set up !

Start, control panel, system, advanced, start up and recovery settings and unclick the automatic restart on system failure.

That's providing u can get it to boot that far ?

dak

ed_ed wrote: »

Try use the repair option on the xp installation disk.

I did last nite! It appeared to work fine but problem persists! Looks like I migh thave to try a full clean xp install! That will format the Harddrive including the boot section which is probably where the problem lies ?

dak

Zorba wrote: »

Start, control panel, system, advanced, start up and recovery settings and unclick the automatic restart on system failure.

That's providing u can get it to boot that far ?

Can't get that far but thanks for the advise !

Zorba

dak wrote: »

Still no joy . Slaved the hard drive to another machine ! No viruses or spyware found ! Copied most files across- ran a xp repair install onto the machine which appeared to work. Rebooted the machine and same problem as before ! Computer stays on and only turns off when windows tries to load ! Any ideas ? . I checked the all connections , no obvious sign of leaking capacitors on the motherboard etc . CPU fan working also so no overheating issues ? Could it be a power supply issue ?

Does the computer completely shut down as in it doesn't try to start up again ? If so i'd be looking at the power supply, would be worth checking before u go ahead with a full format.

dak

Thanks for all the suggestions! Have finally got it sorted after doing a clean iinstall of XP. Surprisingly all my folders and documents remained intact. Only trouble I had was a few missing drivers ethernet and audio drivers which I got from the original discs shipped with the computer.

pdevo

when booting up press f8 it should come up as an option