windows xp keeps rebooting....HELP

[ctek681]

my computer was running fine this morning but now when i start my computer it keeps rebooting itself. I have windows xp professional and when it reaches the screen with the "loading" bar it will take like 15 seconds and then reboots again. I don't know what the problem is and it was working fine just a couple hours ago. Any advise or comments would be appreciated. I am really lost on this one. thanks

 

[Elbatrop1]

did you try booting up in safe mode?

 

[ctek681]

i don't really know how to boot up in safe mode. boot up goes by pretty fast and the only option i saw was to press del. to go to setup. how do i boot up in safe mode?

 

[TheMajor]

before the progress bar press F8

 

[Elbatrop1]

Around the time that it asks you to press del, press F8. That will give you a list of options for booting windows. Choose "Safe mode"

 

[ctek681]

i tried to boot it up in safe mode and it didn't work. it just rebooted again like before. any ideas what could be causing this?

 

[Elbatrop1]

You could have some corrupt OS files. Also, it might have something to do with a faulty PSU, CPU cooling, or maybe RAM.

 

[ctek681]

is there any way to fix it then? what do u suggest i do?

 

[derrmc]

i don't really know how to boot up in safe mode. boot up goes by pretty fast and the only option i saw was to press del. to go to setup. how do i boot up in safe mode?

If you can get to the loading bar you can get to safe mode. As soon as you power the pc, keep hitting f8 repeatedly

 

[Elbatrop1]

is there any way to fix it then? what do u suggest i do?

RAM: You could try reseating it. Also, you might want to try running your system on one memory module at a time (assuming you have more than one memory module). Sometimes the RAM becomes faullty and causes random faults like this.

PSU: To really test the power supply, you need to swap it with another one. Hopefully you have an extra one around

CPU cooling: Sometimes if the CPU gets too hot, the system performance will take a hit, or will lock up or reboot.

OS: To fix corrupted files in the OS, you'd have to reinstall it. To do this, you have to go into BIOS (when the boot up asks you to press del). While there, change the startup drive to be your cdrom. Then, on you next bootup, put the WinXP cd in the cdrom and (hopefully) boot off that. Then you can reinstall the OS from there.