Computer keeps turning itself off

[paulwilson]

I have a packard bell computer which for roughly 4 years have not had an ounce of trouble, however one of the kids turned it off by the button and whenever I try to turn it on it goes on for 30 seconds and asks if I want to go into safe mode or continue.

Whatever you do it turns itself off after roughly 30 seconds nd repeats the same process over and over again.

I have tried the restore cd's however they wont work, when cd 1 goes in it says I have to enter cd 1 or 2 and when I do it says incorrect cd try again.

Im lost and im seriously thinking of selling the lot of it and just keeping the laptop but its just such a waste when it costs me quite a fair bit.

Thanks for any help and advice. Paul...

 

[gblades]

Is it actually turning itself off (i.e you have to switch it on again) or is it simply rebooting?

If its rebooting and you cant go into safe mode then there is not much you can do other than reinstall the operating system, copy all your data off, and then reformat and reinstall. You will need to get hold of some disks that do work.
I assume if you dont choose an option the machine stays on that screen and doesnt power off or reboot?

If it actually switches off then this sounds like a hardware fault.

 

[paulwilson]

Is it actually turning itself off (i.e you have to switch it on again) or is it simply rebooting?

If its rebooting and you cant go into safe mode then there is not much you can do other than reinstall the operating system, copy all your data off, and then reformat and reinstall. You will need to get hold of some disks that do work.
I assume if you dont choose an option the machine stays on that screen and doesnt power off or reboot?

If it actually switches off then this sounds like a hardware fault.

Sorry yes your right it does not turn off it reboots or what I would call restarts itself.

Even if you choose or do not choose it still reboots, any idea how much this could set me back to get it fixed or could it be any kind of thing

 

[ChrisJ78]

Do you have an XP CD or whatever the OS is? Install an XP CD, boot off it and then at the options press R for a repair.

When you get the command prompt, type fix boot, and say yes at the prompt, then type fixmbr and then y again. After that, type chkdsk /R.

If that doesn't work, then boot off the CD again, and this time choose the option to install XP. You should then be presented with 3 options I think it is, and one of those is to repair the install of XP. Make sure you don't do a fresh install, otherwise you lose everything when you format

Of course I am assuming you have the XP disc and a code.

 

[paulwilson]

thank you very much for that, unfortunately i dont have the xp cd and code, would i be able to buy these off the net or from pc world or local comp shop maybe?

Would be hugely grateful if this would work, thanks Paul...

 

[ChrisJ78]

Have you got a lot of valuable data on there? Pics etc which you can't afford to lose?

Maybe have a look to see if you can get the restore discs first, and maybe a new hard drive. Replace the old one, do a restore and then put your disk in as a second one to pull the data off.

I think if you restore with the Packard Bell discs, they may well do a full format.

What model is your Packard Bell?

 

[paulwilson]

I actually run a small business so I have the last 4 years quotations and work completed on there, we also have 3 years pictures of our 1 and 3 year olds which would be a real shame to lose, really speaking I should of put them onto something else as a backup but I just never thjought anything would go wrong, bit naive really.

Not exactly sure what model it is I will go and have a look now, im assuming the model should be on the tower somewhere, thank you very much for all your help

 

[ChrisJ78]

OK well if you're unsure, don't do anything with that drive.

Model should be on the tower or go to the link below and enter your serial number. You may be able to download the restore cds from there, long shot but you never know.

http://support.packardbell.com/uk/

 

[paulwilson]

Thank you very much you have been a massive help, im going to see what I can do tomorrow and I will get back to you. Kind regards Paul...

 

[djrock]

Take it to a local computer shop since I see your not very sure on what you are doing and have a lot too loose if you do something wrong.

 

[Belle427]

i have a similar issue today, over the last few weeks my computer would randomly restart itself when in use but always come back on ok.
This morning it keeps rebooting itself, it will get to the command prompt screen for safe mode etc but whatever choice you make it will just go back into its reboot cycle. I have tried to boot from the supplied recovery cd but it goes to a blue screen and throws up a series of numbers, not sure what else i can now.
Is it worth getting a replacement hard drive and trying that?
Ive cleaned out the dust from it and also booted with just the hard drive, keyboard, monitor and mouse connected

 

[ChrisJ78]

You could try a reinstall of XP, but only if you get the option when selecting to install (where the options are from booting off CD).

Could try pressing the R for repair when the option appears. Then try FIXBOOT then FIXMBR and then chkdsk /R. If they don't work then you will need to try the re-install, but obviously you need to save your data first

 

[opps]

the easiest why to discover if your problems are xp or harware related is to download an Ubuntu iso

Burn this to cd and boot the pc from it, run this in live mode- ie., it will run from ram only and leave xp as is. ( you might need to set the cd drive as the first boot option in the bios)

If ubuntu is happy then you will know that XP is unwell.

Sadly most pcs are supplied with restore cds rather than real XP cds, these restore cds will wipe everything and set you back to day one.

The Ubuntu option will allow you to access the XP harddrive and then back up files to an external harddrive.

There are many copies of xp on the torrent network but I would never dream of suggesting that you download one using free utorrent and burn it using the free cdburnerxppro, even though you technically own a copy xp already (albeit and OEM version).


BTW ChrisJ78

Would it not be safer to run chkdsk first- incase the drive is failing???

 

[ChrisJ78]

Yes

 

[tapir]

Safe mode loads Windows with the minimal set of drivers that Windows needs to get started - ie it wont even try to start any applications that normally start, such as all those tools and bits that every program wants to run at start up.

Whenever I've been faced with this problem, I've opened Windows in Safe mode, and as soon as it's done that, restarted. That usually fixes the problem.

I strongly suspect that the problems you are seeing as simply caused by Windows not being shut down properly, so it doesn't quite know what to do to start up - think of it as not putting all your items back in the toolbox but leaving them lying all over the place, and then expecting to be able to start a new DIY job without any of your usual tools in the right or same place.

By shutting down correctly, you're letting Windows put its house in order.