Problem when Booting up XP computer !

boss1968

boss1968

Guys,
Tonight I had an issue with my XP computer. When I did my usual boot up, the computer shut down during the booting process. It ran about 20 seconds or so and then just shut down. Surprised the heck out of me, cuz this never happened before to me on start-up.
I waited a few minutes and tried to reboot it, and it started to run about 5 seconds, and then again, shut down. This repeated another time.
I decided to wait a longer period of time, and say after 10 minutes or so, I tried rebooting again.
This time it did continue to run, but it gave me a screen stating something along the lines of that my computer did not start properly (mentioned something about 'overclocking'), and showed me some options to take. One was to start Windows normally. I chose that option, and the computer booted correctly, and everything that was supposed to appear did. The computer seemed to work fine after that.
Any thoughts on what might have happened ? Is this something to worry about ? I tried googling about this problem, but most of the answers were confined to OS' higher than XP. I figured perhaps someone here could help shed some light for me on this ?
Many thanks in advance for any help and info.
 
Well if it mentioned overclocking you should check that first I guess. Does the computer still work normally? If it does, maybe you were overclocking and that's why it shutdown. Many things could cause the computer to shutdown. Such as overheating. But you could enter the bios and check the temps there and leave it on for a while to check if it shutsdown. If it doesn't, then it's something else.
 
I've experienced this more than once, and it was hardware related. First time was too many blown capacitors. Another time it was a CPU fan issue. One of the plastic tangs used to clamp the heatsink/fan assy to the CPU had broken so the entire assy was just hanging there instead of being snug against the CPU.

When I had the blown capacitors issue, I was still able to run the machine by doing an F8 start and choosing one of the "Safe Mode" options. This allowed me to Xfer files to another machine while I wrenched on the MB to replace cap's.

When the plastic clamp tang broke however, I wasn't able to run the machine at all. It would over heat in seconds and shut down until I replaced the entire plastic rectangular piece surrounding the CPU socket.

If your issue is one of the above, no joy. Requires removing the MB for both repairs.
 
Good for you. Why are you here? If you want a ban just say so.

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The amount of patience I have for trollls.
 
tekkaman said:
Well if it mentioned overclocking you should check that first I guess. Does the computer still work normally? If it does, maybe you were overclocking and that's why it shutdown. Many things could cause the computer to shutdown. Such as overheating. But you could enter the bios and check the temps there and leave it on for a while to check if it shutsdown. If it doesn't, then it's something else.
Click to expand...
Thank you so much for your reply. So how do I check to see if my XP computer is overclocking? And how would it begin overclocking, if I never set it to overclock in the first place? Is that something it did on its own?
Thanks!
 
ImWolf said:
I've experienced this more than once, and it was hardware related. First time was too many blown capacitors. Another time it was a CPU fan issue. One of the plastic tangs used to clamp the heatsink/fan assy to the CPU had broken so the entire assy was just hanging there instead of being snug against the CPU.

When I had the blown capacitors issue, I was still able to run the machine by doing an F8 start and choosing one of the "Safe Mode" options. This allowed me to Xfer files to another machine while I wrenched on the MB to replace cap's.

When the plastic clamp tang broke however, I wasn't able to run the machine at all. It would over heat in seconds and shut down until I replaced the entire plastic rectangular piece surrounding the CPU socket.

If your issue is one of the above, no joy. Requires removing the MB for both repairs.
Click to expand...
Well, I am seriously hoping it is just an overclocking issue. I had work done on the machine over a year ago and the tech put in a brand new power supply as well as a sound card and a video card. And a new CMOS battery. Other than that, my computer has been untouched internally.
 
boss1968 said:
Thank you so much for your reply. So how do I check to see if my XP computer is overclocking? And how would it begin overclocking, if I never set it to overclock in the first place? Is that something it did on its own?
Thanks!
Click to expand...
It depends on the brand of the motherboard. You can enter the be bios with delete, F2 or other keys depending on motherboard. You´re going to have to post your specs so we can help you better. The reason I told you to just enter the bios and check the temps for a while there maybe an hour or so is to check if it is overheating. If itś not overheating and it doesn´t turn off by itself then it´s a software or maybe driver issue. You can also check the chipset settings for overclocking. But usually brand name computers that are not for gaming don´t overclock at all. So tell us what kind of computer you have.
 
tekkaman said:
It depends on the brand of the motherboard. You can enter the be bios with delete, F2 or other keys depending on motherboard. You´re going to have to post your specs so we can help you better. The reason I told you to just enter the bios and check the temps for a while there maybe an hour or so is to check if it is overheating. If itś not overheating and it doesn´t turn off by itself then it´s a software or maybe driver issue. You can also check the chipset settings for overclocking. But usually brand name computers that are not for gaming don´t overclock at all. So tell us what kind of computer you have.
Click to expand...
Okay, thank you again for your continued help !
My computer booted up today with no issues, so I'm hoping that is a good sign ?
That being said, I am providing my specs for you as requested.
I'm assuming you mean from the System info box, correct ?
Here is what it says :

Microsoft Windows XP Professional
Version 2002
Service Pack 3

AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core Processor
3600+
2.00 GHz
2.00 GB of RAM
Physical Address Extension

If you need more specs, let me know where to find them !

I'm not tech savvy, and had everything done on this computer by previous techs, so I don't know much about what they did, over the years.
Again, thanks for the help !
 
tekkaman said:
If it's not a brand name computer maybe you can enter the bios by pressing Delete or F2 quickly when you power on the computer. That way you can check the temps.
Click to expand...
Okay, I will try. So what temperature am I looking for that will show there is a problem?
 
Well in the bios where the computer is idle I guess it shouldn't get higher than 60 degrees celcius. Because that would mean that when the computer is actually doing something it would get too hot and shutdown by itself.
 
tekkaman said:
Well in the bios where the computer is idle I guess it shouldn't get higher than 60 degrees celcius. Because that would mean that when the computer is actually doing something it would get too hot and shutdown by itself.
Click to expand...
So by 60° celsius, you mean 140° Fahrenheit? It should be lower than that? Normally I mean.
 
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