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Puter reboots on it’s own

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I have 3 comuters on a home network (4 port router)one computer started re-starting itself all of a sudden. Thought we had a virus….re-formated the hard drive after removing the battery because system would not boot at all after awhile. (only beeped continually)

Did this twice and formated drive “c” three times to ensure not just a low-level format process…

Back to re-starting itself and now justs beeps continuously. Could this be a virus in the CMOS or in the boot sector of the hard drive?

What should I do? How will I know for sure what the problem is? Should I replace the battery first and go from there? (I know – too many questions)

please help!

thanks

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Reply To: Puter reboots on it’s own

In reply to Puter reboots on it’s own

Usually, continuous beeping is a sign of either memory failure or CPU failure.

You need to look at the manual that came with your computer/motherboard, or search your vendors website. You want to look for “Post (Power On Self Test) errors” or “beep codes”. Essentially, different patterns of beeps will mean different errors detected during the POST. But patterns will differ from BIOS vendor to vendor.

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Poster rated this answer.
my manual didn say anything about the beeps…or power on self test errors….thanks – it sounds reasonable but don’t know how to make sure….

Reply To: Puter reboots on it’s own

In reply to Puter reboots on it’s own

A stuck key on the keyboard can also cause continuous beeping. This is really simplistic, but you might want to check to make sure that there isn’t a book sitting on your ESC key or something like that.

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Poster rated this answer.
thanks…lol…I actually did check that!….

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If its a virus, and i`m not sure its is, then go to the DOS box and typ

format /mbr

this will format your Master Boot Record thus getting rid of any virus.. Don`t worry the MBR comes back automatically.

Just one question you said you “formated drive “c” three times to ensure not just a low-level format process…” this confuses me as if you had low formatted the disk you wouldn`t have a C: drive to format. How did you format the HDD exactly as this could be part of your problem

Reply To: Puter reboots on it’s own

In reply to Puter reboots on it’s own

go to webattack.com go to freeware page and down load a memory test application, sounds like the memory in system is intermittent. Or if possible replace or reduce installed memory and retest system operation.

Reply To: Puter reboots on it’s own

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Continuous beeps at start up are usually due to POST problems. This is a very low level check of the basic hardware. The BIOS is checking that it has a working motherboard, CPU, Memory, keyboard, mouse, graphics card, monitor, hard drives, floppy drive.

The best way to check if any of these are faulty is to get a machine with compatible components and try swapping individual components. When doing this I first swap the keyboard out and try to boot, then replace the keyboard and try to boot with different CPU, then continue by trying a replacement for each item. Even a replacement battery is often worth a try as has been known to fix problems.

If, after this it still does not work, I replace eveything except the motherboard and try that, if this fails then the motherboard is usually stuffed.

BTW A low level format of a HDD is NOT possible with most modern systems, some of the older PCs with older BIOS have this capability but most dropped including it in the BIOS when the HDDs went over 10 GB as a low level format at home of a 10 GB drive would normally take several days. A bad or incomplete low level format can make the HDD unusable until properly completed.

The Format command in DOS or any other formatting system is a high level format only. Multiple high level formats usually will not cause any HDD problems. MBR repair etc is a high level format functions as well.

NB: Some proprietary systems (Dell, HP, Compaq etc) have some boot / BIOS and recovery image data on the HDD and a reformat whilst still in that machine will not always remove or replace this data unless a model specific utility from the manufacturer is used. You can blow this away by taking the HDD out and putting it in another PC and then use FDISK to remove ALL partitions and then recreat new partitions on the HDD, then format the partitions, and only then replace it in the original machine.

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