In desperate need of help!

[Rippy087]

I built my computer in January of this year and I have had no problems untill yesterday. It is a AMD 3200+ running on windows XP home edition. I'm writing this off my bro's computer, as I can't even get to the desktop on mine.
Yesterday I was surfing the web and listening to music when all of the sudden my computer randomly restarted. I thought that it might have just messed up or something, but when my computer started up again it restarted again. It seems to me that there is a problem with the windows, when I start my computer in normal mode it seems to always restart around five seconds after loading the desktop. It also occasionally restarts randomly before loading the desktop.
If I start the computer in safe mode or any of the other modes, the same thing happens but it doesn't even get to loading the desktop, it just restarts before. I doubt it's a problem with my power source, I have a 450 wat enermax and if I boot from cd it will stay on forever.
I found my windows XP cd and put it in, it loaded up, and asked me if I wanted to install or repair. I picked repair and then it asked me for an Administrative password. I don't remember ever putting a password on my computer and I guessed with all the passwords that I use for other things, nothing worked.
What can I do to fix this problem? I can't find my CD key for windows, so I can't install it all over again, and I really don't want to lose all my files. Microsoft wants to charge me $35 for an email or a phone call so I'm not doing that just yet. Is there any other way to repair windows without losing all my files? I have an extra windows upgrade cd that upgrades from windows 95/98 to XP, if worst comes to worst can I use that Cd to fix this?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jake

[Rick Hall]

You probably do not have a password as you said so simply leave the password blank.

[Rippy087]

If I don't put in a password and just push enter, it just says C:\Windows>, and then it doesn't do anything. If I type in C:\Windows HELP, it gives me a list of like 50 commands, but I don't know what they do or which one I would have to do to fix the problem. I don't even know if I'm doing the right thing, so any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jake

[bailey]

your going into the comand mode, you do not want to do that.
you want to do the repaire install

[trulad]

Set your BIOS to boot from CD first, then boot with the XP CD in and go through the steps as if you were going to re-install XP. After it starts Windows will "discover" a previous installation of XP and offer you the option of repairing. This is the best way.
trulad

[rjfvillarosa]

Just out of curiosity can you install your hard drive as a slave into your brothers machine and run some virus scans on your hard drive?, if you are now confronted with an administrator password problem, its possible your machine was highjacked when you were surfing the net.

Just a thought...

[KC1213]

Here is what I use to view and retrieve my XP Key.
It says on the the link that it does not work with SP2...but
mine does. They give another link anyhow..

http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/ViewKeyXP.htm

[Rippy087]

Bailey - That's what happens when I go into the repair mode.
Trulad - I'll try that next, didn't know you could do that. One question about this though, will it delete the files on my computer?
Rjfvillarosa - I'll first try what Trulad said, if that doesn't work I guess I'll try that.
KC1213 - I can't even get to the desktop so I would have no way to download that.

Thanks a lot for the quick input guys, If these suggestions don't solve it I guess I'll have to take it somewhere to get it fixed.

Thanks,
Jake

[KC1213]

I am sorry...I realize that....but hopefully soon you will be able to, and that would help you find your key.

[Rippy087]

Trulad, I tried that, when it's scanning/copying the files, it randomly restarts, farthest it got to was 19%, mostly stops at like 2% and i've tried it like five times, so that's not going to work for me .
Rjfvillarosa, if I wanted to do what you told me, how do I set my hard drive as a slave in his computer?
KC1213, if I have to reinstall my machine completely it looks like I might have to use that, thanks.

If I can't get this solved within the next few days, looks like I'm gonna have to take it somewhere to get it fixed.

Thanks,
Jake

[rjfvillarosa]

What IDE cable connects the hard drive to the mother board in your brothers computer?. A 40 wire has all grey plugs and an 80 wire has a blue plug on one end a black plug on the opposite end and a grey plug near the middle.
If you are using a 40 wire then you will need to set the hard drive jumpers to master and slave.
If you are using an 80 wire cable you will need to plug the blue plug into your motherboard, the black plug goes to your master hard drive and the grey plug to your slave hard drive and both hard drives should be set to CS/cable select.
Make sure that your brothers antivirus is right upto date before connecting your hard drive as the slave, even after you have run your brothers antivirus check it again with "Housecall", you can do that online here www.trendmicro.com
If you know the make of your hard drive it might be worth downloading the manufactures diagnostic tool and running it in DOS on your brothers machine to test that the hard drive is not failing.

[Rippy087]

Not quite sure what all that means, but my bro is a lot better with computers than I am so I'll have him take a look at that. A quick question concerning that though, my computer is an AMD and his computer is an Intel, will this still be possible to do?

Thanks again for all the quick input,
Jake

[rjfvillarosa]

Originally Posted by Rippy087 Not quite sure what all that means, but my bro is a lot better with computers than I am so I'll have him take a look at that. A quick question concerning that though, my computer is an AMD and his computer is an Intel, will this still be possible to do?

It won't make any difference at all.

