infinite rebooting

[CletusTheDwarf]

ok, i need help. I have reformatted about 5 or 6 times in the past 2 days. I reformat, reinstall windows, start to install programs one at a time, and sooner or later, I try to do a reboot, not even after doing an install and it does the constant reboot thing. and the only way i can fix it is to start all over again. I can't figure out what is causing it. I thought maybe service pack 2 but I left that off this time and it still did it. I thought maybe a using a new version of daemon tools, but that didn't help. I really need to know what is causing this...

a friend of mine thought maybe bad ram, and i did recently add 2 more chips, but do you think bad ram could cause a problem like this?

 

[cw42]

have u installed anti-virus w/ latest defs?

 

[xSkyDrAx]

Did you oc anything? Maybe your computer is unstable.

 

[DaveSimmons]

a friend of mine thought maybe bad ram, and i did recently add 2 more chips, but do you think bad ram could cause a problem like this?

bad ram can cause almost any misbehavior. You should make a bootable CD or floppy of memtest and run it for a while.

 

[CletusTheDwarf]

yeah, the computer is 100% stable, and i have the virus software, plus i'm behind a hardware firewall on my router

 

[duragezic]

My computer would constantly reboot when my hard drive was failing, but of course the hard drive click accompanied that rebooting , but just suggesting...?

 

[ectx]

(1) remove the new chips you added recently to see if it fix the problem?
(2) hae you loaded the chipset drivers?

If the problem persists, post your system specs.

 

[dclive]

Originally posted by: CletusTheDwarf
ok, i need help. I have reformatted about 5 or 6 times in the past 2 days. I reformat, reinstall windows, start to install programs one at a time, and sooner or later, I try to do a reboot, not even after doing an install and it does the constant reboot thing. and the only way i can fix it is to start all over again. I can't figure out what is causing it. I thought maybe service pack 2 but I left that off this time and it still did it. I thought maybe a using a new version of daemon tools, but that didn't help. I really need to know what is causing this...

a friend of mine thought maybe bad ram, and i did recently add 2 more chips, but do you think bad ram could cause a problem like this?

Does it happen when you boot in safe mode?

If you don't install anything (just the default XP install) plus Service Pack 2, does this problem happen? (ie _no_ drivers) ?

 

[tm37]

Does it just reset? (hard reboot)
or does it shut down (Please wait while windows shuts down)

And it automatically reboots?

Here is a list of things I have personally experenced casueing this issue.

Bad RAM
Bad PS
Bad MB
Bad Video card
Bad HDD

I would unplug everything and then start adding things one at a time.

 

[CletusTheDwarf]

I thought it was the new ram I put in, so I took it out, did a new format and install, but it still did it again. Then I remembered that one other thing I changed was I downloaded the newest version of the nVidia drivers to use. Possibly that was the cause. Because it doesn't happen with absolutely nothing installed, I just hadn't been able to isolate out what was doing it. (I really hope it's not a hardware problem) So now i'm using the chipset drivers that came on a cd with my mobo rather than newer ones from the web, so I'll let you all know if it fixes it.

 

[CletusTheDwarf]

so It wasn't the new ram that was causing the problem, i took that out and it still happened so I had to reformat. I thought maybe it was the new version of the chipset drivers I installed, so I used the old ones from the cd that came with the motherboard. Worked for a while, but I restarted the computer today, and now regardless of what mode i boot in (safe, normal, etc) it says that the c:\windows\system32\nvatabus.sys file is missing or corrupt, a whole new problem. I can't think of any installations that i did between this restart and a successful restart asside from itunes and smart ftp. This morning i had been restarting a lot doing norton updates with no problem. i saw online that people have had this problem, and can sometimes be fixed by a long process through the recovery console. except that when I try to get to the recovery console IT WON"T LET ME IN! It says it's the wrong password and i know it's right.

So now I have this problem. Before it would stop booting and restart when it got to giveio.sys, and other time it would reboot at mup.sys. I have no (profanity) clue what is causing this issue, I've restarted at least 10 times in the last 4 days, i can't be messing around with this now that school has started, and i just want this (profanity) computer to start to work again. Any help is very much appreciated. Reply here, or im me if i'm on my roommate's computer at Tenorsax4all. thanks

 

[dclive]

If you don't install anything (just the default XP install) plus Service Pack 2, does this problem happen? (ie _no_ drivers) ?


.... I still suggest doing this....

 

[CletusTheDwarf]

no, it doesn't. but i need to install some drivers at least cause i can't even get online w/o installing the ethernet drivers. i have an nforce chipset.

 

[dclive]

OK, so that suggests the issue isn't hardware. So if you install *just* the nForce chipset drivers + SP2, what happens? NO other drivers/utilities/software?

 

[CletusTheDwarf]

i'll try that this time around, it's installing right now. i'll install JUST the ethernet driver (it asks for directx to be installed), then SP2, then the rest of the nvidia drivers.

 

[CletusTheDwarf]

seems fine so far, what do you suggest the next step is? install things one at a time and restart a few times after every little program?

 

[dclive]

I'd install your drivers, and then I'd install antivirus, and then use the basic built-in firewall, etc. for a few days (ie don't install anything else) and see how it goes.

Also, turn off auto-reboot. Right-click my computer/advanced/startup &shutdown, uncheck autoreboot.

 

[ectx]

If you already installed the video driver and everything is ok, then forget about this.

Just recalled that I had this problem with all ATI based video card on one of my nf7-s's (I used 9500, 9800 8500 DV AIW, I think I have a thread asking for help here). I was never sure how I got over the problem. But if your problem is video-related, I'll try to recall the steps I took. (To this date, I have not had the courage to upgrade the video driver on that rig).