windows auto rebooting

[Urbie]

Hi everyone,

I have a stand alone pc which I have multiple disc's mounted as shared. I use it only as a file "server"
There is not to much activity I have only photos, music, divx movies and software so everyone in the house connected to the network can access it all (there are in total 4 of us).

Lately I have been having problem transferring to or from the server. Until I could not access one of the drives at all.

I did a reboot and then I couldn't boot it up either. I heard a funny clicking noise from the boot disc so I replaced it. I tried SATA and IDE. The problem I am having now is when I install windows xp pro, everything goes fine but then when I reboot it, it gets to the windows XP banner and it reboots. This is the case with 3 HDD's I got so paranoid that I went out and bought a new HDD but I was having the same problem with that.

Could the problem be with the Motherboard?

Please help...

 

[Elvandil]

RAM is easy to test and a common problem. In addition, no other tests will be reliable if RAM is bad. So start there. Often if the problem is with higher RAM, you can still boot Safe Mode.

MemScope (Floppy and CD images.)
Roadkil's RAM Test
Microsoft Memory Test (floppy or CD ISO image)
Memtest86

If you have enough memory sticks, you can test them by removing one at a time and see if the problem disappears.

If you are running Vista or 7, tap F8 on boot and choose the memory diagnostic, or if you can boot up, go to Start > Search and type:

mdsched.exe

Choose to run a memory diagnostic on next boot. Or, you can boot from the DVD and run it from there.