[Nian]

Hi all. I've got a problem that's absolutely baffling me.

Put simply: every time I boot up into Windows, I've got roughly 30 or 40 seconds before the computer just resets. I get no error messages or warning beeps or anything like it. The screen just goes black, and the computer reboots.

My first thought was that it was the MS Blaster virus, or some variant of it, but I've thoroughly scanned several times and found nothing. I've used Symantec's specialised fixes and the absolute latest Norton Antivirus updates, and found no viruses whatsoever. I did have the Welcha virus at some point, but the Symantec fix found and supposedly solved it, and checking now says I don't have it anymore. So I can't find any viruses at all. Nor can I find any spyware or suchlike (using both Ad-aware and Spybot Search & Destroy). I've moved the hard disk to a completely separate machine and it still reboots in exactly the same way, so it's definitely something concerning the hard disk, and not, for example, the power unit.

What's even more frustrating is that the computer will reboot even before I get into Windows. When I boot up and the Windows networking login box appears, prompting me for a password, if I simply leave the computer at this stage, and don't even sign into Windows, the whole thing still reboots after about 40 seconds. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought barely any programs have loaded before you enter your password and log in, making it unlikely a virus or something could do anything to your computer before that. But, as I said, I could be wrong.

I thought the problem might be that Windows had somehow got corrupted (because Safe Mode still works), so I booted from my Windows 2000 CD and did a full Repair, replacing all the files with the versions on the CD, and the problem hasn't gone away.

I honestly can't think of what else the problem might be, other than some sort of corruption of the hard disk itself (like, on a hardware level, rather than software). Does anybody have any advice, or thoughts on what the problem might be? I'm at my wits end about this whole thing, and I'm fresh out of ideas. The problem started when I got cable internet and installed McAfee Internet Security. As I said, it was during this that I did get the Welchi virus, but I've supposedly fixed that and it no longer shows up on the searches, and I've also applied the Microsoft patch relating to the blaster worm and so on, and the problem even happens when I'm not connected to the internet. Does anybody have ANY ideas?! Any advice would be greatly appreciated. I'm going crazy here!

 

[idtent]

You may have a service or task that is starting up that is causing the problems.

If you can get into safe mode, try uninstalling recently installed software. See if that fixes it.

Also look in your services for services that shouldn't be there.

I am sorry that I can not give you a list of services that you should need. If you have web services or other services that you know you can safely disable then reboot, you can limit it to the problem service.

You can also check your registry In Hkey local machine/software/microsoft/windows/current version/run

It is easiest to export that entire key, then delete the subkeys in the right hand window. Reboot, if the problem goes away. Re add the subkeys one at a time until it does the reboot thing again.

I don't mean to sound vague, but more than likely you are going to find a service that is loading and causing the problems.

 

[adomin1000]

You need to boot into safe mode again and check on what services start up. There is something there that can't start. And by default, when a service can't be started, the system will reboot. Services can be reached by going to Start > Settings > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services. You can safely tell a service to only start if u start it yourself if it doesn't have a description. All windows critical apps have descriptions. So just Double-click a service and choose Manual from the drop down menu of Startup type. Be sure to write down which ones u change. Or you can add a description to it so that next time you check the services, you know which ones you disabled.