NO safe mode and keeps rebooting

[renakuajo]

got this problem:

P4 1.5
Rambus 256 ram
pws 350
cdrw
cdrom
XPSP1 PRo

machine was acting slower........try to enter to safe mode and few seconds after it it reboots.............it doesnt let me in trhu safe mode always reboot.....and now if i try to enter normally it reboots the second is gonna load the desktop. since i cant enter to safe mode i cant disable any driver or program..........the last time i can acces desktop i updated antivirus (AVG-free) but when it restarts says it cant make all the update..............any help or ideas? can i live without reformat and install???

ps.
when the machine trys to acces desktop it gives me a BSD with a message but is too fast to be copy

thanks

 

[renakuajo]

i mess with the bios after i start getting the reboots, i have try loading optimum sttings and the safeones and still get the same result

 

[2z]

will your machine boot to CD ???

if so > might be worth doing a repair install > if you think its software related

enter / to enter setup
F8 / I agree
R / to start the repair

it takes as long as a fresh install
leaving your programs & shortcuts intact

BTW > you'll need to have your CD key handy

 

[renakuajo]

thanks....can it be RAM related? or a virus?






i will try that

 

[renakuajo]

try the repair but didnt work

now at least it let me enter to safe mode the problem is that since it havent finished the repair thing setup cant finished running in safe mode, so it a ppear a message saying so click ok, it reboots and it try to load xp normally but as before gave me the BSD and reboot.........so i think i will do a reformat, damnn!!!!!1

 

[renakuajo]

no more ideas?

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Ok well try and strip it down remove all unneeded hardware first ... sound cards, network cards, use only one stick of ram if you have on board vid use that and remove the vid card ... see if you can get in bare bone ... and then try and get to the error logs see if you cant locate something in there

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

and if your bare bone and it still restarts switch the ram stick ... could be bad ram so we dont know which stick it might be
and un hook any unneeded hard drive or cd rom /burner/dvd

 

[renakuajo]

thanks kermit i will do that tomorrow..........i thought about the ram but it only reboots when i try to enter windows normally, if i boot to safe mode it boots but because i do a repair it doesnt let me enter the safe mode casue it neesd to finalize the repair and in safe mode it cant

 

[Shamus MacNoob]

Right in safe mode alot of drivers and such are not loaded ... so there is a chance its driver related... are you OC'ed ( overclocked )

If so set all that back to default as well ... I hope for you it is driver related and nothing to serious ..

get back and let us know how it went ..... the error logs should tell you something either the ones in the admin tools or the ones that are with the .dmp file made by dr watson

.... if you do a search for *.dmp and open that location there is a .txt with the memory dump that should give you some good info on what is happening ..... those .dmp can be deleted they tend to take up a little space . good luck

 

[renakuajo]

after try to enter safe mode several times witout any luck i decide to wipe C and format.

when i was formatting C (NTFS) it stops at 29%, 3 times i try and everytime it stops at the same point. Shutdown the pc, open the case remove rambus memory sticks put in again and boot, this time instead of doing a full format i did a quick format and pum! it works. i manage to install XPSP1 and till now everything is workin fine. to be honest i dont have any clue what was wrong but i'm thinkin that maybe is the HD or a controller, i dont know, let me know if you think about anything......thanks guys

 

[jw50]

Based on your last post you might have a problem with your hard drive. Try running the error-checking utility (right click on the drive, select properties, then click on the Tools tab, click on Check now under Error-checking, have it check the next time you reboot, then reboot and let it do its check.

If it doesn't find any problems you can try chkdsk from the Recovery Console or you can download disk diagnostics from your hard drive manufacturers website to check the disk.

 

[renakuajo]

i was thinkin the hd or a bad controller, i did the checkdisk said everything was cool..........ok heres the new update i just made all updates install software.......the last tthing i install was AVG antivirus (the same one as before). ok install it reboot and then pum it hangs i hace to push reset button, back in the desktop again everything fine now i left it downloading the update to AVG....lets see what happens..........


ps

the pc is not mine i'm helping a friend who doesnt know anything just email, browsing, etc

thanks again to you guys