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#279909 - 22/04/2006 00:44 My computer keeps rebooting...
burdell1
old hand

Registered: 14/01/2002
Posts: 931
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
I am having a problem with my computer rebooting before it gets to the login screen. If I try to boot it from my Windows XP installation disk, and I do the repair option, will everything on my hard drive stay intact or will it reformat it?

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#279910 - 22/04/2006 01:05 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: burdell1]
g_attrill
old hand

Registered: 14/04/2002
Posts: 1172
Loc: Hants, UK
Does it do this in Safe Mode too?

To answer your question though, yes Repair Install definately leaves everything intact, I have used it once and it left the computer 99.9% as it was, only a few trivial things changed. Previous Windows versions actually did this too, although you just ran the install as normal and it repaired automatically, I have used several times before for serious problems I couldn't fix any other way.

Gareth

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#279911 - 22/04/2006 01:14 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: g_attrill]
JBjorgen
carpal tunnel

Registered: 19/01/2002
Posts: 3584
Loc: Columbus, OH
Even if that doesn't work, someone who knows what they're doing can log into the recovery console and disable whatever is causing the reboot (sometimes a bad driver can do this.) Barring a hardware failure, your data is still recoverable, so don't do anything drastic.
_________________________
~ John

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#279912 - 22/04/2006 01:36 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: burdell1]
msaeger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
Solution

Maybe you aren't meant to be a pc user
_________________________

Matt

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#279913 - 22/04/2006 12:17 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: JBjorgen]
g_attrill
old hand

Registered: 14/04/2002
Posts: 1172
Loc: Hants, UK
Yup, not relevant to this thread but it annoys the hell out of me when people say "Oh, I lost all my data because they had to reformat my computer", when this is only done because the computer shop or warranty people were too lazy to (at least) put the drive in another machine and copy everything onto a DVD. And people seem to accept this as inevitable and their fault because they didn't back it up.

Gareth

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#279914 - 22/04/2006 22:19 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: msaeger]
gbeer
carpal tunnel

Registered: 17/12/2000
Posts: 2665
Loc: Manteca, California
Quote:
Solution


It's hard to believe, that page blatently Tosses out all the former propaganda about PPC mhz being more efficient than the intel variaty.

"up to 4x faster than the G4 powerbooks" or something to that effect.
_________________________
Glenn

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#279915 - 22/04/2006 22:46 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: gbeer]
msaeger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 23/09/2000
Posts: 3608
Loc: Minnetonka, MN
Not too hard to believe I can't say I trust apple much.

They should say it's 4x cooler than the G4 too.
_________________________

Matt

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#279916 - 23/04/2006 06:37 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: gbeer]
drakino
carpal tunnel

Registered: 08/06/1999
Posts: 7868
Quote:
It's hard to believe, that page blatently Tosses out all the former propaganda about PPC mhz being more efficient than the intel variaty.


What propaganda? It was true, the same as AMD has been saying for years with their Athlons, and the same that Cyrix said back in the Pentium 1 days. Clock speed doesn't matter as much as how much you can get done with that clock cycle. And now Intel has fully switched to that ideology and done a damn good job of it too. The Pentium-M started them on this path, and by years end, you will have slow clock speed chips from Intel across their entire product space replacing older, faster clocked chips. The G4 was a decent processor for its time, but it stalled out big time. The G5 was a step up clock efficiency wise, but it was a horrible power draw much like the high speed P4 chips.

The specific 4x claim is explained right on that page. It came from a benchmark that also benefited from the dual core nature of the new chips. So 2x faster per core, and two cores makes the 4x number. (though that was based on the 1.83. The 2.13 they are showing at a 5x increase) Real world results are of course different, but having made the jump from a G4 Powerbook to a Macbook, there is a huge speed increase. Much more noticeable then any previous CPU upgrade out of Apple.

I still find it funny that the MacBook running Windows is outpacing nearly every other laptop out there on the market in the benchmarks multiple sites have thrown against it. And the best part is that the MacBook tends to be the cheeper system in those situations too. Maybe one day the myth that Apple products carry a premium price tag might go away, especially now that an apples to apples comparison can be made (pardon the pun).

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#279917 - 25/04/2006 20:46 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: drakino]
lectric
pooh-bah

Registered: 20/01/2002
Posts: 2085
Loc: New Orleans, LA
Hmmm... Isn't there a new variant of Sasser going around?

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#279918 - 08/05/2006 02:14 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: g_attrill]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
Ok, old thread I know. My brother is having the same/similar problem right now. His Windows XP install just reboots and safe mode doesn't work.

He's tried booting from the CD and selecting repair - but he says that just ends up dropping him into a command prompt and doesn't actually do anything. To be specific, after selecting the repair option it asks for his admin password - he doesn't remember setting one so he pressed enter which drops him to the prompt. If he types some random incorrect password it says it's wrong.

Any advice?

Bruno
_________________________
Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#279919 - 08/05/2006 07:18 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: hybrid8]
g_attrill
old hand

Registered: 14/04/2002
Posts: 1172
Loc: Hants, UK
Quote:

He's tried booting from the CD and selecting repair - but he says that just ends up dropping him into a command prompt and doesn't actually do anything. To be specific, after selecting the repair option it asks for his admin password - he doesn't remember setting one so he pressed enter which drops him to the prompt. If he types some random incorrect password it says it's wrong.



That's the "Repair Console", which is one step earlier. He needs to select "Install Windows XP" (or whatever) and then select Repair Install when it gives the option.

Gareth

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#279920 - 09/05/2006 03:42 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: g_attrill]
hybrid8
carpal tunnel

Registered: 12/11/2001
Posts: 7738
Loc: Toronto, CANADA
Thanks for the info. I had him do that so he's definitely in the right place now. But the computer restarts soon afterwards (during the setup stage after having selected repair).

Any ideas? He's pulled memory one dimm at a time just in case it was some bad ram. Settings in BIOS are pretty much standard (nothing changed recently). He thinks he may have uninstalled some application prior to this whole issue cropping up, but he's not positive the problem occured immediately after that (ie. the next day when he restarted for instance).

Bruno
_________________________
Bruno
Twisted Melon : Fine Mac OS Software

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#279921 - 09/05/2006 04:41 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: hybrid8]
Roger
carpal tunnel

Registered: 18/01/2000
Posts: 5683
Loc: London, UK
Quote:
He's pulled memory one dimm at a time just in case it was some bad ram.


Did he run memtest86? If that came up clean, then there's probably nothing wrong with the memory.

At this point, another option is to throw a clean disk in there and try a ground-up reinstall of Windows. That'll help to tell you whether it's the existing Windows install that's hosed, or whether the PC is broken, and can't run Windows.

One thing worth checking (and I don't want to worry you here) is that my board with the blown caps ran memtest86 fine, but then froze while attempting to install Windows.
_________________________
-- roger

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#279922 - 09/05/2006 04:44 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: hybrid8]
sein
old hand

Registered: 07/01/2005
Posts: 893
Loc: Sector ZZ9pZa
I would pop in a knoppix CD and see whether that works reliably. If no, you know its the hardware, if yes, probably reinstall Windows or something.

If knoppix doesn't work, I would check for Bad Caps, my old Shuttle would keep rebooting at random because of these.
_________________________
Hussein

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#279923 - 09/05/2006 04:46 Re: My computer keeps rebooting... [Re: sein]
sein
old hand

Registered: 07/01/2005
Posts: 893
Loc: Sector ZZ9pZa
lol, Roger and I seem to always be posting the same stuff at the same time these days... anyway, if you are looking for memtest86, it is on the Knoppix boot CD.
_________________________
Hussein

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