Booting issues

Hey everyone!

I've been having a pretty annoying problem with my homebuilt PC and can't seem to get a good answer. Google helped me discover this site, so I'm giving it another shot.

Basically, my computer will boot to the whole "Start Windows in Safe Mode/Safe Mode w/ command prompt, etc" screen (running Windows XP, by the way), then shut down. Now, before this, my computer would actually power on, shut down, power back on, etc. by itself until I unplugged it. And that didn't start until after I moved.

I've tried replacing the power supply, checked all the connections to the mobo to make sure they were secure, blew air inside the PSU to clean it out, blew air...well, pretty much everywhere else inside the case, removed the mobo to clean underneath it, checked the CPU to make sure it was seated properly, messed with some of the power settings in my BIOS...this helped a little in that one or a combination of those things made my computer at least stop powering on by itself, but it still shuts down before fully booting into Windows.

Any more advice? Preferably anything else I can try without buying new parts since I can't afford them at the moment. But if it comes down to it, I will, of course, do that.

 

Have you tried pressing F8 right when the PC powers up, right after the PC logo screen. You should get an XP boot options menu. Select "Disable automatic restart after system failure." and press Enter, and boot up. With any luck (if you can call it luck) the system will stop on a blue error screen. Write the error code number (it looks like STOP 0x00000077) and any filenames listed (win32k.sys is a common one) and any error message (like KERNEL_IN_PAGE_ERROR). Then post that info here or in the software forum and we'll go from there. I think this message has been coming up the whole time, but it's flashing so fast you can't see it. If you don't get the blue screen, you may be looking at a memory problem or a hard drive problem, both of which can be tested with bootable programs....
Good luck, and welcome to MajorGeeks! :major

 

Nope, no blue screen. It still just shuts down about halfway through the safe mode/last known good config/boot normally screen (going by the countdown, that is). It also shut down while I was browsing through the BIOS to check power settings there, so it seems like it dies after a certain period of time rather than at a particular part in the boot process. But then again...I don't know.

Other suggestions are welcome