How can I stop my computer rebooting?

I have had a bad hard disk drive that has caused a computer to keep rebooting itself. If all else fails, try reloading your operating system (formatting first helps but you will lose all data). If it works, start adding any peripherals you have one by one. If the problem re-occurs it could be one of your peripherals also.

Susan H.
March 2004

I had this problem
It was down to HP all in one printer - fax - scanner usb driver

if you have this printer try re-installing the drivers

Brendan Martin
December 2003

It could be Windows XP hiding a BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) from you. To stop that, do this:

1) Right-click "My Computer" and select "Properties".
2) Go to "Advanced", then click the Settings button for the "Startup and Recovery" section.
3) Make sure the "Automatically restart" box in the "System failure" section is NOT ticked.
4) Click OK, then OK again on the window behind it.

Now, if it is a BSOD (program error), then you will be able to see it and try and fix it.
But this only works if you have Windows XP.

Ashley
November 2003

Run a virus scan. It sounds like you might have the blaster virus or a variation of it.

Raoul
October 2003

try starting your pc in Safe Mode. for windows xp this means hitting f8 just as windows starts to load. (don't know how to do this for other versions of windows,sorry.)

in safe mode your pc may behave properly long enough for you to checkout what the problem might be.

Richard M
October 2003

Mark your pc probably has a virus or worm infection. Update your anti-virus software and check your system.

To stop your pc from rebooting, try…
On Windows XP, select Start>Run, then type: shutdown -a

Dave
October 2003