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Question

keeps restarting at bios please help

by Jun 12, 2011 11:55PM PDT

I dont know what to do anymore I tried everything with my pc. Its running windows xp pro, and i have changed the RAM and the PSU. I formatted the hdd and checked for bad sectors and nothing was found. it still restarts most of the times. it goes through bios and then restarts. i have also changed the cmos battery and then it worked but i read on other forums that it cant be the cmos battery. so I dont know anymore

Discussion is locked

5 Posts
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Clarification Request
I've seen this mostly as a hardware or driver issue
by Steven Haninger Jun 13, 2011 1:18AM PDT

but you didn't give much in the way of details. If it's an older system without regular care to prevent overheating...particularly of the CPU...that could be your problem. Telling more about the PC and the XP installation might help. XP is also funny about hardware changes and can exhibit just that symptom if too many hardware changes are detected.

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Thank you
by tasjass Jun 14, 2011 7:35PM PDT

Thank you for replying. must i uninstall all drivers and reinstall them? and can it be the motherboard or the cpu?

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It can be many things and you still didn't
by Steven Haninger Jun 14, 2011 7:50PM PDT

give information about your machine, its age, etc. You can try other things such as booting to safe mode to see if this still happens or booting from a Linux Live CD. If the machine exhibits the same behavior with another OS, it's the machine and nothing else. Overheating or defective hardware will do that as well. There is talk of bad capacitors. I've only seen this a couple times but some motherboards are known to have been manufactured with suspect caps. Other information you can provide would be helpful.

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Clarification Request
Is it working now?
by MarkFlax Forum moderator Jun 14, 2011 9:03PM PDT

You said, " i have also changed the cmos battery and then it worked", so if it s working now perhaps the best bet is to leave well alone.

Don't forget to backup those important personal files while you have the chance.

Mark

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Answer
Maybe its not the Windows?
by Jun 16, 2011 1:53PM PDT

Maybe you have changed some config in bios such as switches or cables? Remove the bios battery for some 10 seconds and then try. It will restart the bios at default. Or simply you have removed some media reader and in bios it is adjusted to read from some of it. Like diskette or something. At default bios reads diskette. Try some of the things that I said.

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