Computer keeps restarting...

[Bulldog13]

Anyways, a friend is coming over with his computer tonight and apparently it keeps restarting.

It won't go into windows. He says it is not overheating because temps seem fine on boot. Apparently it gets to the windows splashscreen and then restarts itself. It does this infinitely.

Any idea on what the problem might be ? He s coming around 6. And the computer store closes at 8, so I want to know the possible problems before I start tinkering with it, so I can get to the computer store before it closes.

AMD Athlon XP (forget speed)
Radeon 8500
512 Crucial Ram
Epox 8kha+
Enlight case and power supply.

It is roughly 3 years old and he has no idea why it started doing this.

Thoughts ?

 

[chocoruacal]

Originally posted by: Bulldog13
Thoughts ?

The number and combination of possible problems are too great to list here. The most obvious response would be: reinstall Windows. Depending on how smart/stupid your friend is it could be as simple as a virus or corrupted Windows file. If Windows won't reinstall (you get a BSOD, it hangs, restarts, etc.) then you can assume there is a hardware problem. Next obvious response would be to run Memtest86 off a booteable floppy. All tests. From 0-8 hours.

 

[burakbegen]

I had a similar problem, did he install a dvd player, cd player etc. recently. I had a dvd writer working with one of my computers, I decided to switch it to my new computer and I started giving restarting problems. The problem is solved when I removed the dvd writer. I had one cd player and one dvd player on the new computer now working without any problems.

 

[mplutodh1]

Gone through and checked the ram? My guess is thats what is causing it. Mine had the same problem a few years ago, bad ram was the cause. Be careful not to do this too often, it can really screw crap up in the OS restarting like that.