[Rippy087]

Alright, good to know, I'll see if he can help me with that today. I was just wondering though, wouldn't the operating system be the most likely cause of the problem? It keeps just randomly restarting, don't really see what that would really have to do with the hard drive. I'm still gonna do what you told me to do though, I'll try anything.

Thanks,
Jake

[rjfvillarosa]

I am not sure if this can be done, but maybe some here might know. You said you had lost the CD key for your copy of XP. It's possible that while your hard drive is slaved to your brothers machine you may be able to access the registry of your OS and extract your CD key. But Jake that is a major maybe I really don't know the answer to that one, if you can get the key obviously you can do a complete reinstall or a reinstall/repair.
Hopefully somebody else will read this and might know if that can be done.
If you can get the key you could always dump your files that you don't want to loose to a folder on your brothers machine and then format and reinstall your copy of XP on your machine, then you can just transfer your files back. It's a bit long winded but at least it will save your files.

[Rippy087]

Alright, thanks a lot, I'll try that either today or tomorrow and I'll let you know how it went.

Thanks a lot for all the help,
Jake

[GaryRouth]

I like the idea of scanning for viruses - but take all the necessary precautions so that you don't end up with two infected machines! http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=106182

There's a strong possibility it's a worm, perhaps the Sasser worm.

If it turns out not to be malware-related, see if you can change the auto-restart-on-error setting while booted into Safe Mode [Go to the System applet in Control Panel, select the Advanced tab, and click the Settings button under the Startup and Recovery heading. Under System failure, un-check Automatically restart]. You might then get an error message to help troubleshoot rather than endlessly restarting.
. . . Gary

[Rippy087]

Is there any way to change the Startup and Recovery settings from the Bios? If I try to turn the computer on in safe mode, it restarts before loading the desktop. Thanks a lot for the link to that article, I'll make sure to follow that, don't want to mess up my bro's computer.

Thanks,
Jake

[GaryRouth]

Sorry, to make the change to disable the auto-restart on error setting, you need to be in a Windows mode (whether Safe or Normal, or even step-by-step). If you can stay in a normal mode Windows boot long enough, you can make the change and press for an immediate reboot (try to beat the problem to the punch!). I imagine you'd need to be able to run for about 20 seconds to make the change.

Best of luck!
. . . Gary

[Rippy087]

Don't think it will stay up for more than five seconds, that is from the second I see my desktop. I'll still try the other thing with my bro's computer though.

Thanks,
Jake

[CaptTuna]

Random restarts could be heat related. Have you checked to see if all your fans are working properly?

[Rippy087]

I haven't checked my fans, good idea I'll check it out, but I really doubt it's heat related. This started yesterday, and the same thing happened today each time I tried it. If I boot from CD and get into the setup for installing windows XP, it will stay on as long as I don't give it any commands, so I don't think it has anything to do with heat.

Thanks,
Jake

[CaptTuna]

If the CPU fan is not working the CPU will heat up very quickly and reboot if an Intel, an AMD would just fry.

[Rippy087]

I'm running an AMD, i've tried it like 20 times so I really don't think it's heat related, it doesn't automatically restart unless it has to do something with windows. It restarts when it's repairing from the windows XP cd, it restarts immediately after loading the desktop, and if in safe mode it gets nowhere near the desktop, but if I boot from cd and don't tell it to do anything, it won't restart. I've left it on for like half an hour while doing something else and it didn't restart after booting from the cd, but I didn't give it any commands.

Edit: I'll check the fans when I get home.

Thanks,
Jake

[Rippy087]

Well...
I put my hard drive into my bro's computer as a slave and he scanned it and cleaned it. There were something like 60 infected files and he cleaned em all. I put my hard drive back into my computer and, the same thing happened again, it just restarted. Looks like I'm taking it to a shop on Monday unless anyone has any other suggestions. My bro and I have come to the conclusion that it's most likely something to do with windows, and we're going to back up my important files. We are still going to try to switch power sources, but I really hope its not a PSU problem because I have a 450W enermax.

Thanks,
Jake

[glc]

Will it start and keep running in safe mode now?

[Rippy087]

No, it has the exactly same problem as before. It won't start in any mode. The scanning and cleaning of the hard drive did nothing. It still restarts just as it did before.

Thanks,
Jake

[rjfvillarosa]

Jake... before you go marching off to the shop for profesional repairs, (for me I believe you can do just as good, if not better). As long as you are certain you have cleared all of the viruses, why not back up the files you want to keep and reinstall windows, you have already mentioned that you think its a windows fault why not follow that idea, what have you got to loose???

[glc]

Agreed - it's very likely the shop is going to wipe the drive and reinstall Windows anyway - why pay someone else to do this, which you can do yourself? Just put the drive back into your brother's computer and copy the stuff you need to a folder on his drive.

[Rippy087]

My bro still wants to check the PSU and the vid card, so we will switch those out tomorrow and see if it helps, if not then i'm backing up all my files. The only problem is that I can't find my windows Cd key anymore so i will prob have to go buy a new one. About how much does windows XP home cost? Will i be able to check what the cd key is when my hd is in slave?

Thanks,
Jake