machine continously reboots or hangs

[pummy]

Hi everyone,
I have the following machine configuration.
Intel Pentium 3
Windows 2000 Professional

The problem started when the machine would just hang after few minutes of starting. So I checked the machine using PC doctor to check if my hard disk and all other hardware
Everything turned out to be okay. Then I also upgraded my windows 2000 from Windows update and downloaded all patches etc. Also have norton antivirus and i checked for viruses. made sure their is no spyware or adware.

The machine works perfectly fine when run on Safe mode or dos prompt. But the moment we start the Windows, it hangs or reboots at different places before starting. So basically we are not able to start the machine on windows.

I am not able to figure out probable reasons and if the problem is related to hardware or software.

can anyone please help me?
Thanks In advance
pummy

[tango1112]

This is a problem I had while diagnosiing Windows 2000 for a friend. If this isn't it, try accessing the task manager (cntrl, alt, del. and select task mgr.). Then select processes and see which process is using the most of your CPU. If the problem doesn't occur on startup you may have to wait several minutes before trying the above. Although the bulletin below primarily deals with it affecting the Hibernate mode, I found that it may cause the entire system to stop responding.

Good luck

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Cannot Hibernate Windows 2000 After Installing or Uninstalling McAfee AntiVirus 3.1.4

This article was previously published under Q211271

SYMPTOMS

After you install and then subsequently uninstall McAfee AntiVirus version 3.1.4, you may not be able to place Windows 2000 in Hibernate mode.

CAUSE

McAfee AntiVirus 3.1.4 with NetShield version 3.0.2 services is not compatible with Windows 2000. When you uninstall McAfee AntiVirus, the uninstall routine does not completely remove all of its dependent services and related files. These services are left running, which prevents Windows 2000 from hibernating.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, manually stop and remove the McAfee services and related files:
Right-click My Computer, and then click Manage.
Double-click Services and Applications, and then click Services.
Right-click one of the following services, and then click Stop. Repeat this to stop each of these services:
McShield
McScan
McUtil
McKml
McFilter
McFsrec

Delete or rename the following files in the %SystemRoot%\System32\Drivers folder:
Mcshield.sys
Mcscan.sys
Mcutil.sys
Mckml.sys
Mcfilter.sys
Mcfsrec.sys

[Dotcoman]

Hi Pummy,

Have you or did you recently change out any hardware before this started to happen to you?

So basically your symptom is that it Windows2K will boot and load up, but hangs intermittently shortly after Windows loads?

Are you in any particular program when it does this?

Do you smell smoke?

Here’s two things to check:
If your fan is going/ or has gone out on your CPU and when the CPU gets hot it may have a feature to shut it down. I mention that, because I have seen were that similar software will cause it to hang rather than shut down while the CPU is glowing like a toaster.

Memory you could try removing the memory and reinserting it properly, or if you are running more than one stick of memory; you could try dropping down to one stick of ram and try running the computer that way. If that works, then try the second stick and run it by it’s self. Even though RAM will test good, sometimes it will cause some screwy things to happen it there’s a bug in one stick.

You could also check to make sure you don’t have any device conflicts under the Device Manager and run the Check Disk Utility at start up. If you haven’t tried that already you should as it does have the ability to fix some errors on the disk and OS.

Video Cards?

See, you say it works fine in Command Prompt, and Safe mode, but all hell breaks loose under Normal Windows, which requires more RAM as there are more apps and services running, and it takes advantage of more video crap.

So, proper and latest video Drivers, device conflicts again, a hot video card that needs a new fan?

I’m just guessing here cause you didn’t really supply a lot of information. It might be nice to know how much and the type of RAM, along with knowing if it is properly matched to your board, more and more this is a big deal.

Then there’s how many and which services are loading on your machine at start up.
What sort of Video card you are using and that sort of stuff.