Desktop shuts off at startup... any ideas?

G

gizZzmo333

New Member
Hello,

I have a desktop computer here running XP Pro. When I power the computer on..it begins loading the Windows XP startup screen, and almost without fail... just cuts out halfway in (before the welcome screen has appeared).

I have run a CHKDSK on the hard drive...it found and fixed volume errors on the drive. I also ran a diagnostic tool from WD, since that is the manufacturer of the HD... however both the quick check and in-depth check both reported no issues with the hard drive.

I have also cleaned the tower of dust, taken out the ram, properly cleaned and reinserted. I ran MEMTEST on the ram - no issues. I reset BIOS and removed the CMOS battery... still happening.

I ran a disk defrag (defraggler), cleared cache, temp files (revo unistaller, ccleaner). I scanned the computer for viruses with MBAM and MSE... found 1 virus...successfully removed it. Either way... this should not have an effect on the startup.

I have even considered overheating but this issues happens after the computer has been left cold off for hours...so it cannot be overheating...

Only thing I have not looked into is the power supply... ***However... if I boot into safe mode.. the computer has no issues starting up...and remains on for hours on end.

Any ideas/suggestions...

I was going to format the HD and then tackle the powersupply... any ideas greatly appreciated.
 
I have a similiar problem but mine is Computer powers up but the hard drive doesnt come on. I tryed everything you did, with exception I bought a new power supply. Now when i unplug it let it sit awhile it comes on. Thank god its my second computer. Best of all was this, One day i started it it said 64bit windows 7 6mb of ram. Next day said 32bit windows 7 6mb of ram but 3.25 not used:eek: I have no clue whats going on.
 
I would say if it didn't boot in safe mode it's definitely the HDD. Then again it still could be. Safe mode only uses what is necessary for windows to run. But that's all theory. If you had a spare harddrive I would start there. OH! could be bad drivers! I know when Formatting my mom's harddrive and trying to get her wireless nic card working, everytime I installed the wrong driver I'd have this exact problem. Go into safe mode and check the hardware manager
 
did that also, But I failed to mention on startup i do get a message saying overclocking failed and to continue hit F-2 wonder if that may be the problem?
 
DaveB said:
did that also, But I failed to mention on startup i do get a message saying overclocking failed and to continue hit F-2 wonder if that may be the problem?
Click to expand...

I think we were both talking about the original poster's problem, since it's his thread. But yeah, for you problem go into the bios, and restore the bios to it's default settings. see if that helps
 
thanks for ideas so far...

so check drivers... then look at formatting HD

I'll put in some more work on it today and see how it goes.

I'm skeptical its hardware related since safe mode doesn't give me any problems...
 
Ahhh...Any other ideas... I just ran another chkdsk, this time thru the 'error checking' (C:\ , properties, tools, error checking) ... it was on step 4/5 (verifying file data) and at about 53% of that test it shut off again ... does that change anything?
 
Looks like the formatting has taken care of the issue. It is no longer occurring at startup.

I'm still a little bamboozed as to how/why...but at least things are back in order.

Thanks for the suggestions.:)
 
It sounds like a power issue. Have you changed the Power Supply? This will help determine if the power supply is the root cause or even worse of the motherboard is not distributing the power correctly.
 
Updates:

linkin said:
It is either the powersupply not having enough power or something is overheating.
Click to expand...

Forsure its not overheating (let it run for 24hours + in safe mode and no overheating issues. Also, the shutdown temperature in BIOS is not even enabled... The case is open on both sides and is receiving more than enough air supply.

Powersupply...was still a possibility in my mind...but have just gone thru what I did... I am also rulling out PSU

After I did a full formatting of the HD... the problems seemed to stop. Everything was fine, the computer was running for a day no issues what so ever. I started to reinstall programs/office etc etc... however, when I started install SQL Server 2005... it crashed during the install and voila--- the problem was back.

It was slightly different this time in that the computer was able to boot, log in.. and then, maybe 30 seconds to 1 minute after I had logged into my windows account...the computer just turned off again.

Same thing... safe mode was fine...but regular startup yielded this problem over and over again. So, i tried to uninstall SQL Server and having finally successfully removed it (kept on crashing mid uninstall) - the computer is no longer mysteriously powering off..

Anyone have any idea why SQL server would cause this issue? I am somewhat relieved to know it does not seem to be a hardware issue
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top