Dad has a problem: During a thunderstorm, or while he will be away from the
computer for a long time, Dad turns his machine off, using the "proper"
method. When he goes to turn it back on, the computer will begin to boot,
then reset itself sometimes up to eight times before finally doing a full
bootup. On one occasion, a Windows screen came up, and connected us to a
microsoft web page that explained that the problem is likely due to new
hardware or software. He has none of the above. I took the cover off of
his case, and did a good cleaning, including taking the fan off of the mobo
and cleaning out the grill. This made no difference. Can someone assist?

Windows XP Home, SP2, fully up-to-date
Avast Antivirus, fully updated
Spyware Blaster, fully updated
Spybot S & D, fully updated
AdAware, fully updated

512 + 256 mb DDR Ram, 3200

PuppyKatt wrote:

Try disabling the auto restart after crash feature. Open System
properties via Start > Control Panel > Performance and Maintenance >
system.

Select the Advanced tab and then click Settings in the Startup and
Recovery section. In System Failure section, clear the checkbox next to
Automatically Restart. Click OK and OK to exit.

The next time your Dad's computer has a problem, it may stop at a blue
screen that has a "stop" message. Write down the message EXACTLY as it
appears, then try a google search to see if there is a resolution posted
somewhere.

I hope this helps

--
They say if you play a Microsoft CD backwards, you hear satanic
messages. That's nothing, cause if you play it forwards, it installs
Windows.

"PuppyKatt" <PuppyKatt@Hogwartz.not> wrote:

|>Dad has a problem: During a thunderstorm, or while he will be away from the
|>computer for a long time, Dad turns his machine off, using the "proper"
|>method. When he goes to turn it back on, the computer will begin to boot,
|>then reset itself sometimes up to eight times before finally doing a full
|>bootup.

|>On one occasion, a Windows screen came up, and connected us to a
|>microsoft web page that explained that the problem is likely due to new
|>hardware or software. He has none of the above.

Got auto update enabled? Opening a can of worms here, but if it is you
really should turn it off - it causes problems like your having.

Updates are mostly for I.E. and Outlook, which you shouldn't be using
in the first place.

|> I took the cover off of
|>his case, and did a good cleaning, including taking the fan off of the mobo
|>and cleaning out the grill. This made no difference. Can someone assist?
|>
|>Windows XP Home, SP2, fully up-to-date
|>Avast Antivirus, fully updated
|>Spyware Blaster, fully updated
|>Spybot S & D, fully updated
|>AdAware, fully updated
|>
|>512 + 256 mb DDR Ram, 3200
|>

--

On Fri, 19 Aug 2005 13:03:25 -0500, "PuppyKatt" <PuppyKatt@Hogwartz.not> wrote:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315222

While in the safe mode, right click on "My Computer" and select Manage.
Expand the Event Viewer category and look through each of the three sub-categories for the red
flagged error records. The date and time of these should correspond to your restarts. Double
click on an error record to see the details of the error.

Windows XP has a default setting to "Restart on failure". To change that, click Start,
Settings, Control Panel, System, Advanced

In the Startup and Recovery section, click on the "Settings" button to open the Startup and
Recovery window.

In the System Failure section, uncheck "Automatically restart", Click "Apply", "OK"

After that change the computer will no longer restart when a system failure occurs. Instead it
will probably throw up a "Blue Screen Of Death" with a STOP error message and then halt
completely, requiring a manual power off and restart (or reset if it has a hardware reset
switch). But the contents of the STOP error message will give a specific clue as to the
underlying cause of the problem.