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Hi All,
I am facing the disgusting "windows
frequently restarts" problem. I was using Compaq Presario X1028US laptop with Intel Pentium Centrino 1.5 GHZ processor, 512 MB RAM and a 160 GB hard disk with Windows XP SP 3 as the OS. I regularly update the anti virus (AVG) and the Windows automatically.
The most recent change to the system was to upgrade AVG from 8.5 to 9.0 which was done yesterday. Everything was fine until one fine morning when the laptop started restarting by itself. I first ignored it and continued to work and it became more and more frequent. I have referred several posts on the internet and have done all the things mentioned below in order but the problem still persists. I am not able to pin point to the cause of the problem. It should be noted that the problem exists only in the normal mode of Windows XP and not in the Safe mode or Safe Mode with networking.
0) Uncheck the Automatically Restart windows in the event of a system failure in the system properties. Even after doing this laptop restarts without any error or warning. There is nothing in the event log also.
1) Uninstall AVG 9.0 thinking that it might be the reason for the problem.
Problem still persists.
2) Check the heat at the bottom of the laptop. It is not very hot. The fan is still running at times.
3) Changed the bios setting to make the fan run always when connected to AC power. Fan runs fine but problem persists in Windows Normal mode.
4) Install AVG 8.5 which worked stably for a long time for me without issues. Then ran a full system scan of the machine through the AVG command line scanner while in Windows XP Safe Mode. Nothing Found.
5) As suggested by some people on different forums, I formatted the C drive alone and reinstalled the XP OS. Now it is Windows XP SP 1. Still the problem persists as soon as the setup finished and Windows loaded for the first time. It only became frequent. After Windows was loaded for the first time the laptop restarted itself at least 5 or 6 times within 10 minutes.
6) Downloaded the Windows Memory Diagnostic tool and ran the extended tests in that to see if it has to do anything with the RAM. The laptop didnt restart even once during the almost 1 hour that it took to run those tests. Finally no errors were found.
7) Unchecked the Automatically Restart Windows in the event of a system failure in the fresh installation but still the laptop restarts by itself in normal mode without any error or warning. This doesnt happen at all in safe mode.
8) Ran Samsung HUTIL which reported some errors.
9) Went into XP Recovery Console and ran CHKDSK /R on all the drives. It reported that it found and fixed errors on all the drives.
10) Formatted the C drive within the Recovery Console using the FORMAT C: command.
11) Reinstalled the Windows XP SP1 OS.
12) Laptop still restarts automatically.
13) Ran Low Level Format option in the Erase HDD option of the Samsung HUTIL.
14) Reinstalled the Windows XP SP1 OS.
15) Laptop still restarts automatically.
16) Installed Windows XP from a different CD. Laptop still restarts automatically.
17) Installed Windows Vista. Laptop still restarts automatically.
18) Reinstalled the Windows XP SP1 OS. Still the laptop restarts by itself in normal mode without any error or warning. This doesnt happen at all in safe mode.
19) Felt that some device that gets loaded only in normal modes is causing the problem. Disabled several devices that were not really required like Infra Red Sensor, Video card, Multimedia device etc. Still the same problem persists.
20) Downloaded Hitachi DFT and scanned the HDD for errors. No errors were reported.
21) Downloaded UBUNTU and tried to run it from the CD. When I tried the option to run UBUNTU without any changes to my computer the laptop displayed a blank black screen for 5 to 10 seconds with a small cursor blinking on the top left corner. Then it restarted. And I tried this number of times in different modes including the safe graphics mode. Still the same black screen with that small cursor for 5 seconds and then restart.
22) Now to confirm that the download and CD burn is ok, I used the same CD in my sister in laws laptop and was able to get into UBUNTU there.
23) Cleaned all the fans and vents as much as possible. There was not much dust inside the laptop when I opened it.
24) Below are the links to the screen shots of the devices installed in the laptop currently.
http://rapidshare.de/files/48664867/Devices_-_1.JP
http://rapidshare.de/files/48664871/Devices_-_2.JP
http://rapidshare.de/files/48664872/Devices_-_3.JP
I have been spending a long time on this and I am really frustrated now. Please suggest a solution that can help solve this problem. I have lots of hopes on this forum. Thanks a lot.
