Computer restarts while booting into Vista

[KnightofBane]

Hello again! I hope this is the right forum I believe it is because it sounds more like a hardware issue than an OS problem.

My computer recently started to get more screwed up (over the past week to be specific). When I turned my computer off for the night, I would boot it up the next day and it wouldn't boot properly. Blue screens and all that. So I kept rebooting until it worked and when it did work, it worked fine, until I turned it off. This same problem happened for about 4 days until now, my computer shuts off.

After the mobo and all that boots, it asks how I'd like to boot (safe mode or normal boot) then the load bar finishes, and THEN this is where the problem happens. My cursor appears for about a second then my computer just shuts off then reboots. This process keeps going and going until I manually turn it off.

To add insult to injury, when I try to boot into safe mode, my monitor says "Input Not Supported." It's an Acer V193w LCD monitor.

To further add problems, when I put in my Windows Vista disc to run the repair tool (out of hope it will at least let me boot into safe mode or something), either 3 things happen:

1) It says "Windows is loading files...", fills up and then freezes.
2) It loads properly then reboots.
3) I get this screen asking if I want to use the Memory Diagnostic Tool or I can pick "Windows Setup [something Enabled]". I click Windows Setup then I get the loading white bar again, but this time I get error message 0xc00000e9 which says "Windows has encountered a problem communicating with a device connected to your computer... etc etc"

I have run the diagnostic tool and I do have problems, but I've always had problems with this computer's RAM yet never given me problems this severe.

My specs are:

-Vista Home Premium.
-Asus P5E-VM DO mobo.
-4GB of RAM
-Intel forgot-the-model-name duo core CPU. It's whatever the best Intel duo core is. E8500 I think?
-ATi Radeon 4870 HD GPU.

I sound ignorant to my computer's spec, but it's been so long since I've checked

Also, I can't get into my BIOS for some reason. A few days ago I could, but now I can't. It asks for a password. I've tried all the backdoor passwords for AMI BIOS, but none work. I honestly don't know why it has a password now. No one uses my computer nor knows how to set a BIOS password.

 

[kimsland]

From here: http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=P5E-VM DO

 

[KnightofBane]

EDIT: That's to fix the BIOS password, correct? After I do all that and stuff, what would be my next approach to solving this? Is there something in the BIOS that I can do that'll get me closer/fix my problem? Or does that picture have nothing to do with the BIOS? I'm a hardware n00b

Thanks in advance.

 

[davisjaron]

have you tried simply restoring the operating system? It almost sounds like a corrupt operating system could cause that.... If not possibly either a hard drive failure or a processor failure. It doesn't quite sound like a motherboard failure... which is always a good thing.... Your windows disk should have a diagnostic tool built in... see if you can run that and it will test the hard drive at least.

But I would first recommend trying to use a recovery disks to restore the operating system.

 

[KnightofBane]

You mean the Memory Diagnostic tool? I've run that. I think I mentioned that in the OP. It said there were hardware issues, but of course it doesn't specify.

I've tried to also run the repair tool that Vista comes with, but I can't get past the loading screen that says, "Windows is loading files..." It freezes.

I think it's an OS problem as well, but there's no real way to tell.

 

[davisjaron]

Well no, don't try to do the repair, do the full restore and reformat to see if that would fix the issue. If that doesn't work though then it probably is a hardware issue and if you can't run any tests I will always reccommed taking it to your local best buy and having the geeksquad run a diagnostic test. If it's under manufacturers warranty or if you have an extended warranty if you bought it at best buy the diagnostic would be covered, if not it's 69.99 but it will tell you exactly whats wrong with it.

 

[KnightofBane]

I'll consider that option last because I have some things on my computer I'd like to get before I reformat, if possible.