computer turning off when booting windows...HELP!!

[Xeno19]

ok, so yesterday im typing out my english report. everything seems fine. i turn off my computer and go to school. about 3 hours later i come home and turn on my computer. but something comes up and it gives me the option to go into safe mode. at the bottom it says something like

"WARNING: Windows did not boot up on last attempt. Check your drivers"

Something like that. Cant remember right now. I'm at school. Anyways, i select the option to go into "normal" mode, and as its booting up, the computer totally turns off. just before it gets to the desktop, its like someone has unplugged the power to the pc. so i never see the desktop. so i can successfully log into safe mode, but that does me no good. i cant find out what the heck is the problem. there may be some things i may have done to mess it up.


1. i downloaded the farcry demo (a graphically nice game) and tried to play it with my geforce 2 mmx 400. maybe i burned out the video card? but this was a few days before the comp messed up.

2. whenever steam(a program to be used with half life) froze, i would have to do a reboot. meaning i would press the reboot button on my computer and scan disk would come up saying i didnt shut down windows properly. sometimes i would have to do this 3 times a day. over the course of a week, i may have done this about 15 times.

other then this, i have no idea what is going on. it was fine before i went to school. i remember it was making a ticking sound that was bothering me. so i hit the computer so that it would stop. it was lightly though. im going to try and reinstall windows first. then i guess i will reformat my computer. if its a hardware problem, well then, i am out of luck. anyone know whats going on?

btw, i had steam for a few months, so thats not the problem.

my os is windows 98se. i have 256 ram. i dont know anything else though. i just need to know why my computer is turning off when i try to log into windows.

[John Prophet]

Welcome to the forum!

ok, does it boot all the way into windows if you boot into safe mode?

press f5 while booting to get to safe mode

JP

[jmichna]

If John Prophet's suggestions don't work, from a hardware perspective, couple things to investigate:
1) Is the fan on the CPU spinning when you power up
2) Is the HS still well attached to the CPU?
(In both of the above scenarios, you may have an auto-overheat shutdown protection enabled in BIOS)
3) Notice an bulging in the capacitors (usually) arranged along the CPU socket?
4) Sniff the power supply... any burnt smell?
5) Can you boot using a boot floppy, and let it run for a while without a shut down? Can you run something that stresses the memeory from a floppy (like memtest86)?

[Dj-Icer]

For a little support:
support.microsoft.com/ default.aspx?scid=%2Fsupport%2Fwindows%2Ftopics%2F errormsg%2Femresctr.asp

The game HL: Steam has a major bug. A lot of people has already uninstalled it due to the mess.

Try go for Safe modes. Do you have any important files in there? When everything fails, go for format but this is the last you do. Try reinstall your Window. I have face this post before and that guy fixed it. I forgot what he actually did.

[Dj-Icer]

The site with links.

http://support.microsoft.com/default...2Femresctr.asp

[Xeno19]

thanks, glad to be here.

ok, when i turn on the computer, it gives me several options. its the black screen. plus it has that little count down thingie.

1. normal
2. safe mode
3. safe mode with network support
etc....


if i choose safe mode, it logs in successfully. everything is really ugly looking and big. plus, almost nothing is running. my msn doesnt load up or anything. its just explorer running if i press ctrl, alt, delete. i then proceed to select restart and up comes the exact same screen.

when i choose normal, it will proceed to boot up like normal. but JUST BEFORE i see the desktop, the computer COMPLETELY shuts off. i mean absolutely no power to the computer. the monitor is working, but the actual computer is off.

[jmichna]

Originally posted by Xeno19
if i choose safe mode, it logs in successfully. everything is really ugly looking and big. plus, almost nothing is running. my msn doesnt load up or anything. its just explorer running if i press ctrl, alt, delete. i then proceed to select restart and up comes the exact same screen.

Xeno19...
Try doing a portion of what DJ Icer suggested:

...The game HL: Steam has a major bug. A lot of people has already uninstalled it due to the mess.

Try go for Safe modes....

And, at this point try uninstalling HL: Steam, then reboot normally and see if the problem has gone away.

Did you check the hardware itself, as I suggested earlier?

[John Prophet]

okay..maybe it is a windows issue then....or it still could be hardware related...for instance perhaps the video card is whacked as u suggest...going into windows it draws more juice and cuts off because of the hihger resolution and colors..but it is ok in safe mode.....but that is only a theoretical guess.

---

if it were me I think I would boot into safe mode and then...

run "msconfig" from the "run" box...then click on the "startup" tab...then look thru there and uncheck stuff that doesnt need to start everytime windows starts

for instance..if you see anything there from the farcry demo..uncheck it....or anything related to steam..uncheck it

you could uncheck things one at a time and then try to reboot just to see if u can narrow it down to one thing causing the issue.

---

some things need to be checked for windows to work properly....namely "explorer" and "systray" need to stay checked


try it and see what happens

JP

[Xeno19]

well, im at school right now. i need to write this stuff down because i dont have access to the internet at home. so i cant really tell you whats working and whats not. but yeah, im writing down all your guys suggestions.

would a reformat though get rid off all my problems? i really need the computer for thursday. it is really vital for school. i can easily recover my lost work.

so basically, is a reformat the ultimate solution? i'm afraid that if it is something with hardware, my computer wont be ready for thursday. plus, i dont have alot of money to be spending on parts.

[John Prophet]

well a reformat and reinstall will fix any windows related issues..as long as you get the right drivers reinstalled etc.....but a reformat wont fix it if it is hardware related

for instance it could be the power supply going bad...but id try the things with msconfig first...and/or uninstalling steam as other suggest

since it does boot into safe mode...it is possible that the hardware is ok.

also..try to just install windows again WITHOUT formatting..before you resort to a full format