Help Please : Windows shuts down in normal mode, but works in safe mode.

[skiff9]

Hi there to who ever may be reading.

First of all thanks for taking a look at my issue, the problem as follows :

It shuts down (ie turns off, need to manually press the power button to boot up again) when getting to windows xp desktop.

what i have tried so far:
complete reformat windows xp home

complete reformat windows xp pro

taken the battery out of the motherboard for 30 secs then putting it back in(sometimes this works and it did for a while inabling me to install some softwarelike mobo drivers then after
reboot the problem persisted)

Following that i have tried different batterys and no battery at all each not solving the issue

started in safe mode and installed service pack 3

cleaned processor and heat sink

tried different psu

tried different hard drive (with fresh install)

I originally thought it would be a power issue but i have left it on overnight in safe mode as a test and it never shut down. It only seems to shut down in normal mode! i thought it might be a software issue but i have reinstalled it with different discs and different versions.

I dont think it is a hardware issue as it doesnt turn off when in safe mode, but then i dont think its a software issue because of the multiple clean installs that i have done. So i really dont know.

Please, sombody put me out of my misery. . . . What is wrong with my computer!

[manic]

Post all hardware specs, including power supply wattage and brand.

[skiff9]

AMD athlon 64x2 dual core processor 4000+ 2.11ghz, 960 mb ddr2 ram 450w power supply atx mobo model number ata133.

[manic]

What video card? What brand power supply?

[jacksonb]

i have the same problem, i am pretty much computer illiterate,lol, so any help needs to be in simple terms.
safe mode with networking works fine, comp stay on.normal mode it's switching off randomly. sometimes every few seconds some times after a few minutes,now and then i can be ok for an hour.
i used to have vista but had a new hard drive installed and it came back with xp installed.
been reading forums etc. and i've checked the temp of various things, cleaned all the fluff bunnies out, and the power seems fine.nothing is over heating.

any help please?

saw a few suggestions that it could be video and or their drivers not working right, so i've updated drivers and it says they are fine.

[jacksonb]

oh, and whenever i go anywhere that requires shockwave , i get a message telling me it has crashed, dn't know if that's relevant or not.

[skiff9]

on board graphics card and the psu is called win power.

it doesnt restart it just shuts down, swiches off,end of power.

[louge1953]

try removing one stick of memory and see if it continues shutting down in normal mode. if no difference place that stick back in and remove the other stick and see if it solves the problem. go into bios and look to see what the temperatures and voltages are doing on the motherboard ...and post them back here.. usually shut down problems are due to over heat or bad PSU voltages. if you have changed out the psu with a new one and it still persists and eliminated all the other components including bad RAM ...then all is left is bad motherboard.

[AustrAlien]

CPU overheating causes a system to turn off immediately, with no error message, usually by default at 70°C.
Use something like Speedfan http://majorgeeks.com/SpeedFan_d337.html
to monitor the CPU temperature, and if you see temps in excess of 50°C, then you may have cause for concern, and if temps approach 70°C, then you have found the problem.

A quick way to test this is to download and run toast.exe http://majorgeeks.com/Toast_d867.html
This will run the CPU at 100%. If you can run this for 20 minutes without any problem, then your CPU cooling system is fine.

If the thermal paste contact between the CPU and the heatsink is broken, temps may appear to be "normal", under most conditions.
However, when the CPU is heavily utilised, the temps can spike upward sharply, causing the system to turn off.

Let us know what temperatures are reported while running toast.exe for 20 minutes.

[jacksonb]

downloaded and ran toast, no prpblems at all, in fact i am in normal mode and haven't crashed yet..

[jacksonb]

shortly after my last post, the comp switched of,lol.

i got this message when i switched it back on.

BIOS is not fully APCI compliant go to http://www.hadware-update.com for updated BIOS.
or turn off APCI mode duing text mode set up,to do this press F7 when pompted to install storage divers - this will quietly disable APCI.
***STOP:OxooooooA5(Oxoooooooo,OxA58B6F8,OX524415F,Oxoooooooo)

i admit this message may as well have been writen in swahilli for all the sense it made to me, i've used device manager to update drivers, so thought that was ok.
anyways i googled hardware-update.com and got pages of links to whizz up your pc software downloads. so not much help there.

anyone know what the message means and how i do it?

thanks.

[jacksonb]

well, i'm getting there, thanks for all the tips and suggestions in this thread.

my problem would appear to be a bad BIOS driver and 2 bad raedon 9600 drivers.
when i try to update the raedon drivers with device manager , it tells me i have the best one, so not sure what to do after that.
i have no clue about the BIOS driver, my pc is an evesham and they went out of business and have no website now...

[jacksonb]

motherboard is MSI.
bios(2.3) is american megatrends V1.8B1. loaded on 10/15/2003.

[jacksonb]

problem solved for me, i needed a new mobo.