Computer shutting down upon loading Windows

[badger920]

I have been having some problems, and I come to you guys for help. School is starting, and I have a brand new monitor I want to start using, but my computer doesn't seem to want to cooperate.

1. Overview of the problem

* BSOD on login to Windows and then the computer restarts. Started happening after I moved my computer up to school in my car.


2. Full description of the problem and symptoms

* My problems started when I moved my computer up to school with me and plugged everything back in. Everything starts fine when I boot up the computer, Windows loads, and I get into the login screen. Then, out of nowhere, I get a very quick flash of a BSOD, and the computer restarts. Sometimes it lets me get all the way to my desktop before crashing, but it always ends up happening.

I decided to check all my connections, and they all were fine (one stick of RAM was slightly unseated, so I pushed it back in.) The restarts continued to happen, so I tried to start in Safe Mode. The computer was fine, and I left it on for an hour or so to see if it would shut down. It never did. I checked again in regular mode, and the crash happened again.

I used system restore to roll back my hard drive to several days before, and tried again. This time, the computer stayed on for several hours and, thinking the problem was fixed, I shut it down and went to bed.

My computer was not turned on the next day, but the day after that, I turned it on and my roommate played Crysis for about two hours. As soon as he finished and left the room, the BSOD popped up and restarted the computer again. Ever since then, the computer keeps shutting down as soon as I get to the login screen or shortly thereafter. I tried system restore again with no success.



3. Did it work normally at one time, or has the problem always existed?

* The computer was working absolutely fine until I decided to move it up to school in my car. When I plugged everything back in at school, I started having problems.



4. Is the problem consistent and repeatable, or entirely random, or semi-random?

* Semi-random. It will usually happen as soon as I log into Windows, sometimes it will wait for a few seconds.



5. I already tried these steps:

* Ran in Safe Mode fine, did a virus scan with no viruses found.
* Used System Restore to roll back my hard drive several days, which seemed to fix it, at least for a little bit.
* Checked all connections, and everything seems to be connected just fine.
* Checked heat levels in BIOS, nothing seems to be overheating.


6. My software:

* Windows XP Home Edition with SP2
* Norton Antivirus


7. My Hardware:

(I'm not at my house right now, so I will clarify later on things you may need to know.)

* Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe
* CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+
* Video Card: MSI 8800GT
* RAM: 2GB Crucial
* Power Supply: OCZ 650W

If you need to know anything about my hardware, just ask and I will help you as best as I can. I have no internet at my house yet, so it make take me a little while to respond. Thank you for all of your help in advance!

 

[Billb2]

Boot safe mode
Right click My Computer
Choose Hardware
Choose Device Manager
Look for device problems


Boot safe mode
Right click My Computer
Choose Advanced
Choose Start up and recovery
Choose Settings
Uncheck Automatically restart

That will stop the automatic rebooting after a BSOD.
Google the BSOD error code, just the first set of numbers will do.

Boot safe mode
Open Administrative tools in Control Panel.
Double click Computer Management
Click Event Viewer
Look for error notices in the various logs.
You can right click an error for more info.
In the info box, you can double click the link (answer yes) and you'll get a Microsoft explanation (in plain English) of the error (if you're connected to the internet).

 

[elmer92413]

Sounds very similar to a problem I had. For me it was a graphics problem. The nvidia sentinel finally popped up at the login screen telling me the gpu wasn't getting enough power. I've had that happen twice first time I reinstalled the graphics driver and that cleared it up, but this time it was more involved and infact still isn't entirely cleared up (can't seem to play some games).
But definitely try to redo the graphic's drivers

 

[badger920]

I looked at it briefly yesterday, and it started up normally with no problems. I looked at the error logs in the Event Manager, and there were a bunch of errors under the system tab about drivers not loading, and a particular one kept showing up called NumaNT. I had other errors that included a large list of drivers not loading. I'm not sure if this is just a side effect of starting in Safe Mode, or if this is where my problem lies.

When I get home from class today, I will try to re-install my video card drivers. I think this might be a good start, because I upgraded my video card about 3 months ago. I know I installed drivers, but maybe they got screwed up for some reason.

 

[badger920]

New developments:

I am able to reproduce the problem by turning on my wireless card and trying to connect to the internet. I get the BSOD when it is trying to find networks. Furthermore, I found out what the blue screen said:

"DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL" with varying numbers in the Technical Information section after each crash. There is also a line talking about RT2500.sys.

After I crash it with the wireless card, it crashes several more times without getting past the login screen, but eventually stabilizes and I can keep the computer on as long as I don't open the wireless program.

I'm not sure what it all means, but I'm going to try to update the drivers for my wireless card.

 

[badger920]

I've searched online, and it seems that a lot of people have this same problem with wireless adapter cards. I may have to go out and get a new one. I'll probably test my RAM before I go out and buy one, but I think I may have pinpointed the problem.

Has anyone else had this problem or have any thoughts on how to fix it without spending any more money?