I have a Dell desktop that has not been used in awhile. Well fired it up everything goes well gets to the windows startup screen. Then a blue screen flashes for a split second then computer restarts. There is not enough time to read error message. The computer just keeps restarting. Even does he same thing in safe mode. This is not my main computer, this is the computer I am going to use for internet on my TV. Thanks
In Advance.

Free beer for a fix

restart, wait 10 sec then hold f8.. try get into safemode and do a chkdsc

Ctrl+alt+ls




(Louisville Slugger)

Ctrl+alt+ls




(Louisville Slugger)

ROFL

I have a Dell desktop that has not been used in awhile. Well fired it up everything goes well gets to the windows startup screen. Then a blue screen flashes for a split second then computer restarts. There is not enough time to read error message. The computer just keeps restarting. Even does he same thing in safe mode. This is not my main computer, this is the computer I am going to use for internet on my TV. Thanks
In Advance.

Free beer for a fix

Worst case scenario I can reinstall Windows XP on it for you. What model Dell?

Worst case scenario I can reinstall Windows XP on it for you. What model Dell?
I can get you Windows Jesus for FREE.

I just need it to turn on. I cant even see the error screen long enough to even fix it. If you would like to take a crack at be my guest.

This may help. It explains how to remove the auto-restart feature in XP after a BSOD. One of the nice upgrades of Vista is that it lets you turn this "feature" off without having to install a parallel install of Vista, but with XP, you've got to do a dual-install.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/174630
good luck :D

you may have bad or defective RAM.

Ram can cause funy things to happen. many times RAm can allow machines to boot compete,y and then reboot on their own in the middle of what you are doing. sometimes yuo cant boot past the bios screen and sometimes machines not boot past the windows logo.


i would open the machine, remove all your ram, install one stick at a time. if one stick dosnt work try removing it and swaping in another. keeping simplicity.

you may have mix matched ram sticks which may have worked in the past but now is causing issues.

i beleive you may have a ram issue.


now more thig you can do is remove all peripherals. make your machine a bare boned system , computer shell, powr supply, mother board and processor, hard drive and keyboard and mouse. if your mother board has a built in video card remove any aftermarket one you have and use the built in one. remember keep it simple.

you dont want to go removing and reinstalling your OS and losing everything only to have a hardware related issue be the root and when the OS is reinstaled you still have the same issue.

you may have bad or defective RAM.

Ram can cause funy things to happen. many times RAm can allow machines to boot compete,y and then reboot on their own in the middle of what you are doing. sometimes yuo cant boot past the bios screen and sometimes machines not boot past the windows logo.


i would open the machine, remove all your ram, install one stick at a time. if one stick dosnt work try removing it and swaping in another. keeping simplicity.

you may have mix matched ram sticks which may have worked in the past but now is causing issues.

i beleive you may have a ram issue.


now more thig you can do is remove all peripherals. make your machine a bare boned system , computer shell, powr supply, mother board and processor, hard drive and keyboard and mouse. if your mother board has a built in video card remove any aftermarket one you have and use the built in one. remember keep it simple.

you dont want to go removing and reinstalling your OS and losing everything only to have a hardware related issue be the root and when the OS is reinstaled you still have the same issue.

I would listen to this man. His exact suggestions fixed my computer.

It's also slightly possible to have a rootkit virus. They SUCK, because with the one I had, a friend had to DL a 3rd part registry editor, because the rootkit disabled the MS registry editor from shutting itself down manually. Smart PC Viruses.

you may have bad or defective RAM.

Ram can cause funy things to happen. many times RAm can allow machines to boot compete,y and then reboot on their own in the middle of what you are doing. sometimes yuo cant boot past the bios screen and sometimes machines not boot past the windows logo.


i would open the machine, remove all your ram, install one stick at a time. if one stick dosnt work try removing it and swaping in another. keeping simplicity.

you may have mix matched ram sticks which may have worked in the past but now is causing issues.

i beleive you may have a ram issue.


now more thig you can do is remove all peripherals. make your machine a bare boned system , computer shell, powr supply, mother board and processor, hard drive and keyboard and mouse. if your mother board has a built in video card remove any aftermarket one you have and use the built in one. remember keep it simple.

you dont want to go removing and reinstalling your OS and losing everything only to have a hardware related issue be the root and when the OS is reinstaled you still have the same issue.
^^^
That's the smart thing to do. Another good thing to have on hand (which will save you some issues) is a preinstall environment bootable disc (like Bart PE or Mini PE). Either of these will allow you to edit the registry and see what the actual stop code is.

