Computer rebooting over and over...

hitmanwa

Baseband Member
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Friend of mine brought his PC by and asked me to take a look at it. Basically when you start it up it'll get to the XP splash screen and then reboot itself. It'll do this over and over if you let it. Tried booting in safe mode but it does the same thing. I turned off the reboot on error option to get to the blue screen with the error and it says Irql_Not_Less_Or_Equal.

From what I've read that could be anything from a hardware problem to a driver problem. Anyone have any ideas for identifying the actual problem? What would be the quickest/cheapest solution.

Thanks in advance,
Hit
 
Go into the BIOS and set the IRQ resources distribution to auto if possible. If not, at least locate in the BIOS where you can manually distribute IRQ resources.
 
Unless I'm completely missing it there aren't any IRQ options on this particular system. It's a Dell Dimension 2400 btw.

Thanks for the quick reply Grant,
Hit
 
Nah. It's definitely an IRQ resource distribution error. Your VGA may be getting improper IRQs or not enough. The only solultion would be in the BIOS.

An even quicker solution would be to reset the BIOS.
Unplug the machine, Locate the 3V CRC2032 circular battery on the bottom of your motherboard and pull it out. and press the power button on the computer a few times to ensure it has used the PSU's remaining power. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so, then put it back in. Should reset the BIOS and all of the IRQ issues it might have.
 
if it's the model he says it is then this is a definite possibility, go into the bios and check the temps...

I thought about that earlier but this bios seems to be lacking that too. It has some CPU info but not the temp. :/ Resetting bios now to see if it's an irq problem.

Reset the bios but no luck. Still doing the same thing.

On the over temp issue, it should be over temp at start up should it? Could it have gotten too hot at some point and now the CPU is dead? Would it still make it to the XP splash screen if this were the case?
 
I thought about that earlier but this bios seems to be lacking that too. It has some CPU info but not the temp. :/ Resetting bios now to see if it's an irq problem.

Reset the bios but no luck. Still doing the same thing.

On the over temp issue, it should be over temp at start up should it? Could it have gotten too hot at some point and now the CPU is dead? Would it still make it to the XP splash screen if this were the case?

I would just take off the HSF, apply some thermal paste, slap it back together and see what happens...
 
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