After a power outage, computer keeps restarting.

[essential]

The other night there was a thunder storm here in Buffalo. The power went out while one of my computers was on. I didn't even turn it back on until today, and everything boots up fine, gets to the "Windows XP" logo and the little loading blue bar like normal, looking like it will be fine, but then the machine just restarts. It gets back to that point, and does it again.

Is the HD fried? Just a corrupted file that can be solved by a Windows reinstall?

Any suggestions?

Thanks!

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: essential
The other night there was a thunder storm here in Buffalo.

Thanks!

You answerd your own question. It may be a blown power supply. If the PSU is still good (slim chance if struck by lightning) the motherboard might be fried, the third thing I would Inspect is the RAM; look for burn marks and holes in the center or sides of chips.

Here is an example.
http://www.jkovach.net/random/lightning.jpg

http://www.gocmcs.com/images/pics/bad_modem1.jpg

http://www.gocmcs.com/images/pics/bad_modem2.jpg

 

[essential]

Well, the PSU isn't blown, cause the comp boots ... just can't load windows, it keeps restarting on the windows loading screen. Since it gets that far I ruled out RAM and Mobo cause I didn't think it would get that far if those were gone. I will open it up tomorrow though and look at the ram and see if I can see anything. (Btw, the lightning didn't hit my house or anything, just the thunderstorm caused my blocks power to go out ... and I had it all plugged into a surge protector.)

Thanks for the suggestions and I will check the RAM in the morning!

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: essential
Well, the PSU isn't blown, cause the comp boots ... just can't load windows, it keeps restarting on the windows loading screen. Since it gets that far I ruled out RAM and Mobo cause I didn't think it would get that far if those were gone. I will open it up tomorrow though and look at the ram and see if I can see anything. (Btw, the lightning didn't hit my house or anything, just the thunderstorm caused my blocks power to go out ... and I had it all plugged into a surge protector.)

Thanks for the suggestions and I will check the RAM in the morning!

The PSU can be blown and still cause the PC to partialy boot, I have seen this many times before. A Quality replacement fixed the problem. Also surge protectors don't always work and depending on the design, certain types (MOV's) will have degraded performance and or protection as time progresses. I would not be so quick to rule out what could be the obvious. Experience is speaking here.