XP keeps rebooting after SP-1

See if any of this helps:

There are quite a few reasons a computer could experience spontainous reboots.
#1 Your Power Supply Unit could be going bad or could be bad, Solution Switch it with a known good power supply or buy an ATX Power Supply Tester from Comp USA for cheap.

#2 Your Processor is dying or is overheating causing frequent and intermitent reboots, Solution make sure your cpu has adeqaute cooling, meaning heatsink and fan with thermal compound. Make sure the default Vcore voltage and FSB (front side bus) are not overclocked on your cpu.

#3 Bad RAM, Bad memory can cause lock-ups to BSOD (Blue screen of Death) to random reboots. However the ram is an unlikely suspects. Check it last. If you do decide it might be the memory then switch the bank the memory module is in and or switch the memory stick out for a known good memory module thus eliminating the chance it might be a bad ram module.

#4 A screwed up Windows registry or conflicting programs, Highly! unlikely in Windows XP. At any rate have you tried a fresh re-install of WinXP? It might fix your problems.

#5 Do you have a VIA chipset? If so make sure you have installed the latest 4-1 Via drivers for your motherboard and agp.

#6 Download the lastest graphic card drivers.

#7 Turn of APM (Advanced Power Managment) in your BIOS just incase you are have power managment conflicts with XP.

#8 Switch the power plug you are plugging your pc into as the AC power socket might have bad wiring thus feeding your comp bad or fluctauting power causing reboots.

#9 Goto RUN: type in MSCONFIG and goto the startup section , turn off any uneeded startup programs, Long shot , this really doesn't matter but it's a good practice to get into anyways.

10# This one is a likely, make sure your videocard is set at AGP x2 in your bios setup just to make sure it's not an AGPx4 conflict.

#11 I don't know! pray to the computer gods and hope your problem goes away by itself.

(taken from: http://www.computing.net/windowsxp/wwwboard/forum/42192.html)

hope this helps!
guidway

If none of that works try this which should remove the rebooting. At least maybe then we will find some errors reported:

1. Right-click My Computer and select Properties
2. Go to the Advanced tab and click on the 'Startup and Recovery' button.
3. In the System Failure section, unckeck 'Automatically Reboot'.
4. Your system should not reboot now.

guidway

It is absolutely no Hardware problem !
It started immediately after installing SP-1 (As mentioned the installation did not go smooth and I found the system hanged - so I had to reset the system) - If I didn't explain my self good enough: the system doesn't restarts occasionally - I cannot boot into a working system ! - it keeps restarting every time a one step before logon screen - I'm sure something is messed up with security setting - maybe some files that SP-1 did mennage to replace ?
Thanks for the tips but they are not related to this problem...
Thakns,
Ami

boot to safe mode, and uninstall sp1

If you did not save the previos configuration, boot to safe mode, and use system restore

Win XP reboots  could be CD creator needs patching
From: stevenlewis       Date: 05/02/2002 04:01PM PST
               please check these links
               http://www.aumha.org/a/shtdwnxp.htm
               http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q310396

 I hope this helps !

i agree with shalmon, unlike people who copy answers !!

Xp wouldn't reboot in safe-mod, becouse all Xwindows activities will be blocked after cracking Xp with SP1, even the safe mod, but you can try the system-restore which I believe, not work...

HOW TO: Start the System Restore Tool from a Command Prompt in Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q304449&sd=tech

Note the following approcah will not replace any system files.

To start the Windows Recovery Console, use any of the following methods:
Start your computer by using the Windows Setup floppy disks or the Windows CD-ROM. At the "Welcome to Setup" screen, press F10 or press R to repair, and start the Windows Recovery Console. From here do something like the following. Or if the file system is FAT32 you can use a Win98 bootdisk to do this. www.bootdisk.com

copy c:\Windows\repair\TheParticularHive C:\Windows\system32\config\

This will replace the registry hive to the last time that hive was bacped up. Hopefully you didn't backup the registry at the time the problems started to happen.

Following is a list of the files that are the registry hives. I would suggest starting with the SYSTEM hive and then reboot and if the problem still persists do the SECURITY hive next. Note these files don't have a file extension on them

DEFAULT
SAM
SECURITY
SOFTWARE
SYSTEM

I would suggest to first backup or rename these hives from the C:\Windows\system32\config\ to folder of your making or choice just don't back them up to the C:\Windows\repair\ folder.  

You will probably need to reapply any services patches that you have previously installed.

wullie,

if you were referring to my answers given I gave the reference to where I got it so it is NOT considered copying. I didn't take credit for someone elses work.

guidway

If the file system is FAT32 then use a Win98 bootdisk to www.bootdiks.com what I outlined. If it is NTFS then try the following.

How to Perform an In-Place Upgrade (Reinstallation) of Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q315341

Visual aid to the above procedure
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/repair_xp.htm
Click on How To Repair Windows XP by Reinstalling

Hi guidway

What difference does it realy make. If the answer is copied and pasted from some other place who cares as long as one doesn't take credit for it. The point is getting the questioner a solution regardless if the comment is a copy and paste job. Big deal. EE is not about originallity it is about getting the questioner a solution that works. Besides I think wullie was probably referring to SysExpert comment. :>)

To me it doesn't matter either way. I was stating that as a point because it sounded like wullie was referring to mine. I don't see how it refers to SysExpert's but if you say so, ok. Maybe I mistook the response. If so, my apology to wullie. :-)

guidway

Well in SysExpert comment he points to stevenlewis as the originator of the comments. But who knows and the main point I was trying to get across it doesn't matter anyway. I don't imagine most quetioners care where the solution came from as long as they get a solution. If you know what I mean. :>)

I couldn't agree with you more. ;0)

sorry people i was referring to stevenlewis who personally knows "the managment" who point fix this whole web site, i answered in a previous forum, i was accused of stealing an answer although i was the first to suggest it.. and it solved the problem.

sorry guigway and crazyone for getting to thinking...

if you look at tuo's answer then you might see what i'm talkin about...

again sorry guys...

heh heh, just glad it's cleared up. LOL :0)

guidway

Thanks wullie. :>)

Sorry I couldn't test all of your answers (Didn't have enough time and had a lot of work to do) so I reinstalled XP on a clean HDD, transfered my DATA and than ghosted the HDD to my original drive.

I'm almost sure it happened by trying to "crack" or change the activation key even though it is the first time happened to me (I even tried it again on the new installation and it worked) - only thing I did different is that I didn't boot the machine after I changed the key and started the SP-1 installation right away and than the problem appeared. So maybe a good tip (for those who cracks...) is to boot after the key change - and always - always make a good backup before (who knowa what msft is hiding in their OS..)  - One drive image could save you days of working...
Regards And thanks again,
shalmon

glad you sorted it out shalmom, after all that's the purpose of this whole exercise.
i'm glad you picked tuo's answer because i knew it was the right onw. not being bigheaded but i dont reply to question that have a soulution..

@ crazyone, no problem....

I didn't understand what is turning round here, but I gave that solution because I had that problem before :) so experience is the best way, to get the real answers :)...