Link to home
Start Free TrialLog in
Avatar of 919191
919191

asked on

My computer restarts after I shut down. Do I have a virus?

I have a windows xp pro operating system and when I shut down it restarts automatically.
I have tried scanning with Spybot 1.6, Adaware 2008 free, Malaware bytes, and Trend micro.
All the scans come up clean. Is there a way to determine if I have some kind of virus?
Avatar of bbodine1
bbodine1

This sounds like you have either a bad memory stick or a bad slot on the motherboard of your computer. Did it just start doing it out of the blue or did you update something?
Avatar of 919191

ASKER

It just started happening recently after doing a fair bit of downloading from the internet

Regards
Kelly
It's very unlikely that you have a virus unless you actually ran a .exe file that you weren't sure what it was and seeing as your antivirus didn't pick anything up.

If you can get the system to run long enough try the windows restore to a date past when you started having the issue.

If you can't get the system to run long enough then try using the "Start windows from the last known good configuration" feature from the startup dos screen (black and white text)

If neither work, pull the power on the box, open the case, pull out all of your memory sticks and hit the power button a few times before you plug the power back up to release any stored power in the motherboard. Then place one memory stick in the computer and try to start it up. Make sure you put the stick in dim 0 or dim 1. It should be written really small on the mother board somewhere close to the dim.

If the computer starts with no problems you know its a memory/dim error. If not you can move on to round 2 which may be a hard drive error.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
Avatar of 97WideGlide
97WideGlide

Link to home
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.
Start Free Trial
Here's an excellent page with more details regarding what I talked about above...
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/320299/
Avatar of 919191

ASKER

Thank you 97WideGlide.
I beleive you are correct.
Regards 919191