PC keeps rebooting itself - please help!

j_to_da_t · 3 Aug 2006 at 11:52

I built a PC for my mum months ago, but it hasn't been used for a couple of months. It was working fine before but after I connected it all up again yesterday it kept resetting itself during the boot process. It would normally get to the 'Windows XP' screen with the scrolling bar at the bottom, indicating that windows was booting, but then reset itself. It even got to the WinXP desktop with everything loaded before again rebooting.
I was just wondering what the most common cause for this constant rebooting would be; maybe faulty memory?

j_to_da_t · 3 Aug 2006 at 12:59

Thanks for the advice; I'll check all that out when I get home. I was thinking of running Unix from a live cd as that would tell me whether it was a fault with the software or the hardware, correct?

j_to_da_t · 3 Aug 2006 at 15:33

Ah, I knew I shouldn't have leant it against that large, slightly damp magnet in the basement!

manveruppd said:
Yeah if you have a disc-bootable copy of another OS, and it manages to boot ok, then things would point towards the software. But unless she's had it stored in a damp basement or next to a big magnet for the past 2 months, the software would be the prime suspect anyway!

j_to_da_t · 3 Aug 2006 at 18:39

Tried the Unix Live CD and it ran for about 5 mins before rebooting itself. Before I start formatting the HD and reinstalling an OS, is there any way I can get a backup of the contacts and emails in Outlook, without being able to be in the program itself?

j_to_da_t · 4 Aug 2006 at 14:38

How can I tell if the CPU's overheating, what temp should I be seeing? It's a P3 933Mhz btw.

manveruppd said:
If it's rebooting in Unix as well then it's probably not software related, so why reinstall? Go into the PC Health menu in your BIOS setup and check your CPU temps, it might be simply that your heatsink isn't seated properly and it's overheating? Other than that download Memtest86 (the bootable floppy version) and run it to check your RAM... apart from that I'm stumped I'm afraid, you just need to keep replacing bits till you find what's wrong!

j_to_da_t · 21 Aug 2006 at 21:42

So after much trial and error; trying to pin point which component was erroneous, I still have the re-booting problem. I have, however, noticed that the computer always resets itself when it is trying to boot an OS. It stayed on when I was using DOS utilities, but when trying to boot a Unix live cd and, after going through the whole WinXP format and install process, it then reset itself only when getting to the XP boot splash screen.

Does this indicate any specific problem that I have overlooked?