Dell Machine keeps rebooting

Got a stumper for you all. Working on a Dell Machine with Win XP Pro, whenever I attempt to boot the computer up, it will get to the Win XP Pro screen and then I would see a blue screen with text and then it would reboot itself. I have tried loading up in safe mode and even Last Known Config, but nothing seems to work. I also attempted to boot from cd, which it did, but when I tried to repair the OS, it cant even find the OS on the HDD.

I do have the last resort of just formatting the damn thing, but I really dont want to do that. I was thinking maybe a worm or something, any ideas?

Peace,
MP

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Comments

RussS

Have you added anything lately, or perhaps updated any drivers?

The first rule of diagnosing something you can not understand is to strip it back to bare bones and add one thing at a time. If a bare MoBo with only RAM, Graphics Card and Floppy Disk will not run, then try replacing the RAM. Once running add the Hard Drive and then one piece at a time until it falls over.

matts5074

Can you elaborate as to exactly what text is on the blue screen? If you're getting the blue screen it could be a hardware/driver conflict. The exact error would be really helpful.

halflife78

Sasser virus.

Go here to clean it up:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
or here:
http://kb.trendmicro.com/solutions/solutionDetail.asp?solutionId=19751

Don't reload, the virus doesn't cause any damage just makes the system repeatedly reboot. Only thinkg I can think it would be since this is the newest virus and your symptoms match it.

firefighter13886

RussS wrote:

Have you added anything lately, or perhaps updated any drivers?

The first rule of diagnosing something you can not understand is to strip it back to bare bones and add one thing at a time. If a bare MoBo with only RAM, Graphics Card and Floppy Disk will not run, then try replacing the RAM. Once running add the Hard Drive and then one piece at a time until it falls over.

Nothing has been added nor removed.

firefighter13886

matts5074 wrote:

Can you elaborate as to exactly what text is on the blue screen? If you're getting the blue screen it could be a hardware/driver conflict. The exact error would be really helpful.

The Blue screen appears very quickly and disappears before your eyes can focus on the words.

firefighter13886

halflife78 wrote:

Sasser virus.

Go here to clean it up:
http://vil.nai.com/vil/stinger/
or here:
http://kb.trendmicro.com/solutions/solutionDetail.asp?solutionId=19751

Don't reload, the virus doesn't cause any damage just makes the system repeatedly reboot. Only thinkg I can think it would be since this is the newest virus and your symptoms match it.

I have already thought of that, but can't get into the computer to run anything, I will try to boot from a floppy.
Plus when I try to put the OS cd into the computer and attempt to run the repair option from the cd, it can't even find the os on the HDD, and gives me the only option to format...........I might try to throw in a second HDD and make the first HDD a slave, and put the OS on the first HDD so I can at least get the files and docs that I dont want to lose.

viper75

You can start by cleaning your memory contacts and re-seating all your cable connections. If you still have the same problem then I would check your HD or memory...they may be having problems (common parts) that go bad 1st.

Or it can be that your OS is shot for some strange reason.

I once ran into a problem like that with a Dell Dimension 4100. Took me a long time to figure the problem out. I had replaced everything inside the PC mo/bo, mem, hd, sound, cpu, ide cables. with still the same problem. Only thing left was the power supply and guess what that was the cause of the problem. The stinking power supply was causing the PC to reboot.

RussS

No kidding Viper - I have had things as simple as a NIC or Modem cause spontaneous reboots.

viper75

Yeah...those are the worst problems. When a PC re-boots with no reason you have to start stripping the machine down until you find the piece of hardware that's causing the problem.

Hate those problems...grrrr!!!!

Domain

1) Insert your ASR disk that you didn't create and restore your settings and documents.
2) Grab your system state disk that you didn't create and restore your configurations.
3) Run Recovery Console and execute fixboot or possibly fixmbr
4) Slap in your Windows XP boot disk and run verifier.exe to verify driver compatibility.
5) If verifier pointed out a potential bad driver disable the driver with recovery console cmd disable bad_driver.
6) Run chkdsk /r
7) Run fdisk /mbr

Go to your garage and eliminate your anger.
9) Toss your hd in a different computer and restore your files from a backup you didn't create - using the backup utility.
10) Smile its morning

viper75

LMAO!!!!

That was good!!! hehehe.....

firefighter13886

Domain wrote:

1) Insert your ASR disk that you didn't create and restore your settings and documents.
2) Grab your system state disk that you didn't create and restore your configurations.
3) Run Recovery Console and execute fixboot or possibly fixmbr
4) Slap in your Windows XP boot disk and run verifier.exe to verify driver compatibility.
5) If verifier pointed out a potential bad driver disable the driver with recovery console cmd disable bad_driver.
6) Run chkdsk /r
7) Run fdisk /mbr
Go to your garage and eliminate your anger.
9) Toss your hd in a different computer and restore your files from a backup you didn't create - using the backup utility.
10) Smile its morning

Fixed the POS.
I grabbed another HDD, made the new HDD a master and the second drive a slave and ran a chkdsk and it seemed to have repaired files which were corrupted. Then put it back to normal and removed the loaner HDD and it works again, thanks for all the help.
PS I did eliminate my anger with some paintball over the weekend, all is better now........lol