Win ME restarts itself

February 29th, 2004, 8:27 pm

HELP! My Win ME restarts automatically. It does it in both Safe and NOrmal mode, as it completes startup, it will just restart itself, which causes it to run scandisk, which it does, then when it comes up in Windows, it'll restart. HELP !

[ATNO/TW]

February 29th, 2004, 8:36 pm

Do you have an anti-virus program? If so, insert the emergency boot disk and boot to your virus scan and run it.

February 29th, 2004, 9:10 pm

Tx, good idea... I'll give that a try. Does this sound like a characteristic of a virus?

[ATNO/TW]

March 1st, 2004, 3:59 am

Possibly. Another possibility is a bad driver, although it still should let you get into safe mode. Safe mode loads a minimal set of drivers so you can troubleshoot. But you still could have a bad driver. If the virus scan doesn't work, you might need to load your Windows OS disc and run a repair on Windows.

March 1st, 2004, 5:54 am

Another thing to try is to press F8 like your going to access Safe mode and select Step by Step Confirmation. This lets you see what its loading up and it will ask you if you want to load it. Hence you can take note of the last one before it restarts and possibly narrow it down to that item(depending on what it is).

Alkatr0z

[ATNO/TW]

March 1st, 2004, 6:23 am

AlkatrOz good idea. I forgot she said she was on ME. Along those lines there's the option to create a bootlog. This could be viewed in DOS mode to trouble shoot the problem. Personally, I feel it's a driver that's corrupt.

March 1st, 2004, 6:30 am

I totally agree, I think it's a driver problem, too. At first, when this PC came to me, I was really thinking it was a hardware problem. But... more and more I'm thinking it's software. Can you tell me how I troubleshoot the problem in DOS mode? It seems DOS is the only thing I can move around in... Safe Mode isn't safe either. Your suggestions are GREATLY appreciated! tx in advance.

[ATNO/TW]

March 1st, 2004, 6:48 am

Hit F8 like AlkaTr0z suggested. That will take you to your Windows startup menu. Off the top of my head I can't remember what option it is, but there should be one that says to create bootlog. After Windows tries to load and crashes, on reboot get into DOS mode. There should be a bootlog.txt file in the root of C: You can read it, by typing edit bootlog.txt at the command prompt. It gives you a detailed rundown of everything that happens during the boot process. Whatever was the last thing that failed to load is most likely what's causing the problem.

Here is some additional info to help you understand what's in the bootlog file

http://securityresponse.symantec.com/av ... virus.html
http://support.microsoft.com/default.as ... us;127970&
http://www.tafe.sa.edu.au/institutes/to ... ootlog.htm
http://www.geocities.com/~budallen/bootboot.html

A google search for bootlog will provide plenty of additional reading.

[grinch2171]

March 1st, 2004, 7:58 am

Doesn't the Blaster virus cause this problem? I know it did on my buddy's PC.

March 1st, 2004, 8:10 am

grinch2171 wrote:

Doesn't the Blaster virus cause this problem? I know it did on my buddy's PC.

Blaster exploited the NT codebase (which includes XP, but not 98 or ME).

March 1st, 2004, 12:06 pm

Well... I think this computer might be a lost cause. I'm really trying anything but to format the hard drive... I can not get it to even write to a bootlog.txt file... I tried the step-by-step confirmation, and that didn't work. I can't get it to stay in Windows at the Safe Mode, it restarts itself there, also. When it starts windows, either in safe mode or normal, it will (run scan disk, obviously), then proceed to bring up the desktop, then load the system tray... after that the hd light keeps crankin' away, then "POOF" the restart. I tried shutting down windows from the menu, and restarting it, which it doesn't run scan disk, but then, it boots exactly like I just said... loads up the desktop, sys tray, and hd bangs away, then poof... both in safe mode, and normal. What da ya think, guys... is it a lost cause and should I reformat ?

[ATNO/TW]

March 1st, 2004, 12:26 pm

Do you get any "beeps" coming out of the computer when it crashes? If so descibe the sequence of the beeps, in "long" and "short" terms - i.e one long, 3 short. Also, what is the BIOS brand (first thing that appears on the screen when your computer is turned on)?

[grinch2171]

March 1st, 2004, 12:29 pm

Kind of curious, how much RAM do you have?

[ATNO/TW]

March 1st, 2004, 12:34 pm

Funny you should ask that about the RAM -- I was thinking she might have a failing RAM chip. That's why I asked for the BIOS error beeps. It should identify a failing/failed hardware device.

[grinch2171]

March 1st, 2004, 12:40 pm

If she has over 1.5GB of RAM, WINME will reboot continuously just because ME was not built to handle that much RAM as with 98, however, there is a fix for it.