Ok, if anyone knows or thinks they know what's wrong with this computer, please describe it as if you were talking to your 80 year old grandmother. I'm kind of new to this.

The computer is an HP Pavilion laptop running windows xp sp2.

When I turn on the computer, it brings up a black and white menu screen telling me that windows could not start in normal mode, and asking if I want to start in safe more or from the last working settings. Every time I pick one of these options, windows starts to star, and then the computer restarts.

I made a UBCD and have figured out how to use it (more or less) with the computer. I was thinking that perhaps I have a virus, so I've tried the various virus scanners that come on the UBCD. Some of them find nothing, but 2 of them start to scan, and then restart the computer in the middle of the scan.

Does anyone know what is going on? Is this a virus, or maybe something else? If anyone knows, I would very much appreciate some help.

(PS... I don't really know what any of the other stuff on the UBCD is, so perhaps there's something else I could use besides the virus scanners to figure out the problem?)

L4E_WakaMol-King wrote:

>Ok, if anyone knows or thinks they know what's wrong with this computer, please describe it as if you were talking to your 80 year old grandmother. I'm kind of new to this.
>
>The computer is an HP Pavilion laptop running windows xp sp2.
>
>When I turn on the computer, it brings up a black and white menu screen telling me that windows could not start in normal mode, and asking if I want to start in safe more or from the last working settings. Every time I pick one of these options, windows starts to star, and then the computer restarts.
>
>I made a UBCD and have figured out how to use it (more or less) with the computer. I was thinking that perhaps I have a virus, so I've tried the various virus scanners that come on the UBCD. Some of them find nothing, but 2 of them start to scan, and then restart the computer in the middle of the scan.
>
>Does anyone know what is going on? Is this a virus, or maybe something else? If anyone knows, I would very much appreciate some help.
>
>(PS... I don't really know what any of the other stuff on the UBCD is, so perhaps there's something else I could use besides the virus scanners to figure out the problem?)
>--
>L4E - Best of the worst
>_________________________________________________________
>Topic link: viewtopic.php?p=1071#1071
>
>
>
Well if the pc can't run long even with the live cd / scan perhaps you
have a heat problem.
Open the pc power it up and make sure all the fans are running.
There is one on the power supply..one ah you get the picture just make
sure they are all spinning.
Take it from there.
Good luck.

--
Regards
Dave Ashmore
SOHO IT Solutions LLC
1934 S. Delaware Dr.
Easton, PA 18042
610-258-7128
http://callsohoit.com

I don't really feel comfortable opening up the computer... afraid I might break it .

Honestly, my instincts tell me its not a heat problem. I can run other processes (like some of the virus scans) 10 times if I want, and nothing happens. It's only when I run 2 particular virus scans (I can do it agian and figure out which two it is, if you need) that the computer shuts down.

Any thoghts?

If your system restarts both in Windows and in the UBCD,
then I would have to agree with sohoit; it's likely to be
a heat problem or one of your memory chips is defective.

Bad memory would explain why some apps would restart and
others not since they may be accessing a portion of memory
that other UBCD programs don't.

If the system is under warranty, stop and call HP. Anything
you do with the UBCD won't mean anything to HP and you'll
need to go through their song and dance before identifying
and proving a particular hardware component is bad. Their
solution may be to reload or repair windows in which case I'd
expect the system to reboot sometime during the repair/reinstall.
Note that if they do want you to reload you'll loose data unless
you've been backing up. If not, I'm thinking the only way to
preserve your data it to hook up the hard drive to another
computer.

Troubleshooting hardware issues is a hard fought battle, even
for the pros. It requires opening the computer and swapping
parts, etc, so if you're not comfortable, you might want to
have a local computer service tech help you out.