PC restarts while booting
My first step in a situation like this is to reset the BIOS back to factory. Get into the BIOS screen and just set defaults, save and reboot, see if that helps. If not... Look for a setting under hard drive compatibility that has to do with IDE mode, AHCI or combination mode. Depending on what option is currently selected, try the other options. This most likely isnt the case being that Live CD's arent working either, but cant hurt to try it. Sometimes if you load the PC with an IDE type mode enabled, and the system reverts to AHCI, the system wont boot. If this still proves fruitless...
Move on to disconnect all unnecessary hardware from the PC. External drives, extra monitors, etc and try booting again. If it still won't boot, remove any and all peripherals and expansion cards, such as Modems, NICs, video cards (if your PC has on board video you can use in its place), and all but one stick of RAM. Try booting again. If it boots, great, return things one at a time until the problem recurs to find the problem. If it still doesn't boot swap RAM in until you've tried all available pieces. If all pieces are tried, or if you only had one piece, and it still isnt booting, EVEN into a LIVE CD, its time to start looking at possible bad components... PSU, CPU, Motherboard etc.
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Mokubai
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Updated on September 18, 2022Comments
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Mokubai almost 2 years
My problem is that my PC restarts while booting. The BIOS shows up, it shows that all HDDs are found and RAM is checked. But when the XP booting screen should appear, my PC just restarts and starts all over again. I tried to reinstall, but it freezes and I also tried to launch an Ubuntu Live CD, but it also froze. Could some one tell me what the problem is?
The problem is that I can't get to the Live CD main menu, so I can't run any memory tests. I also tried to run memtest from usb but it doesn't work either.
Futher information (18/01/12):
I turned my PC on this morning, went into the BIOS and set it restore default settings. After that it restarted and now it dont recognize any of the two HDDs.
I tried to find HDD on bios manually and automatically but neither of them worked. I tried to disconnect all the wires and put them all back as they suppose to be, but still nothing.
The PC is old - it's a P4 2,4Ghz and an unknown Gigabyte motherboard. I have no clue how to change or update BIOS.
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Paperlantern over 12 yearsTypically an overheat event triggers a shut down. Not a restart. i wouldn't rule this out completely, but it would be low on my list to check.
