Compaq Presario Rebooting

[geoscomp]

All mice use voltage to send signals. If it isn't getting the right voltage, you can have problems...I would check your psu for stability and output voltage in the +/- 5 volt especially, and take a look at the motherboard for swollen capacitors.

[tobevers]

mobo capacitors look good. I've tried a different psu and had the same problem. I've not checked the actual voltage coming from the new psu that I tried, but will certainly do that. I have already wiped the drive and am in the process of reinstalling a fresh OS install, but still have the ghosted image I can reinstall if the solution presents itself.

[tobevers]

Alright, I'm baffled. I blew out the drive partitions, created a single, new partition, formatted the drive, reinstalled windows 98 (se) using an installation cd (not product recovery disks, actual MS win 98 se install disk), and am still having the same problem. I've not installed any additional software and have not installed any drivers yet. I've disconnected all drives but the hard disk, removed all internal cards and 1 memory stick. I ran memtest86 on the stick I left in, just to make sure it was good... passed all tests with no errors. The psu is producing stable power and is now hooked to a battery backup just in case there is a minute chance that office voltage is irregular.
It is still rebooting when it gets to windows in user mode. In safe mode, it functions as it should. Can anyone explain this to me? It seems as though it has to be a hardware issue on the board, but how to narrow it down so I can issue an explanation to my customer? Or does someone feel I am wrong and it is not a hardware issue? Also, why would it do this in user mode, but not safe mode?

[tobevers]

OK. problem solved. I found two bad capacitors. Neither are bulged on the top like I have seen before. Both are leaking from the bottom and one of the two is pretty bad. I can't believe I didn't see that when I looked the first time. Thank you very much to everyone that tried to help with this. I still don't quite understand why it would only affect the computer when it is running in user mode, but the capacitor is so obviously leaking that it is easy to understand the strange occurences the customer said she's had in the recent past with this system.

Thanks again.

[street1]

This acts like a weak -not dead Cmos battery.

Safe mode is the diagnostics mode of Windows. When you start the computer in Safe mode, only the bare-minimal components that are needed to run the operating system are loaded. This mode is useful for troubleshooting the PC, in the event if Windows does not load normally. Safe mode restricts the user in terms of using some functions, such as a connection to the Internet. Safe mode also loads a standard video driver at a low resolution.

I will remember this one "safe mode"caused less strain on the electrical components.

Thank You- tobevers always good to learn something new.