Problem With Sisters PC. Please Help If Its Broken Im Screwed!

[westy159]

My sister got a new PC but with intergrated graphics (AGP slot present for upgrade) so i was going to give her my old Radeon 9250 (still a lot better than her intergrated graphics). I first tried to put new drivers onto her PC but that didnt work so i decided to put the graphics card in first and then put the drivers in (i put the disc in but it wouldnt work without the card in first). I went into BIOS to try to find the option to switch from onboard graphics to AGP. There wasnt an option. So i stuck the new card in and turned the PC on. It was going fine untill it hit the 'select user account' where i heard a click and the PC rebooted itself and this kept happening it was on a continuous loop.

Please i need an naswer and for this PC to be working soon my parents will kill me as well as my sister if ive wrecked her new PC.

I dont get how whenever i do something on my own PC everything goes fine all the time. Whenever its someone else's PC things go wrong.

[Kino]

Deleted by user.

[Halie Satanus]

can't you put the agp back?

[solid]

I dont get how whenever i do something on my own PC everything goes fine all the time. Whenever its someone else's PC things go wrong.

Funny, with me it's always the other way around


Anyway, I suggest you take out the AGP card (if you haven't tried that ofcourse). If the PC still keeps rebooting, you'd probably should reinstal Windows. Seeing as her PC is just new, she probably won't have put anything important on the HD, so you could just format. If she already put something important on her HD you could just instal the new instalation over the old one and the files will still be available.

You should always have a Windows XP cd, never know when you might need one (I learned that lesson the hard way multiple times )

[westy159]

yeah its happening with AGP card in or out. I dont really want to reinstall windows but if its the only option i have...

EDIT: Reinstalling windows is not an option really. The guy who set the PC up charged £60 to do it all (we had already bought the PC) and he put Microsoft office on as well as a couple of other programs. Now my parents i saying they are going to make me pay another £60 so he can come back and sort out the mess. I have put grpahics cards into PC lots of times before. This is the first time its ever really gone wrong and it had to happen on my sisters new pc didnt it.

I bet if he comes round he will reinstall windows anyway and put the stuff on which she doesnt need really becase PC comes with its own version of those programs.

[Spiff]

yeah its happening with AGP card in or out. I dont really want to reinstall windows but if its the only option i have...

well try booting in safe mode i guess, make sure there are none of those radeon drivers hanging about, or maybe try reinstalling the motherboard video drivers, hopefuly the computer came with a cd with them on, if not get them from the motherboards website on another compter and put them on a cd

booting into safe mode:

1. Restart the computer.
Some computers have a progress bar that refers to the word BIOS. Others may not let you know what is happening.
2. As soon as the BIOS loads, begin tapping the F8 key on your keyboard. Do so until the Windows Advanced Options menu appears.
If you begin tapping the F8 key too soon, some computers display a "keyboard error" message. If this happens, restart the computer and try again.
3. Using the arrow keys on the keyboard, select Safe mode and then press Enter.

EDIT:

In safe mode, things look ugly - just a heads up

try reading this:

http://computer.howstuffworks.com/question575.htm



and man whatever you do dont pay for a format.. if you have the windows xp disc you can do it yourself easily

[westy159]

well try booting in safe mode i guess, make sure there are none of those radeon drivers hanging about, or maybe try reinstalling the motherboard video drivers, hopefuly the computer came with a cd with them on, if not get them from the motherboards website on another compter and put them on a cd

booting into safe mode:



EDIT:

In safe mode, things look ugly - just a heads up

I tried all that. Thanks anyway.

[Spiff]

so you have no way of reinstaling anything, even in safe mode? Thats a bit harsh.

maybe a format is the best option, but dont take my word for it.. there are a lot of people about here far more wise in the way of computers

[Incinerate_IV]

Did you change ANY thing in the bios at all? If you did reset the bios to orginal settings. Also did you hear the clicking sound when the PC turn on? If you hear it when the PC starts then the hard drive isn't getting enough power and the sound comes from the hard drive trying to start spinning. One last thing is, try to get into safe mode with command prompt, some times normal safe mode don't work, but the command prompt will still work. If you can get into the command prompt safe mode you can use the system restore feature to restore it back to an earlier date.

Heres the instruction on how to use system restore from command prompt:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;304449

Please note, if you can't enter command prompt safe mode, and you have a Windows XP CD, you can use CD to boot the computer and use the repair console to activate system restore, but that require the Windows XP CD.

[Ahlerich]

when you go to safemode select "last known good configuration" see if that works (if your driverinstall screwed s th up)
also go into bios and load safe settings in case you changed something

last option..unplug everything from the pc/mobo and boot
then add one device boot again..do that untill the pc starts rebooting again or you have all plugged in to find out which part is screwed.
pc rebooting could be a lot..overheating, psu, faulty ram, wrong bios settings etc so you have to narrow down the possible error sources

[Clibby]

What kind of computer is it?

[Meqon-Nerd]

Ow man i had something like this happen to me, Exept you would turn on the computer and nothing would display on the screen and the computer beeped then restarted.....and this is my dads computer!! Suicide Here I Come!!!
So i started it again and again until it worked!!!

[Ahlerich]

if it goes 1 long 2 or 3 short and a long beep most likely the video card is just jiggeling/not screwed in tight