BSOD reboot loop during start up of PC? How do I fix this?
About four days ago I had a small problem with my self built PC. It all of a sudden shut itself off, almost like there was a power outage. I didn't think anything of it other than it was extremely odd and rebooted it. Upon rebooting it, the only issue I noticed was my wireless adapter no longer worked, so I purchased a new one and went on my merry way.
Two days ago the problem happened again, but ever since the second blackout I have had a serious hair wrenching issue. Every time I start the PC, every thing goes swimmingly until it goes to the windows splash screen to try and load windows. A BSOD flashes on the screen impossibly fast to read, and the PC reboots itself.
I am able to get into my BIOs, I am able to insert my Windows XP CD and get into the recovery console. I am not able to press F8 and choose to go into safe mode, disable the automatic reboot on failure, or use the last working configuration.
(cont.)
3 years isn't ancient but I upgrade every 3 years cause that's when my laptops typically start dying a slow death. Sorry to hear that it happened to you and you wiped your data, but PCs are fairly cheap these days, might as well spend the $300+ on a new desktop and enjoy newer tech.
I think I found my culprit. I totally took my entire computer apart and came across this:
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/8fpqnLl63G2Ynr5uIFRrvC2VaKkkoDQzo-61W7O34Xc?feat=directlink
It looks like a small burnt piece of motherboard, and I do recall an electrical burning smell both times the PC powered itself off. So I guess old age is the culprit in this murder mystery. It's just a shame, I don't think 3 years is old age but I guess I should just be happy I had a good run with it.
Here are some more extensive instructions on how to stop the reboot.
I don't see any bulging pieces on the motherboard, maybe if i post my parts it'll shed some light.
- MSI K9A2 Neo-F AM2+/AM2 AMD 770 ATX AMD Motherboard
- AMD Phenom(tm) 9950 Quad-Core Processor
- Crucial 8GB (4 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model CT2KIT25664AA800
- ATI Radeon HD 5870 1GB Graphics Card With Eyefinity Technology & Dual-Stream 1080p Playback
- Western Digital Caviar Blue WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
- Antec EarthWatts EA750 750W Continuous Power ATX12V version 2.3 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC "compatible with Core i7/Core i5" Power Supply
The motherboard, processor, and hard drive are the oldest parts all having just turned 3 years old in February. Half the memory is the same age, the other half is much younger but the same model.
Do you have the proper power suply for the items you have added? It could be as the computer is starting up and things like your wireless adapter power on you are drawing to many watts for your power supply.
Could be a virus or driver got hosed, for a quick test go to the bios and under Advanced SATA try changing it from IDE mode to AHCI or the other way around if you think someone could have tinked around or if the bios got reset (which it did when you popped the battery out).
Edit: The more I think the issue is the IDE/AHCI mode.
Edit 2: You have XP just do a repair install and you should be fine. This is final worst case but XP does a great job of reinstalling windows.
Have you tried running a hardware diagnostic? Also check the drivers for all the hardware, particularly the device you replaced.
If you can boot up at all for an extended period, run a system diagnostic as well.
If you can get safeboot up, run spybot/mbam/ whatever program you use; make sure there's no malicious software that hit your drivers/ hardware/ the computer in general.
@apfrehm: Just realized you tried the installation media, but not necessarily reinstalled? Try that on a spare drive (if you have one) before anything else, that would be a real easy test of the hardware.
@carl669: Seconding this, it could be the RAM. If you have any RAM you can swap it out with (smaller modules, something like that) you can test that way as well. Any Linux LiveCD would be good as well, you said you tried reinstalling Windows and that that did not help (which suggests hardware failure) but a Linux ISO can help rule out your OS install. Same with a live MemTest86 CD. If you can't get into MemTest, hardware sounds bad! That being said, you DID get to a recovery console, which means that the hardware may not be bad.
Have a spare hard drive you could swap in there? The LiveCD would help test that, but so would a spare drive.
