Rebooting Problem

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xAVKAT69

New Member
My Windows XP system would power up (HD would spin, Fan came on), but would shut off after 5-10 seconds. Took it in to get looked at; problem was traced to my video card. Card was removed and on-board video enabled. Computer turns on now. However, now, it will not shut off. It keeps rebooting. The techs at CompUSA said it is some application (couldn't figure out which one) and recommended that I back up my information and do a recovery, then reinstall everything.

That is not an option for me. I have unistalled the software/drivers for the old video card.

Any ideas what could be causing my Windows XP system to keep rebooting?
 
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Well first of all a Welcome to the Computer Forum! is in order here. http://www.computerforum.com/70672-official-welcome-thread.html Please be sure to review the http://www.computerforum.com/52038-forum-rules.html

Compusa took out a failed card and left you with onboard? :confused: Good Grief! :rolleyes: What have you been running since then? games, multimedia, or any other graphics demanding applications? That will pull down hard on the limitations seen with onboard video on make and model boards.

Besides what they told you was a bad video card? there could well be a bios problem resulting in these restarts if you don't have a bad cap in the power supply there. If you didn't hear anything like one long and two short audio beeps when first starting up you most likely have a different problem to solve.
 
I have since installed a new video card. It still reboots. There are no beeps when the system starts. It starts normal, it just won't shut down. Just need ideas on what I can check.
 
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That's an older MS article for troubleshooting there. Like 2000 before it XP includes a crash control feature that can be enabled or disabled by the simple modification of one registry value as well. The enabled mode is helpful with BSOD problems. But you can also disable this by changing the value from "1" to "0" as seen at http://www.pctools.com/guides/registry/detail/229/

Another site with a rather extended list of tweaks and fixes for XP is found at http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
 
A bad cap causing power drops yes. A bad cap or two on the board might not even see the system startup. There was probably nothing wrong with the video card to begin with since the problem still remains. How old is the system there? Sometimes the bios gets a little flaky needing an update.
 
The system is about 2-3 years old. Also, now I can not do a system restore. The system simply tells me that it can not be restored to an earlier date. How do I go about doing a BIOS update?
 
The user manual for the mother board itself will have instructions there or at the manufacturer's support site. After a few years the Lithium battery on a board can also get weak and start seeing problems briefly until one day the system either shuts off suddenly or simply won't even start. But that's a $2-3 item found in a jewelry/watch dept. in a retail store or visit Radio Shack of all places. Most boards will see a CR2032 battery there.

At the support site where you can usually view the board's manual right online there you will also see the downloads for sound and onboard if any and the latest version of the bios. The utility section will often have a dos tool for creating a boot floppy or you can look for an updater that runs in Windows. What make and model is the board there?
 
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