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General discussion

My PC keeps restarting itself every 4 seconds.

Feb 25, 2015 9:14PM PST

My desktop Pc that I have had for about 3 years had been switching itself off every now and again for the last couple of months but for the last few days whenever I try to switch my PC on it just restarts/ reboots itself after about 4 seconds over and over again. I have tried putting a different PSU into it, Putting more thermal paste on the CPU, booting up with the hard drives unattached and taking out my RAM sticks one by one. Please advise.

Discussion is locked

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Re: advice
Feb 25, 2015 9:54PM PST

My advice: replace the motherboard (usually means a new CPU and RAM also).

Kees

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Paper clip test
Feb 25, 2015 11:39PM PST

I just did the paper clip test, cleared the CMOS on the motherboard and tested the power button and its still happening. If I need to replace the motherboard ill just get the same one so I can use the RAM and CPU I have now....

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google "bad caps"
Feb 26, 2015 3:37AM PST

and "capacitor plague" then look to see if it applies to your situation.

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Safe Mode
Feb 26, 2015 12:43AM PST

Have you been able to boot to Safe Mode? That would be the first thing to try..

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Safe mode
Feb 26, 2015 3:51AM PST

I can get it to stay on long enough for safe mode. A few seconds at a time...

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Re: Safe Mode
Feb 26, 2015 3:56AM PST

This doesn't look to me as a Windows issue, although it might be better to prove that by seeing what happens if you try to boot from a bootable disk or USB-stick. But my guess is that it's the same then. That would prove it's a hardware issue.

Kees