Blue screen / restart

[zargian]

I was told I needed "DirectX 9.0" for some software I was installing on an old machine. I downloaded the program and installed it. The computer restarted and is now in an endless restart cycle.

I get upto the Windows2000 splash page, then a brief blue screen, then everything powers down and it restarts. I took out both hard drives and mounted them in external closures and scanned them for viruses... NOTHING!

What could have happened? I replaced the mobo 2 months ago and it worked fine up until now. Could it be hardware related? How do I trouble shoot it?

mobo = Intel 815EEA, built in audio
CPU = 600 MHz Celeron
OS = Windows 98
RAM = 256MB PC133

 

[blah]

Disable sound.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...

 

[mozzartusm]

Sounds like the machine is esperiencing a fatal system error and is shutting down to protect itself. My cut at this would be to undo whatever it is that you did that caused this problem to start. If you installed something and then it immediatly began to screw up then that is most likely the cause. If you can get it to begin the boot process then you should be able to go into safe mode. Dont know for sure but I think that you hit the F8 key at some point during bootup. If you can get into safe mode then uninstall what ever you installed last.

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[blah]

Disable video.

..this is very useful and helpful place for information...