Expert: Robert Waldron - 10/30/2009

Question
QUESTION: My XPS 720 has sudden re-boots, sometime when it is still booting up. There is no warning, just re-boots. I have run the Dell diagnostic on the fans which says they are OK. I can not see how it could be a heat problem because of the re-boots during start up. To me it seems to be either a CPU or mother board problem, but as are both expensive I want to be sure I do the correct thing. Sudden re-booting seams to be a fairly common problem with most people being told it is a heat problem, but because of the re-boots during start up I tend to discount this. I have eliminated any software possibilities by doing a clean install of Windows 7. Please help. Thanks

ANSWER: Hi Alun,

Questions first.

When you did a fresh install of Windows, did you delete the old partition before formatting  ?
Did you get Windows 7 installed fully ?
Have you tried to boot in Safe Mode ?

Please get back to me.

Robert

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: I kept the old partitions, 2 seperate 500GB hard drives. I did not reformat the drive. Windows 7 installed completely form XP without any problems. Should I have reformated?

Answer
Hi Alun,,

Yes, please reformat the partitions. It would be better if you actually deleted the partitions and then reformatted. There may be something in the Boot Sector of your hard drive that is causing your problems.

Hope this helps.

Robert