Reboot without Blue Screen

[stringplucker]

OK, I opened up the back of the chassis, removed the heatsink, blew air into the fan while rotating the blades. I found a HUGE ball of dust and extracted it. Fan is now working as expected. I thought maybe that was it, but on rebooting into Windows, the same problem exists (reboots after several seconds). As an aside, if this was overheating why would Windows run fine in safe mode?

[Midknyte]

Safe mode only loads minimal drivers and services, so the cpu load is very low. It's possible that a bad driver is causing the problems.

I figured there would be a big dustball in there by now. Those things get clogged all the time.

[stringplucker]

I opened up the chassis and removed the heat sink. From there I was able to see the huge wad of dust blocking the fan. I was able to pull it out and confirm that the blades are unblocked. Thinking this was the actual issue I rebooted into Windows. The fan now works as expected but the issue (reboot after about 20 secs of being in Windows) still persists. As an aside, how is it possible that I have no issues running in safe mode?

[Midknyte]

When you reinstalled windows, did you use the restore DVD or a plain XP disc?

If you use the restore disc, then we know all the drivers/software are correct.

If you manually installed XP, what SP level is it?

[stringplucker]

I installed from my own personal Windows XP Professional disc. The Laptop shipped with XP home. I currently have SP 1 installed. I always keep the latest updated drivers backed up and have been installing them in safe mode (which is working without issue). I just got the Wireless up and running. I am actually posting from the affected laptop. I have done this several times before without this reboot problem and also the reboots started happening before I reinstalled Windows. I can try to install SP 3.

[Midknyte]

Since you're not using the factory restore discs, it could very well be a driver/software problem.

Was the original OS XP Home SP2? If that's the case, then you should have started with an slipstreamed SP2 or SP3 disc.

[stringplucker]

The original image which shipped with the laptop was XP Home SP1. I have re-installed Windows in this fashion several times without this issue occurring. Is there any way to determine which, if any, is the faulty driver? I have now re-downloaded the drivers from Toshiba's support site and installed all but my audio driver and memory card reader driver (because these cannot be installed from safe mode).

[Midknyte]

Let's rewind a bit. Since you are using a clean XP SP1, did it loop before you installed drivers?

You can try checking the event viewer to see if there are any errors. You may end up installing one driver at a time and then testing it out. Again, I recommend you update to SP3 before installing drivers.

[Sterling_Aug]

I would slipstream the XP Home disk with SP3 and burn a new CD before you try to install XP Home again.

Use nLite to create the slipstream CD. It is easy.

[stringplucker]

I will create the slipstream disc and reinstall Windows when I get home from work. I'm starting to get this creeping visceral feeling that this is more of an internal HW issue (Power Supply, CPU). Other than doing the reinstall and seeing if it worked is there any way to rule out other HW failures? Thanks.

[Midknyte]

If it's an internal problem, then it's probably the motherboard.

What kind of temperatures are you getting?

Did you try detaching the battery and running only on AC?

[stringplucker]

What is the best way to check the temperature? I did try running solely on AC Power with the same results. I did not try running on battery power only though. Is this a worthwhile test? I will note that my battery is extremely old and only gets about 7 minutes tops. Is it possible this is the result of an old battery?

[Midknyte]

You can try speedfan from Tech Tools.

I don't see the point on running on battery only.

[stringplucker]

OK, I was thinking it might rule out a faulty DC port connected to the power supply (I'm grabbing at air). I will report back when I have temperatures and the results of a slipstreamed installation. Thanks.

[stringplucker]

Alright. I created a slipstream DVD w/ SP 3. I verified the contents of the disc from within nLite. The installation will not finish. It gets to the part after the first reboot called "Installing Devices" and either reboots or locks up and the screen subtly distorts. This happens consistently. I didnt get any temperature readings before getting in this situation.