Help! My PC keeps restarting.

[Danger Mouse]

Hi.

I need help. One of my PCs keep restarting randomly. Sometimes it would be fine for about 20 minutes before restarting itself without warning, and sometimes it would restart immediately after it gets into my desktop after switching it on.

I'm on XP with an AMD Athlon chip and 512MB RAM.

Am I looking at a worm or virus? Or is this hardware related? My NAV did not detect any viruses, but I'm not too sure how reliable it is.

 

[Drakon]

Don't trust Norton.

I recommend rolling back a few days, then running spyware and adware checks. Check out my "recommended software" thread.

 

[wiegeabo]

Could be a worm attack. There was one a couple of years back that would force a restart of unprotected machines. Try unplugging you computer from the internet and seeing if it will restart. And take the opportunity to turn on your firewall if you're not already running one. If you are running Norton's, try turning on Windows firewall as well.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

It sounds like software to me. Reformat your computer

 

[Danger Mouse]

I have recently discovered that it happens whenever an internet browser or any other Microsoft software such as word or excel is running.

 

[Danger Mouse]

It sounds like software to me. Reformat your computer

I might just do that if all else fails. Thanks.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

But do NOT backup files onto discs! Any of the files you backup could be the cause of the problem.

But before you do, try this

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Processes

Highlight explorer.exe and click end process

wait for a few seconds. Everything will close except your desktop.

Close task manager.

Re-open task-manager (ctrl-alt-dlt) then select Applications

Click on New Task...

type in explorer.exe and click OK

wait a few seconds while everything re-opens and try it out and see if it messes up.

 

[Rezzo]

I once had this same problem and it was a worm called W32/Blaster-A forgot exactly how I got rid of it but here´s some info about it

W32/Blaster-A
6. My computer is continuously rebooting, how can I download RESOLVE?

Often when a computer is infected with W32/Blaster-A it restarts every few minutes, usually with a message similar to "Windows must now restart because the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Terminated Unexpectedly". This prevents the required patches and files from being downloaded.

For more info on getting rid of the W32/Blaster-A worm http://www.sophos.com/support/disinfection/blastera.html hope this helps

 

[Darthphere]

The problem is you have windows. Apple *****es.

jag

 

[Asteroid-Man]

I once had this same problem and it was a worm called W32/Blaster-A forgot exactly how I got rid of it but here´s some info about it

W32/Blaster-A
6. My computer is continuously rebooting, how can I download RESOLVE?

Often when a computer is infected with W32/Blaster-A it restarts every few minutes, usually with a message similar to "Windows must now restart because the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Terminated Unexpectedly". This prevents the required patches and files from being downloaded.

For more info on getting rid of the W32/Blaster-A worm http://www.sophos.com/support/disinfection/blastera.html hope this helps

I've had that before. What he has is something wrong with explorer.exe He doesn't get a warning when it happens. He should try the steps I gave him above. If that doesnt work, he's gonna have to reformat his comp

 

[Danger Mouse]

But do NOT backup files onto discs! Any of the files you backup could be the cause of the problem.

You're kidding me, right? This PC that has been infected is a work PC with lots of important stuff in them. Stuff that could quite literally get me in jail if I lose them.

Now, what if I back them up on a portable device and access them only on a need-to basis? I won't dump them back into the PC after reformatting. Will that work?

But before you do, try this

Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Processes

Highlight explorer.exe and click end process

wait for a few seconds. Everything will close except your desktop.

Close task manager.

Re-open task-manager (ctrl-alt-dlt) then select Applications

Click on New Task...

type in explorer.exe and click OK

wait a few seconds while everything re-opens and try it out and see if it messes up.

I'll give it a go. Thanks. A note, though: it messes up even when I don't open a browser.

 

[wiegeabo]

You're kidding me, right? This PC that has been infected is a work PC with lots of important stuff in them. Stuff that could quite literally get me in jail if I lose them.

Now, what if I back them up on a portable device and access them only on a need-to basis? I won't dump them back into the PC after reformatting. Will that work?

Problem is, if the files are infected, just opening them can spread the infection onto the computers.

If they are infected, it's obvious Norton isn't catching the problem. Try putting a few antivirus program like avast! on the system. I gave up on both Norton and McAffee after getting avast!.

 

[Danger Mouse]

Is it possible that this MAY be a hardware issue? Perhaps a faulty RAM or power supply? I'd like to keep my reformatting option as a last resort.

 

[Danger Mouse]

Hey, Asteroid-Man,

I did as you suggested. Seemed okay. But just as a precaution, I ran blastsfx.exe to get rid of the Blaster Worm, if it had any. But every time the software tries to run a scan, the PC rebooted. Every time.

 

[aptget]

I would have guessed a bad power supply.
Or maybe ESD damage to a component, have you opened the case and touched things lately? Have you added any components lately?

 

[Danger Mouse]

I would have guessed a bad power supply.
Or maybe ESD damage to a component, have you opened the case and touched things lately? Have you added any components lately?

Nope.

And Asteroid-Man, so far your advice works. But I really can't be running the task manager first every time I start my PC, can I? Any permanent solution, dude?

 

[Abaddon]

I've had the same problem on and off.

 

[Danger Mouse]

Great. Just great. Now it gave me a BSD.

 

[Asteroid-Man]

You're kidding me, right? This PC that has been infected is a work PC with lots of important stuff in them. Stuff that could quite literally get me in jail if I lose them.

Now, what if I back them up on a portable device and access them only on a need-to basis? I won't dump them back into the PC after reformatting. Will that work?


I'll give it a go. Thanks. A note, though: it messes up even when I don't open a browser.

explorer.exe isn't just a browser it's your Windows. You could always send yourself screenshots of PDF's or print them and re scan or you could copy paste the documents and email them to yourself