The first thing you should always do, though, is what was just said: remove all but one stick of ram, the keyboard, monitor, (you don't even need a mouse). Just see if it boots. If it doesn't, put in the next memory DIMM and see what happens. Rinse and repeat.

Actually, don't rinse, but you get the idea.

If this still doesn't turn up any issues Memtest and Memtest 86+ will be your best friends and will let you run a full diag on your RAM. This takes longer, but just because each RAM stick individually causes problems does not mean that there's some larger overarching problem. It still could be that all your RAM got brokded (no matter how unlikely this is).

If you have the means, the next things to test are the video card, power supply, CPU, in that order. If you've swapped out all of those and you still have problems, it's likely a motherboard issue, which is unfortunate, but not the end of the world. Motherboard problems, however, usually also cause other things to break in systems. Ask me how I know.

Keep us updated!

p.s. some questions to ask yourself:
Do you have a surge protector? A uninterruptable power supply? Was the PC plugged in during a storm? (could be a bad motherboard, RAM, power supply, CPU, and video card)
Do you smell anything like ozone inside the computer? (it probably got surged or something has a short)
When you open it up, do you see things like this?
http://www.pcstats.com/articleimages/200302/capblown_4.jpg
(This means you have a bad motherboard).
These are quick and dirty questions which help in diagnostic.

You can disable the automatic restart, at least on a WinXP Pro SP2 machine. I had to do this the other day and also just verified on another machine. It's the 9th choice down on the F8 menu at startup.

Let us know the specifics of the error once you're able to see it.

You can disable the automatic restart, at least on a WinXP Pro SP2 machine. I had to do this the other day and also just verified on another machine. It's the 9th choice down on the F8 menu at startup.

Let us know the specifics of the error once you're able to see it.
Nice, apparently you don't need to change the registry any more. I haven't had to do this since XP was introduced, so... :rolleyes
Disregard everything I said about the registry :D

Nice, apparently you don't need to change the registry any more. I haven't had to do this since XP was introduced, so... :rolleyes
Disregard everything I said about the registry :D

Well you can do it your way, too, it's just a little more....involved :)

u really didnt have to open up the compu case. all u had to do is disable perpih. from setup screen at start. Dell computers also have a F12 feature for diag.

u really didnt have to open up the compu case. all u had to do is disable perpih. from setup screen at start. Dell computers also have a F12 feature for diag.

you cant disable RAM with that route.


so yes he did have to open the case to test the RAM

u really didnt have to open up the compu case. all u had to do is disable perpih. from setup screen at start. Dell computers also have a F12 feature for diag.

A faulty component can cause a problem whether or not it's "disabled" in the BIOS/Windows...

You can disable the automatic restart, at least on a WinXP Pro SP2 machine. I had to do this the other day and also just verified on another machine. It's the 9th choice down on the F8 menu at startup.

Let us know the specifics of the error once you're able to see it.

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWRE
or its log of alternate
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance.

STOP: c0000218 {Registry File Failure}
The registry cannot load the hive (file):
\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWRE
or its log of alternate
It is corrupt, absent, or not writable

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance.

That's bad. I recommend a reformat and reinstallation of Windows.

That's bad. I recommend a reformat and reinstallation of Windows.
Try doing a repair install before you do a full install though.
Steps to take:
1) Back up your data. To do this, you will need to take the hard drive out of the machine you are trying to fix and then plug it in as a Slave by putting it in the middle plug in an IDE cable (This only applies if you're using an older computer with IDE Hard Drives, look up IDE to see what the plugs look like), or just plug it in (if it's SATA). Then copy over the data into a folder on a hard drive that has enough space.
2) Try to run a registry repair tool from Bart PE. 99% of the time it doesn't work and it may possibly be just a smidgen illicit as a utility, but. As a computer service technician I advise you not to use Bart PE as it may infringe on Windows copyrights, even if it may help you fix your computer ;)
3) I'm assuming that didn't work. Pop in a windows install disc (preferably one that came with your computer). Go through everything, and when you get to the first install screen that asks if you want to install windows or attempt to repair it. Even though it says press R to repair, you don't want to do that, you want to press enter to install windows.
Go through the options to repair a previous installation of windows from here and cross your fingers.
This only works occasionally, but when it does, it saves a lot of time.
4) I'm assuming step 3 didn't work either. Reinstall windows. You're probably hosed. Sorry man :(

OK This technically is not my computer and I didn't realize it was running XP Home. So I am just going to install XP Pro anyways.