Can't figure out what is wrong, please help!!!!

[maguszxz]

I built a new pc for my mom. I had already built a gaming pc for myself last year, I figured why not do it again. I settled on some parts here the list

AMD Athlon II Dual Core
Corsair 2 GB RAM
Asus Micro ATX mobo]
Cooler Master case and 450w PSU
Seagate 1tb HDD
Stock CPU fan
ASUS Sata DVD burner


Did a clean install of XP everything smooth, install chipset drivers, still good. Everything was fine until the next day when I booted it up. It would POST like usual, then when it would get to the XP loading screen, screen would go black then reboot. I checked everything from PSU to mobo all the way down the keyboard and mouse. Fans are spinning, power is getting to the board, Ram POSTs, but just keep rebooting. I know I am not the only one who is having this problem. But I am at my wits end. Please help me out. I'm going to play TF2 to calm my nerves. Thanks.

 

[Soma42]

Have you cleared the CMOS?

 

[maguszxz]

No and afraid to. Don't want to make a bad thing worse. But at this point, I will try anything

 

[Soma42]

Clearing the CMOS isn't a bad thing necessarily and it might help you at least get into the bios.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/fixtheproblem/tp/clearcmos.htm

 

[maguszxz]

So clearing the CMOS will allow me to boot into XP?

 

[3xch4ng3]

So clearing the CMOS will allow me to boot into XP?

Clearing the CMOS put the BIOS settings back to default, it doesn't mean that it'll boot directly into Windows.

I would type hitting F8 before Windows starts boots and go into Safe Mode and see if it still restarts. This way you can see if there's something wrong with your installation and update drivers and such to fix it.

If it still reboots while trying to go into safe mode I would run try a system repair using the XP Install Disc.

 

[maguszxz]

Would a failing hard drive also cause rebooting?

 

[Wolfshadw]

A failing hard drive probably wouldn't cause a reboot. More than likely, the worst you'd see from a failing hard drive would be a bootmgr not found error.

I'd probably recommend pressing whatever key is necessary to enter into BIOS. Check to see if there is an option for BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) responses. Sometimes, it's set to automatically reboot when a BSOD occurs rather than show you the error message and wait for you to manually reboot it.

-Wolf sends

-Wolf sends

 

[maguszxz]

Best answer selected by maguszxz.