Bad caps, as stated, are worth checking for.
If you can test your memory in another machine, that can help rule it out.
If everything checks out except for your motherboard / CPU, you could try finding someone that would let you test your CPU in their machine, but by this point you know you need a new CPU or mobo. (PSU sounds fine. Probably.)
@tiamat114: have you tested your RAM? i used this when one of my systems started doing that: http://www.memtest86.com/ (go to the free download section)
I should add, I'm fairly certain it's not the video card, as I had an identical video card still brand new in the box that I swapped in to try, and it didn't change anything.
My guess is that you have a corrupted driver or critical DLL. Short of reinstalling the OS, I'd suggest SpinRite.
http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
It isn't cheap, but it is currently the best for this. Buy it, download the ISO, burn to CD, boot to CD, then let it run on level 2. Good chance it will solve the problem.
I can't F8 and do any of those things, I've tried. F8 will open the selection menu but choosing any option gets instant BSOD and reboot. I've even tried taking my camera and video recording the boot try try and catch the BSOD error, but even in slow motion it goes so fast that if just flashes and gives the generic message before rebooting so I can't give anymore information of what error it even is.
I'm at a doctors office right now so I'll try and see if I can give anymore information once I get home, though the consensus so far is pointing to the motherboard and processor.
This sounds like what you'll get with bad capacitors on the motherboard - it'll start to fail in random ways as the caps dry out then start to get to be almost unusable.
If you're able to look at the motherboard, look at the capacitors - they're the large cylindrical objects, metal cans with a black or brown (usually) plastic wrapper. There's usually a set of radial lines on the top. If the tops are bulging, or the rubber plug at the bottom is pressed out, or if you see brown goo leaking from them, then you have bad caps.
I've fixed these by replacing the caps, but it's a lot of work and requires good desoldering and soldering tools.
Here's a link that shows what I'm talking about. http://www.asjohnson.com/~andy/bad-caps.html
Or, plug "bad caps" into Google.
Good luck!
If you can get into safemode, Right Click on “My Computer” and goto “Properties”. Then goto the “Advanced” tab and under the headline “Startup and Recovery”, press the “Settings” button. Untick the “Automatically Restart” box and press Ok. That will make the BSOD display and you can see if the stop code gives you any insights into what is going on.
You might also test with different memory sticks in different slots to make sure you memory stick isn't bad. Also try removing the video card and use the on-board video and see if that helps.
If it turns out to be the motherboard or processor, it may be time for a new machine.
I had that same problem with my old computer. I am pretty sure it is the processor. The same thing had happened a few years earlier and it was the processor (that one was covered by the warranty). But, an older processor that my MB could take is kind of expensive (for the speed) and I didn't bother replacing it. I don't know how to tell that it is the processor that is bad other than by replacing it and seeing if that helps.
Hit F8 to get the PC to display the startup menu. Boot in Safe Mode. If this works, it is most likely a problem with a driver.
Safe Mode starts up Windows without loading many of the drivers installed on the machine. If the PC comes up in Safe Mode, you can then do a logged boot and find out where it is crapping out, then remove whatever drivers and related files are causing the problem.
However, given that you've reinstalled Windows from scratch, it is quite possibly your motherboard, though it could be your video card. You may need to actually replace whatever died.
Trying to explain how to do this in detail is not going to be a fun experience in 1000 character messages, so I'm not going to go much further for now.
I have tried various fixes, and out of sheer frustration at the situation gone so far as to use the XP disc to reformat my entire hard drive and lose everything and do a clean XP install, still to no avail.
I have also tried replacing my battery in my motherboard, and running my PC with the bare minimum parts (motherboard, 1 stick of memory, hard drive, CD-Rom drive, and video card)only to still have the same result - BSOD reboot as soon as it tries to load Windows.
I really have no idea what is left to try at this point or what the problem could possibly be. As I am not the most tech savvy person, this is nothing but a huge headache at this point.
Please help!
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