computer restarts every 30/sec

Comp is a Pentium4 2.0
1gig RAM, ancient video card: nvidia Geforce4 MX 440

Bought a new monitor today... supports high resolution that wasnt currently available to me. So I went ahead and downloaded the newest Nvidia driver...
now, the computer restarts every 30 seconds (no warning or errors at all).

Only way Im posting this is in windows safe mode... which it runs fine on. in normal mode, cant get more than 30seconds....

Tried turning down the resolution, no luck... continues to restart, suggestions?

 

The driver that you downloaded is causing your 'system stop error'!

Uninstall it, and get the proper driver for your card, or better still, do a rollback to the old driver.

Safe mode works cause the system loads on minimal drivers(only whats needed), however booting in normal mode brings this incompatible driver back into play, which is causing your problems!

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/helpandsupport/learnmore/driverrollback.mspx

Regards...

 

Thanks nite for the reply...

heres an update:

I tried what you mentioned but it was still restarting!

so, I went ahead and deleted the driver, found the old CD of the nvidia driver and installed it from there... restarted the computer and even then, still has a booting problem!

The only way I can get into normal mode is by going through F8 and clicking "last settings that worked" (or something like that) option... which brings me back to the screen im at now which has no graphic card installed...

anytime I try installing one and reboot, it wont let me in (reboots by uitself every few mins)...
It seems like something may have been changed in the registry when I installed the new upgrade and its not being uninstalled via add/remove programs...

ideas?

 

Try a system restore to before you changed drivers.

 

wasnt enabled =/

 

Try disabling Auto restart. Right click My Computer->Properties->Advanced->Start up and Recovery uncheck restart on errors. See what the error on BSOD says.

 

gives a blue screen with an error

 

I'm not sure that removing in Add/Remove programs completely deletes the driver. I think you should be doing it in Device Manager. Follow night's link and use the uninstall option. Restart in normal mode and see if hardware wizard finds the card.

 

used a bunch of programs to try and delete it... Nasty File Remover and Driver Cleaner Pro for starters...
did this in safe mode. Also checked Device manager and Ad//Remove programs...

Tried restarting in normal mode and still restarts on its own.
Im in Normal mode at the moment by using the "Use last working settings" option by pressing F8...

but the vieo card is always disabled on this, when I try enabling it... it asks for a restart, I do that and again the problem begins

 

man, what a mistake it was to eve try downloading the new driver for this...

such a headache.

Anyway, the issues still there it restarts even though I completely removed the Nvidia driver...

Ive tried removing it in safe mode
tried removing it then installing it in safe mode

cant think of anything else

only time this starts is when I either go into safe mode or press F8 and go through the last working settings option (which shows no video card enabled)

 

also, not sure why this is happening now...

but when programs require a reboot.... it wont reboot... and when I want to do it manually I have to click reboot like 3 times... the 1st two times it just starts eliminating programs in the task bar but never reboots.

 

Are you satisfied everything is in order hardware wise?.....I mean, card seated properly, no loose connections etc etc.

If at all possible, follow sach's guidelines in post 6 and then give us the error code(s) when you get the blue screen.
You can then check the box again and get back to where you were!

Regards...

 

Just to add a bit to the preceding posts; Part of Nvidia's driver loading instructions state that you should set the adapter back to Standard VGA before installing drivers, and also turn off virus protection when you're ready to install Nvidia drivers. Setting the adapter back may help in your case.

Go to Start/Settings/Control Panel, double-click Display and select the Settings tab.

Click the Advanced button, select the Adapter tab (another word for video card is video adapter or display adapter) and push the Change button. You'll see the Update Device Driver Wizard informing you that it will search for a better driver. Click Next.

In the next screen, you'll get two options, either Search for a better driver, or Display a list of all devices in a specific location. Choose the second option to display the list of all devices, then click Next. You now might get a window informing you that Window is building its driver database. This will only take a few seconds.

When you're at the next screen, look at the bottom left corner where the two following options are listed - Show compatible hardware, or Show all hardware. Click on the second option to Show all hardware. Now the window will change into a two-column view for Manufacturers and Models.

In the Manufacturers column, scroll all the way to the top and select the first option, (Standard display types). In the Models column, select the very first option, Standard Display Adapter (VGA). Click Next.

You'll see a warning about this driver possibly not working with the video card. This is a generic warning message and can be ignored. Standard VGA is the universal Windows video driver. Confirm to continue by clicking Yes.

Windows will copy the necessary files and make the required changes. You'll see a message when this process is finished. You need to click Finish in that last window and then agree to reboot your PC to complete the process when prompted. After the reboot when you get back into Windows, check to make sure that it worked by going to Start/Settings/Control Panel, double-clicking Display and selecting the Settings tab. Click the Advanced button, select the Adapter tab and check to make sure that it reads Standard Display Adapter (VGA).

 

Thanks Dan,

but im stumped at this stage...

Click the Advanced button, select the Adapter tab (another word for video card is video adapter or display adapter) and push the Change button.

Im in that current windows and see no "change" button...

Mind you, Im in safe mode if that makes a difference...

I have a button that says properties and another that says "LIst all modes"

Also, the adapter info is all showing <unavailable>

 

Sorry, those instructions were from back in the "98" days. The quickest way for XP is open Device Manager; Windows key, and the Pause/Break key. Choose Hardware, Device Manager. Click on the plus (+) sign for the Display adapters and right click on the adapter which is listed. Choose Uninstall. Acknowledge the warnings and exit. Reboot. Windows should install a working driver for the adapter it finds on the reboot, thus removing all the previous crud so you have a clean slate to work from.

 

Thanks Dan,

tried this but once the computer restarts it seems all fine for 30 seconds but then it continues to keep rebooting.

Is the VGA Driver seperate from the Nvidia driver? Is it possible I could have deleted the VGA Driver?

 

"Is the VGA Driver seperate from the Nvidia driver?"

Yes. Drivers are hardware (and O/S) specific. If you (or the system) has successfully changed the adapter, different drivers will be loaded.

"Is it possible I could have deleted the VGA Driver?"

I doubt you have deleted the drivers unless you deleted a bunch of files from the System32 directory.

The symptoms of this rebooting could also be RAM or heat related. Especially if the video drivers have been changed and there's no improvement. Do you have a floppy drive on this system?

If so, try testing the memory. Download MemTest86+ from here; http://www.memtest.org/

Use the downloaded file to create a bootdisk on one of your floppies. Unzip the files to an empty directory and (with a floppy in your drive) run the install.bat file. When complete, you won't see any files on the floppy, but they are there. Just boot the machine with this floppy and run it as long as you can afford to. If there are errors, run it on one memory module at a time to narrow down the possibilities. (ie; Remove all but one module.) You may have to set your bios boot device sequence to boot from the floppy drive first. (You can get a CD ISO image to create a bootable CD here as well, it's just that the floppy is easier.)

Can you obtain any temperature readings of the motherboard/CPU from your bios?