PC switching off on bootup

[Pondboy]

This morning my 3 year old Intel PC just switched off on boot up, would not start for 10 mins, then did it again. Left it a bit longer and it booted normally after I unplugged the power lead and reconnected it.

I ran Norton to check for viruses and spyware cleaners, with nothing too unusual reported.

I took the side off and made sure the huge Petal heatsink was dust free as well as well as the power supply grills and case venting.

When I rebooted at lunchtime to check everything over, it switched off again. After leaving it for a while I tried switching on with no success, then took out the power lead from the power supply, reconnected and it booted normally and is running happily at the moment.

There were no error beeps during any of the failed boot processes. It seemed to be switching off at the point when it loads XP and usually everything gets noisy as it tests the DVD's (x2) and hard disks (x2)

I'm not too technical, but where should I look for a boot event log, or should I just bin the power supply and get a new one?
PB

 

[cookie]

your HDD may be on the way out

 

[Fanum]

Check the memory chips are tight and clean.....if one was loose or clogged up it could cause exactly this problem.

I'd remove them, clean them and the sockets and stick them back in.

 

[redcastle]

I reckon its the power supply, by taking the power lead out he's resetting it.

favourites for me anyway

 

[Pondboy]

Ad Malware was the problem

After a very frustrating few days, I think I have solved my boot problem and recurring Google search redirect problems which had started at the same time.

There was a nasty little file in my Windows/system32 filder called "howiper.exe" Norton could not touch it and it seemed to be helping to respawn Google search redirects as well as causing intermittant boot failures.

I needed to switch off System restore in My Computer, run in safe mode and used some manual deleting of said file plus Ad-Aware SE, SpybotS&D and SpywareBegone before I seemed to clear the problem.

Time will tell. PB

 

[Fanum]

Norton could not touch it

Time will tell. PB

GRRR!!!!

How long is it gonna take before the message gets through to so many PC owners.......

BIN NORTON..................IT'S CRAP!!!!!

 

[maxchilli]

I hear that. Not only is NAV cruddy at getting rid of viruses it actually slows down your computer as well - bonus!!!!!

So many other, better, AV programs out there. NOD32 is one of my favourites.

Also take it a look at Spyware Doctor for removing that kind of crud (spyware / adware etc), it's pretty effective.

 

[bustupbiker]

As above, BIN Norton and instal Nod32 best you will find, but download it to the desktop before you bin Norton.

 

[themadprofessor]

I vote NOD32 as well. I have used it at home for 3years, liked it so much I booted out Sophos at work and installed it on 80 PCS. Next week I am installing it in a different department of 20 PCs as well.

Chris

 

[Pondboy]

Thanks for the input guys. I only had Norton on my system 'cos it came with it. AVG is loaded on the other systems.

Looks like NOD32 is going to get loaded on our triplet of family PC's. PB

 

[Pondboy]

NOD32

Just finished running the trial version of NOD32 and it came up with 12 problems, 5 which it considered serious. Ho hum. PB