Windows XP problem

SuperDutyFiver wrote:
It's probably not economical to pay someone to work on your computer considering it's age.

I like the idea that if you don't have a fatal hardware issue, it could be viral-Do you have a system restore available? Going back to an earlier date may help.

I'd download 'malwarebytes' from CNET onto a flashdrive on another computer if you can't track back and then install and run it on your machine and see if it picks anything off.

It will not stay booted long enough to run anything. AVG was installed long ago, but has not been recently updated. Thanks,

It's probably not economical to pay someone to work on your computer considering it's age.

I like the idea that if you don't have a fatal hardware issue, it could be viral-Do you have a system restore available? Going back to an earlier date may help.

I'd download 'malwarebytes' from CNET onto a flashdrive on another computer if you can't track back and then install and run it on your machine and see if it picks anything off.

robsouth wrote:
donn0128, problem is, if I reboot to safe mode, it only last a few seconds and reboots itself again, over and over.

Gdetrailer, I think your last line says it all. I'm tired of fooling with it and there is nothing on it that isn't backed up somewhere else, so I think I will just remove the hard drives and "junk it".

Thanks all.

You can often confirm bad caps by looking at the tops of the electrolytic caps (these look like little cylinders standing up on the board). The tops on good ones are flat across, when they go bad the tops tend to puff up rounding the tops.

I have recapped several boards for myself but it is a long tiring process and if you don't change them all at one setting you end up chasing more down the road.

And yes, I have experienced that same symptom and the caps were the problem..

Sometimes we simply have to say we got our money's worth and call it a day.

donn0128, problem is, if I reboot to safe mode, it only last a few seconds and reboots itself again, over and over.

Gdetrailer, I think your last line says it all. I'm tired of fooling with it and there is nothing on it that isn't backed up somewhere else, so I think I will just remove the hard drives and "junk it".

Thanks all.

May have a hardware fault, first suspect is an extremely good chance your mother board or power supply is suffering from bad cap syndrome.

In a nutshell the electrolytic caps on the system board have dried out, changed value and are on the verge of popping. This causes instability of the system board.

XP by default is set to reboot on a default in the system properties tab under startup and recovery.

Uncheck Automatically Restart to stop the automatic reboot under the system failure heading (this may be helpful for troubleshooting but Windows may still do things it shouldn't since the fault is most likely not fixable unless you change the bad caps or try a different power supply).

The caps can be changed but you need to get Low ESR types and you are not going to find those at your corner Radio Shack..

I am thinking your PC has reached End of Life.

I'll bet you have a virus. Start in safe mode and go searching. IF you don't know much about computers, then pay someone to do it for you.