Error and restart all the time - what can I deduce from error screen?

[Andy Rylance]

I am trying to find out why my PC loads up when I start windows but just as I begin to see the desktop it restarts itself again and then does the blue "checking disk" screen everytime.

Microsoft error page says it may be a driver causing the issue, but can I deduce from below which bit of software is the problem?!!

Thanks, Andy


http://lh5.ggpht.com/andy.rylance/SLcCUuYrPPI/AAAAAAAAADQ/ypP6cXX8x54/s800/error.jpg

[Guest 112233]

Power On Self Test Checks - Use another PC to check the Bleep sequence for your mother board/Memory/ Config on Manufacturers Site & Google.

? Mother board/ Memory failure perhaps.

CAT III

[Parapunter]

Ok, from your question, it is hard to deduce your problem. You need to give more of your cnfiguration.

However... 99% or at least a goodly chunk of blue screen/straight reboots are driver related.

This will save your life (slight exaggeration?) How to solve Windows system crashes in minutes - Network World (http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/041105-windows-crash.html?page=2)

Read the whole thing & understand it before you act otherwise pay a nice man to do the same - but it should be within the average users capbility.

But to get as far as using the fix, you need to get as far as windows without rebooting, so you need safe mode. I haven't been there for a while, but IIRC hit F8 on boot& the option should present itself.

Good luck!

[Keef]

I don't recognise those codes.

Sounds like Safe Mode is the way to go. Turn off all the drivers, then turn 'em back on one by one till it hiccups again - that one was the culprit. Go back one stage, and check for a different/older/newer driver.

Do you know what you did between the last successful start, and that one? Are you running XP, or Vista? Have you got automatic updates turned on?

[Bushfiva]

What have you changed recently? Added any USB devices? Can you disable USB ports in BIOS and try booting? Did you look through the two error reports? Can you safe boot and then look at the system event logs via the control panel?

[Spitoon]

I'm no great technical expert and when I have had driver problems in the past I have sorted it out using Keef's method. It's possible that clicking on the 'Technical information' link in the window that comes up could give you some hints.

Does it happen at exactly the same point in the boot up each time? I have had similar problems caused by dodgy memory - served me right for buying really cheap I guess - but it would reboot at a different point each time. If you think it could be this and have more than one strip of RAM try taking out all but one strip ans see if all is well - if yes, add another and see if it is still OK etc. untill it's fully populated. Alternatively try each strip separately to verify that it's OK. With my cheap RAM it passed all memory checks I ran on it but crashed the machine in use - so I guess it was something to do with timings etc....told you I wasn't a techie!

[Parapunter]

Windows debugger will identify a faulty driver in a heartbeat. You can of course switch off driver after driver until you identify the fault, but you'd best have a free day to waste doing it!

A good question to ask yourself is have you installed any software or added any hardware recently? If so, get rid & try again.

[Andy Rylance]

Software that has automatically updated was Zone Alarm, Firefox, and AVG but nothing else...automatic updates on - this windows debugger where and how does it work?

[Parapunter]

There is a link in my first post to network world.com where they describe how it works & offer a link to the microsoft download. Nb. if your pc is 32 bit, you want the x86 version. If you don't know what it is, then it's almost certainly a 32 bit machine.