Ok so I am trying to get my kids computer to boot up with no sucess. Here's what happens, for the past couple weeks the computer has been shutting off and restarting on it's own. I know I should have addressed the issue sooner but time and money have prevented that, in any event. So last night instead of rebooting as it had been, it refuses to get past the windows NT screen before it restarts. I thought perhaps it might be a power supply issue but that is not the case. It definetly has to be software related.

Recently I used avg virus scan and it found nothing so I also do not believe it to be a virus. My best guess is that it must be a windows NT issue, more specifically some type of registry error, can someone offer some potential assistance?

It's thanksgiving and my boys are dying to use their computer lol.

1st suggestion

• I suspect your computer has incompatiable softwares. Right click on My Computer, go to Advanced then click on Settings on Startup or Recovery, then uncheck Automatically Restart.
  
  2nd suggestion
• [During boot up go into the BIOS and restore its
  defaults then save & exit
  
  3rd suggestion
• Do a repair maybe bit rot has taken place
  
• bit rot n. [common] Also bit decay. Hypothetical disease the existence of which has been deduced from the observation that unused programs or features will often stop working after sufficient time has passed, even if `nothing has changed'. The theory explains that bits decay as if they were radioactive. As time passes, the contents of a file or the code in a program will become increasingly garbled.
  
  There actually are physical processes that produce such effects (alpha particles generated by trace radionuclides in ceramic chip packages, for example, can change the contents of a computer memory unpredictably, and various kinds of subtle media failures can corrupt files in mass storage), but they are quite rare (and computers are built with error-detecting circuitry to compensate for them). The notion long favored among hackers that cosmic rays are among the causes of such events turns out to be a myth; see the cosmic rays entry for details.
  
• The term software rot is almost synonymous. Software rot is the effect, bit rot the notional cause.
  
  4th suggestion
• maybe its overheating post back your temp logs?(via screenshots)

Thank you for your response ben, I have tried to reset the bios settings but to no avail,

Here is what is happening exactly, I restart the comp, it goes through the standard start up protocol, detecting hdd slave etc, then it starts to load windows, I get the dos screen first then the white NT screen with progress bar, then just as it is about to start I get a blue screen for a split second with a message on it which I cannot make out totally before it restarts, the bit that I can make out is in the second paragraph which says beginning dump,


Not a good thing

Wow!!!! BIG"B"Affleck, you lost me on the 3rd one, but hey, ya never know.

I have a few suggestions/questions.

Try booting into safe mode (f8 right after post)
if this works then it is could be either hardware or software related incompatibilities like BIG"B"Affleck said.
From there you may want to uninstall any recently installed hardware - software. This may be a blanket statement, but it's a start. Reboot and see what happens.

Also, what version of NT are you running. 4.0, 2000, XP?

There are a few other options, but I would like to start there. See ya in a few.

exact error message, it goes by too quickly so I took a picture of it with my digital camera, ha ha ha

here goes,

STOP: c0000218 (Registry File Failure)
The rigistry cannot load the hive (file):\SystemRoot\System32\Config\SOFTWARE
or it's log or alternate. If it is corrupt, absent, or not writable.
Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group.

See if you can boot to safe mode.

hey jjorgensen626, myself, and more importantly my kids who are lined up to play their games thank you in advance, lol


I tried everything including safe mode ages ago but to no avail sadly

nothing seems to work, it always gets to the point where it gets ready to load and restarts

Registry corruption sucks.

When you boot up trying the F8 option, choose "Last Known Good Configuration." See what that does.

What version of NT?
Also, what happens whan you boot from safe mode. Does it stop during the dos load screen?

It could be the memory, try replacing, or if you have 2 sticks removing 1 of the sticks. Then try the other one. IF this dosent work, we'll move along.

I dont know technical you are, but ensure you are booting into safe mode.

remember....version of NT ?