Well, I think my PC has finally given up the ghost. Well...possibly. Maybe some people can help me out, but I'm not very hopeful...but, I didn't post just to moan, I did post for help so maybe you can help...oops, I'm babbling, anyway, I'll get to the point.

My PC starts up fine. Click on the user (Windows XP) and it loads that up fine. So far, so good. The problem? When I open a program, like Winamp for example, it stalls, then reboots. All the time. So I can't open anything, IE, Winamp, Control Panel, you name it.

I tried a system restore to a previous date. Didn't help. (I loaded that up from the Start Menu). I tried a defrag, it rebooted. I opened it up, cleaned a little, didn't help. I tried loading it in my sister's user area. Nope. I am in desperate need here. Please, I beg you, does this mean it has gone? Do I need a new hard drive? Can it be saved?

My stats are:-
Windows XP
1.5 Ghz
256 MB RAM
DirectX 8.1
40GB hard drive

Ask, please, ask if you need anymore details. I will be in great debt to anyone who has any idea what is going on. Thank you so much for reading this and giving up your time, and bearing with me.

PS: I typed this on a different PC, if you're wondering. My parent's one.

i hd that problem recently, dont know what happened,i left it turned off for awhile then ran a diagnostic on it, and it corrected the problem try that....this is the last post from me today promise....lol

Boot into safe mode, go into control panel. (If it crashes in safe mode, youll probly need to do a re-install). Go into system, then advanced, then startup and recovery. Disable automatic restart and make sure its set to log errors.

Restart to normal mode, induce another crash and note the error codes you get given.

<font color="#bf818a">Sorry dude, but it sounds like something is really corrupted. My next guess (after the system restore) is, wipe the system and reinstall :( wish I could be more help. Errr Yeah what Andrew said ;) </font>

[ 04-28-2003, 03:03 PM: Message edited by: MagiK ]

Well, I don't know how to make it start up in safe mode (which F button to press) and I have already turned off the automatic restart a little while ago. I think it logs errors, but I can only check that later...that is, when I know how to start up in safe mode. I hope I don't have to wipe the whole thing :( . Would a new hard drive work?

PS: It never says that Windows couldn't start properly because windows does! So I can't start up safe mode that way...

[ 04-28-2003, 03:07 PM: Message edited by: slicer15 ]

Could be your Hard Drive yes, Im not sure as Im not too familiar with Hardisk crashes. Though Im most certian that if your HD died you wouldnt boot up at all.
Anyway your programs wont start up this could either be A: A system error or B: A faulty hardware.
Since you still can log in to windows that means that your hardware is still intact though there may be some major issues with your hardware that make your computer crash. Though nothing is completely destroyed yet...if it was so it wouldnt boot up at all.
This sounds more like an overheating issue, either in your chassis or your processor. May I ask what motherboard you have? Is it AMD or Pentium?

Safe mode: Press F8 during boot up after BIOS check...

Do the Safe mode boot as stated above, and if it reboots again, it's either your Memory (RAM) that has a bad chip on the RAM. You can boot, but when a program addresses an area in the RAM 2000C-3000E or some such address and crashes.

Do you have ECC or NON-ECC Ram? Just wondering. If it's not the ram, it may be the motherboard. Heck, the HD could be dying. Maybe your swapfile is sitting ON the bad block on the HD.

Also try this (if you can without rebooting):
Lower your swapfile to a SET amount of 80MB. and reboot and try something. This sounds odd, but it's a trick I've used on finding bad HD's.

Is your Ram chip 2 pieces? 2 128MB chips? If so, remove one, and boot, load Winamp. Try this with the other chip swapped out as well.

If one way works, it's your RAM.

Let us know. (Print out these steps) ;)

Nah, overheating wouldnt be so regular. It tends to hit semi-random after the machines be up a while. Sometimes only during intense CPU/GPU activity. This sounds like a software glitch to me.

Thank you very very much! I will try your suggestions Ziroc, but I am a little unsure in the hardware department. I think my motherboard is a pentium, but I have no idea about the ECC thing. I can check the RAM, though...

Thanks again, to everyone! I have to go now, but I'll be back later. Please post any more suggestions!

EDIT: I don't know how to do the swapfile thing either...

[ 04-28-2003, 03:18 PM: Message edited by: slicer15 ]