computer issues.

[AguaRush]

wow i seem to have a ton of these.. this time its my main computer.. now keep in mind i dont speak computer lingo.. but ill try and tell u whats wrong and give me an answer in easy terms if u can..

My computer running windows xp home edition is stuck in a constant reboot cycle..

it says to try to reboot in modes following

safe mode - nothing happens a screen of numbers
mode used that was originally working - gets reboot cycle

idk what to do.. and google is not helping.

[Firebrand]

Does your computer shut down suddenly?
If yes, I suggest you to clean the dust from all your computer fans (CPU, power supply, graphical card, etc...) with a compressed-air dust spray (something like this: http://www.vlp.com/index.php?main_pa...roducts_id=507 ). Maybe it is overheat because of the dust.
You can also use a software like SpeedFan to monitor the temperature of your computer if you want to check before opening the PC case.

[Steelclaw]

At what point does the computer reboot itself? (At the desktop, at the black windows XP loading screen, before the black windows XP loading screen...?)

Does the computer reboot, power off or freeze?

[AguaRush]

at the loading screen with the xp logo. and it just restarts then goes in a cycle of restarting. i try safe mode and it goes to a screen full of numbers and doesnt go past it.

At what point does the computer reboot itself? (At the desktop, at the black windows XP loading screen, before the black windows XP loading screen...?)

Does the computer reboot, power off or freeze?

[Steelclaw]

Ah. I've had that happen before a couple times. Once was a bad driver install (try "last known good configuration") and the other was a hard disk starting to die. I'm sure there are some other situations that can cause what you've seen too, like bad ram or other bad hardware.

If you can't boot with the last known good configuration and you swear up and down that no upgrades, updates or patches were done to Windows or your drivers since your last successful startup, now is a good time to run a memory test. Grab the latest .iso at http://memtest.org and burn it to a CD using the "burn a cd image" function of your cd recording software. If you end up with a CD with a .iso file on it when you look at its contents, you did it wrong. Boot with the CD and run a couple passes. If no errors show up, good. Go on. If you do get errors, don't proceed, since you can cause some pretty severe corruption. DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP. Attempting to check or recover a filesystem on a machine with bad ram is asking for data loss.

If memtest encountered no errors, boot up with an XP install CD and run the recovery console (not automated system recovery, not reinstall). At the recovery console, run chkdsk /f /r on your windows drive, usually c:. Cross your fingers and let chkdsk run. Reboot when it finishes and hopefully all works. If the setup process goes straight to the partitioning screen, then exit setup. You'll have to hook the hard drive up to a working windows machine and run chkdsk from there.

[AguaRush]

thanks for all your help i ended up getting to the point wherei know the error its PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA... i think this has something to do with my ram.. and i guess its pry going to the shop monday. *sigh* sucks not having my computer this weekend.

[Steelclaw]

If your computer has more than one DIMM, you can unplug the power cable (not just "turn it off") and remove one of the DIMMs, then plug it back in and try again. If you still have problems, unplug the power cable, put the DIMM back in, and pull another one out. Repeat until you either try all of the DIMMs or find the bad one.

[TheRock]

Hi,
My son was having the same symptoms last week and the problem it was several fans were clogged with dust and stopped also the power supply was very weak.
Check your fans first and then swap out one of your power supplies from the other computer.
Worth a try if you got to wait over the weekend

good luck

[AguaRush]

thanks for your suggestions ill have to try them out but chase i have no idea what u said LOL as for the fans and the power do u mean just change the plug in.. sorry i really dont speak tech.

[C`gan]

The power supply is an aluminum box in the upper back of your computer. It's what the power cable plugs into as well as the wall plug. On the opposite side of the power supply unit (PSU for short), you have all sorts of red, black, and yellow wires and some very colored other wires.

Usually there are 2-4 fans in a computer. The first is in the front or back of the case (a case fan). The second is in the PSU itself (the PSU fan). If there are more fans, one will be on top of the processor as part of the heat sink and a fourth may be the mate to the case fan only on the other side of the case itself. to clean them, turn off the computer, unplug the computer, take it into a space that is dry and has good airflow. Get a can of compressed air from either Wal-mart or any computer hardware store. DO NOT USE AN AIR COMPRESSOR! Then blow the dickens out of those fans. Note, in some computer models the PSU may not have a fan itself and instead has a vent from the heat sink fan pointing the air upwards. This is a great way to make the PSU a dust collector and you will definitely want to blow out the PSU first, then continue to blow off all the rest of the components because you'll be putting dust back INTO the computer.

Depending on home dust, you may want to do this procedure anywhere from 1-3 months regularly. Open the case and have at it with the compressed air can.

I should mention, the compressed air can will get cold! Follow safety instructions on the can.

[velveeta]

what c'gan said above - i just had to put 2 more fans in my puter, and when i removed the cover, the fans already in residence were almost unrecognizible.....
long haired cats that love your puter are not healthy for it......