OH Noes !!!1! My Megahurtz Haev Been Stoled !

[Davecat]

Aright fellow geeks - got a shitter for ya...

Last night - Running windows XP-SP2 + fixes. All is well...

Running media player, firefox, MSN and a game - System locks up...

Reboot - Loads in fine - few seconds later - lockup.
(not a lockup ctrl+alt+del gets me out of)

Reboot again - Get dull winxp bootup screen that freezes.
Started to safe mode - system hangs at loading /AGP440.sys

This apparently was reported to be an issue caused by a usb related problem - so i stuck my kepboard + mouse into converters and into the ps2 slots - i also unplugged ALL usb devices. started again - same thing - eventually it got to safe mode, this seemed ok for a while - then system powered off.

reboot - started powering up - then off again.

Now it's powering off at random - with any or no devices installed - i've reformatted 3 times and installed both win98 and win me as alternatives.

the powering off is only occurring in safe mode as comp will not boot to windows proper.

i cant even start to figure whats going on here.

[Grendel]

It's knackered! ;)

Hope you get it fixed though...

[Dymond]

WOW...the agp440.sys makes my ears perk up and say a video card problem..Do you have another video card to swap out with?

[Davecat]

i dont have another card matey - but it will boot into safe mode - so the card is working to an extent, the AGP440.sys apparently is just the last visible .sys file to load - there are other things that happen after this but you dont see em, so it might not be directly related to em - which helps i'll see if i can grab another card from someone might even just be an excuse to get a new one... i'm almost certain i've had this problem before... but cant remember

[Nazkyn]

Aint you got an onboard video card that your computer should automatically revert to if you remove the video card you have in the AGP slot??

[Dymond]

Yeah safe mode is a very compatible mode..hence the word safe..Still could be the video card though... Even if you can get an old PCI card..just something for compatibility testing

[Davecat]

i'll try getting it sorted under the warranty first - all else fails - house insurance/new comp

[Exploding Sockpuppet]

I had a problem very similar to that right before my processor went out. PC would fail to load sometimes, and when it did load it would just shut off at random. I'm not saying that's the problem, but don't rule it ot.

[steff]

Mne done that too, it was caused by one of my RAM chips being fucked.

[Furyous]

I had a very similar problem once. I took all the steps you have taken, and was about to take the old girl out to the desert and do some target practice when my roommate suggested trying a new power cord. I have no clue where he pulled that one out of, and don't care to know... I tried it, and low and behold, my power cord was bad. Solved everything. Probably not the case for you, but if you've got another cord hangin around, it might be worth a shot. I thought my roommate was smoking crack for making such an absurd suggestion.

Moral of the story, don't rule ANYTHING out, and keep on trying ridiculous suggestions, one of them just might work out.

*edit*
One more thing... Maybe someone else could rule this out, but have you checked your CPU temp? Could that be causing the random shutdowns? A bad fan/clogged (with "dust bunnies") heatsink? Again, just running my mouth. All things I would look into, that maybe a professional could tell you are stupid.....

[Dymond]

Furyous...Overheating could definitely be causing it too..

[Davecat]

god bless 3 year warranty - now lets hope i can blag the fact i have quite clearly voided the warranty :D

[Pot4life]

where is it booting from, harddrive?

[Asshole]

Sounds like the symptoms of low level hardware failure, if DY's suggestion of Video card dosent work then try running a memory test