It reboots I tried reinstalling XP Home but now seems like the issue is “hardware”. First few times it rebooted, it gave an error message something like “clock is running too fast” but now when it goes to desktop screen I launch an application, sometime it will reboot right at the launch-click or sometime the application will open but any click in the application and boom restart again sigh
I brought down the clock factor from 11 to 8, but still reboots
So whats the reason? Is it the processor heating up more (aging?) or motherboard gone bad? Any other factor? I’m thinking about changing motherboard first.
I'll try to do that, but what should I be looking at in event/application log? Is there a particular indication/event to give me a clue? (I haven't looked at logs at all).
It seems from your message that you changed your clock factor. I would suggest before you do anything, go to bios and load default bios. See if that works.
If it is not that, it might be an improperly configured IRQ with one of the auxillary cards. It is a long process to troubleshoot. However, if you have time, take out all the auxillary cards from their slots and put them back one at a time. Off course, Video will always stay there.
If you have an unbranded Ethernet card, Windows XP will have some problems with the drivers it will try to install. Install the drivers for the Ethernet card from the CD/Floppy which came along with it.
^ I didn't install any new hardware either, I have been using this PC config for about over 2 years now, except that I added an internal (IDE) DVD burner few months back. I will try to see if there is any issue in the device manager (if I can enter into it, that is).
Off course, you did not install any new hardware, but you have installed a completely new operating system. All your previous hardware settings are lost. New installation of the OS will have assigned new IRQ, Memory addresses, etc to your hardware. Also all your software drivers for your hardware are lost. The new OS will have installed the generic software drivers for your hardware and most of the time they are not the best option. Install the software drivers for your hardware which came with your hardware, e.g., sound card driver, ethernet driver, modem driver.
Oh!! I forgot one major thing. Before you install anything else, you must install your motherboard chipset drivers. Mainly motherboard chipset are by Intel, nVidia, Ati, Via, Sis, etc. They are usually shipped with the computer. You must have the CD for that. Do that first. I am sure that will help.
Thanks again everyone :k: … I reduced my clocking factor to 5, but now I realize that this shouldn’t have been the problem as the PC reboots after it has reached the Desktop stage which shows instability in the OS itself and not the hardware.
After I reduced the clocking factor I entered Safe Mode and stopped some programs I suspected and entered the Desktop stage in “restricted” mode when it doesn’t load all services and programs… all in all I was able to open Device Manager and found a new hardware installed , further investigation revealed that I had downloaded a couple of DVD burner programs off the web and one of them installed a hardware driver without the hardware (or something like that) … I killed that program and all seems to be okay for now.
WOW!! Generic DVD burners are not supposed to install any hardware drivers. They make us of the resources presented to them by the OS. May be it was the ASPI driver that was causing the problem.
I tried reinstalling XP Home but now seems like the issue is “hardware”. First few times it rebooted, it gave an error message something like “clock is running too fast” but now when it goes to desktop screen I launch an application, sometime it will reboot right at the launch-click or sometime the application will open but any click in the application and boom restart again sigh
, further investigation revealed that I had downloaded a couple of DVD burner programs off the web and one of them installed a hardware driver without the hardware (or something like that) … I killed that program and 
all seems to be okay for now.