computer constanly restsarting

my laptop constantly restarts upon the user selection of windows xp even in safe mode it does the same and on last known good configuration, sounds like overheating or virus problem to me but does anyone else have any suggestions??

 

Any windows errors or is it a complete system reboot, as if the reset button has been pressed?

 

as if reset button was being pressed the moment the users are being displayed on the screen

 

Id go with your first idea, overheating, maybe not that specifcally, but id say hardware for sure. If it was a virus, at least blaster or simalair, then you would get a shutdown warning of 60 seconds. Not sure what to suggest for the easiest really, not an easy thing to change hardware in a laptop, but having hardware checked will be the next step i think. Have any bios settings been changed at all? what resources do you have, can you swap memory in the laptop at all?
I know this post is vague as hell, all i can say is i "think" its ginna turn out hardware related.
Hope it helps

 

installed 98 on just out of curiousity system seems fine, ive managed to get xp to allow me to click the user and log on but explorer give the " windows explorer encountered a problem n needs to close we are sorry for being a pain in the a** " error message and i am then stuck cause nothing else will load on screen without explorer, also does the same with safemode and last known good configuration, tried to do recovery console but because its a friends laptop he doesnt kno the administrator password and i cnt change this through windows becuase loggin on does work

 

I have had a similar problem recently on a pentium 111 700. Every time i started it would get up to the log on screen and then automatically shut down, but i kept getting a little message saying " missing vxd file" and a similar message to what you got .After backing up my harddrive i clean installed it and started from scratch.Hardware may be the problem but have you considered that you may have some corrupt system files as well.Hope you get some cheer


andmerr

 

coudlnt find the problem so i had to buy a hard drive converter so i could fit the laptop to my desktop pc and saved most of the important files, and did a complete new installation.

 

Had any third party drivers been installed that werent whql signed? This can cause no-end of problems with XP. I have some on my system and its fine, but other users with other drivers have restart problems. Guess its too late if your reinstalling, but maybe worth bearing in mind if it happens again.
Hope it helps.