Help

[Brennan]

I just finished build my computer and it keeps restarting on me. How would I fix it?

[Sparda]

Clerifie "restarting" please. Describe what the computer (or you) is doing when it restarts.

[Brennan]

I start the computer and then the BIOS loads then screen comes up askin if I want to start normal or in safe mode the when it starts to boot a blue screen flashes with something on it but I cant read because it goes away to fast

[Employee]

Dammit i thought i would be able to help on this one because i had what sounded as the same problem. Sparda helped me all I did was single everything out i tried a new psu not it, than new ram and boom it worked :)

[armadaender]

It seems your comp is getting past post, and then fails. Then it's probably a software problem. I could be wrong but to me it sounds like either your hdd isn't connected properly, the windows install is borked, or your entire hdd is borked.

Check all connections (and I mean ALL connections in the box) and if they're all correct but still no progress, try another hdd and see if that boots. If not the problem is else where.

Like I said, I could be wrong though. I'm sure Sparda has a better idea.

[Sparda]

Did it ever reach the desktop? If not then I would suspect a hardware fault of some kind. Most likly to do with the memory. Try using a live Linux distro for an hour or two, if the problem dose not manifest, it is windows been it's stupid self.

[armadaender]

Quick question: What beep noises do you hear when starting up the comp?

If you hear anything other than the usual one-beep, you can then follow your mobo's manual to see what the problem is.

[VaKo]

Dumb question: Have you taken your old windows HD and stuck it in this machine? Or have you installed a fresh copy of windows on it?

[cooper]

Grab a copy of MemTest86.

This free tool comes as an ISO for a bootable floppy, CD or memory stick, and will continuously test your system's memory by writing bit patterns to it and reading them back again. Highly recommended.

[Brennan]

it was an old HDD and I stuck it in the new machine but I reinstalled windows and it works now

[VaKo]

Thought so, shame it doesn't work like that.

[PoyBoy]

Damn windows. Were all slaves to it and its commercialness

[VaKo]

Not really, when you install windows it sets itself up for your hardware, so when you take the disk and stick it in different hardware, it can't talk to it anymore. There is probally some fancy way around this limitation (over to you sparda...), as you can do it in *nix, but if you want it done fast, and its windows... fuck it and reinstall.

[moonlit]

Yeah, anything older than Windows XP (I think, anyways) can talk to the hardware but will require new drivers for everything...

For XP, MS introduced an anti-piracy measure and now even if Windows could start on the computer you swap the drive to, it won't.. it'll jusr BSoD because MS have coded it to not start if it doesn't match what it's expecting...