[06E90Rostik]

Hello guys/gals. I got a problem with my PC and it drives me nuts.

When I turn it on, it will boot up to the point where it shows Windows logo and the black background (its a XP) and that blue bar running from left to right.

Then all of a sudden it restarts itself and then shows this black screen and message like "Your computer was unexpectedly shut down...blah blah blah...And it recomends to start it normally or in safe mode or other modes. But any mode I choose it will only boot up as far as that same error screen.

I looked on yahoo/google for answers and looks like its a power problem. So I took off cover, vacuumed inside and looked at all the fans. They all work when I try to turn it on. It has 3 fans, 1 on power unit, 1 on motherboard and 1 on the actual case/body.

Anyone has any ideas what could the problem be? I will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks (BTW it's Sony Vaio PCV-RS411, 256MB RAM, XP Service Pack 2, I don't know what else to say that is relevant to the problem)

[Kensta335]

Probably corrupted Windows. May have to reinstall XP.

WTF? 256mb memory and running XP? Think you should go back to Win98

[06E90Rostik]

Originally Posted by Kensta335

Probably corrupted Windows. May have to reinstall XP.

That would suck so much because I never did a backup, shit just went out on me.

[Kensta335]

See if you can get in through safe mode.

[solefald]

are you serious about 256Mb of ram? you need to upgrade. hit up М–Видео, they have ram. you are in Moscow, right?

but most of the time computers reboot because they overheat, but in your case it looks like something else because it reboots right after booting into windows. may be a video problem. can you try booting in safe more?

it may be time to upgrade your computer though. if you dont want to spend money on a new one, you could at least upgrade ram and maybe add another hard drive. this way you could install a fresh copy of windows onto the new, bigger, drive and then copy your personal files from the old hard driver?

[number335]

run a virus scan. could be a trojan.

[just4kickz]

Originally Posted by Kensta335

See if you can get in through safe mode.

+1

(1) safe mode
(2) virus check, attempt to fix if there is one
(3) system restore, if possible
(4) reformat, if virus check and system restore do not work

before reformating, go back to safe mode and backup necessary files on an external HD or another computer.

[06E90Rostik]

That is not my PC lol, its a family workhorse that everyone uses. That was part of the problem, when it did that I was asking everyone what they did to it, and no one knew. I have a Toshiba laptop w/ 3GB RAM I don't let anyone touch it.

OK, I will try to do a scan tomorrow maybe (too tired today after whole day studying for finals). I don't think it will be worth a while to upgrade it thought. We bought it back in 2003, might as well buy a whole new thing. Just need to recover family pics and shit.

(Я не в Москве, это я там жить хочу )

[jlstyle]

With some virus, windows won't boot up.

With your case,
1. I would take the hard drive out
2. Throw out the computer through your window
3. Get a new computer
4. Add your exisiting hard drive to the new computer as a slave drive
5. Run the virus check
6. Run the virus check again
7. ONLY transfer the valuable files to PARTITIONED non C: drive on your new hard drive
or the external hard drive
8. Format the old hard drive
9. Transfer back the old saved files to your old hard drive and only use your old hard drive as an archived hard drive

[just4kickz]

Originally Posted by jlstyle

With some virus, windows won't boot up.

With your case,
1. I would take the hard drive out
2. Throw out the computer through your window
3. Get a new computer
4. Add your exisiting hard drive to the new computer as a slave drive
5. Run the virus check
6. Run the virus check again
7. ONLY transfer the valuable files to PARTITIONED non C: drive on your new hard drive
or the external hard drive
8. Format the old hard drive
9. Transfer back the old saved files to your old hard drive and only use your old hard drive as an archived hard drive

this could work too.

it seems like your in need of a computer upgrade anyways... lol and comps evolve rather quickly. i think every 2 years there are pretty drastic improvements

[Blake]

swine flu

[solefald]

Originally Posted by 06E90Rostik

(Я не в Москве, это я там жить хочу )

+1000000

[marty_mcfly]

dude this just started happening to my comp this week. it turns off randomly. i make it to the windows screen and even browse the internet. all of the sudden it turns off. i turn it back on and i make it back to the windows is starting screen then BAM its off again. i dont get it. i think something is loose but i just dont know what.

[Blake]

В советской России, автомобиль управляет вами

[radix]

I doubt it is a bad power supply due to the consistency and predictability of the restarts, although it could be. It's also conceivable that you're sole DIMM is bad, but again that usually either results in an immediate crash or hang in the worst case, and a different error in the best case. A corrupted master boot record is unlikely, but you can test that theory easily enough by installing a new MBR after booting off of the CD. IMO, it's more likely that you have some sort of kernel or DLL corruption as a result of either a trojan or virus, or a hard drive that is going bad.

If you are adamant about not purchasing a new machine, then here's what I'd do. After booting of of CD and backing up any important data, I'd do the following in order:


1. Ensure your DIMM is properly seated and the contacts are clean and free of dust. Inspect all cabling and make sure everything is properly and securely connected. Ensure you are properly grounded when doing this. At a minimum touch the metal case first before touching any of the components.

2. Reinstall the master boot record after booting off of the XP CD into the recovery console. fixmbr is the proper command IIRC.

3. If #2 doesn't fix the problem then reformat and reinstall XP.

4. If #3 doesn't help then replace the hard drive.

5. Replace the power supply.


The reason I recommend replacing the power supply last is if you can boot off of the CD long enough to properly reinstall XP, there's a good chance that the power supply is not your issue.

[jlaw]

Originally Posted by Blake

В советской России, автомобиль управляет вами

[NYSPEM3]

Maybe an overheat protection. Open the computer and see if any cooling fans stopped working or got gunked up with dust.

[Ravioli]

You've been on too many porno sites dude!!!

[oldaccount]

power supply.

[eVitO]

Russians ftw.

[darkphantom]

Hey OP - did you solve the problem yet?

If not, boot in safe mode with networking and see if you can get online, if not, here is what you should do:

reinstall windows on that same partition. It will say that there already a version of windows on that partition, choose to overwrite.

It will reinstall XP over the current one, and erase the registry, however, your files will be saved.

As long as you don't delete or format the partition, you'll be ok.

[Ochmonek]

Try booting up with an Ubuntu CD. If that works, you may just need to do a repair install of Windows XP. Reinstalling XP will cause you to have to reinstall all your apps.

Another idea: If you can boot into the BIOS, does your PC have a hardware monitor section? My computer had a problem randomly shutting down, and it was a bad 3.3V (down to 2.85 volts) in the Power Supply. Replaced the Power Supply and had no more issues.