System always reboots the first time I boot

[Chaz]

Not sure if this is severe enough to go in this forum.

Whenever I turn my PC on (from the power) it boots normally, and then just the second the blue "welcome" XP screen would have appeared, the whole system reboots with no error message. It then boots normally, and tells me the system has recovered from a serious error. Every single time.

I'm pretty sure it has something to do with starforce (****ers!), since the problem started ever since I installed their software to play the game I legally bought which is protected by it. I've since uninstalled the starforce drivers using the removal tool, I also tried manually but every file and entry I'm told to remove doesn't exist.

Does anyone have any advice on where to go from here?

[aghastpumpkin]

I've been having exactly the same problem for months. I've spent hundreds on hardware, so don't try that, it is a software issue but I don't know.

[aghastpumpkin]

Hang on Chaz. As we're both having the same problem ehre, maybe we should work this out.
List everything you've got installed, hell, drivers, the lot. I'll do the same and we'll see what stuff is the same and could be causing this.
If I could solve this, I literally will kiss the air and jump around like a monkey for months.
It's like a curse.

[Chaz]

Wait... we both have a case from NZXT...

Dear god...






I'm pretty sure its a driver issue, I've tried booting in diagnostic mode so nothing unessential loads, this doesn't fix the issue.

[raphael2040]

I used to get this message, too.

It didn't really bug me, though, as I reformatted and sold the system on.

But, my guess is that it's a overheating problem. I think that's what caused my error messages.

Either that or driver conflicts. =)

[aghastpumpkin]

Can't be overheating. I beleive my PC has got to be one of the coolest Air Cooled on this forum....and this is despite being a few inches away from a boiling radiator.

[Toro]

Originally Posted by Chaz

I'm pretty sure its a driver issue, I've tried booting in diagnostic mode so nothing unessential loads, this doesn't fix the issue.

so you boot it into safe mode, and the same thing happens? safe mode, as far as i understand loads generic windows drivers for everything, so that would rule out the proper drivers as being an issue.

Have you tried booting to last known good configuration? checked the event log for errors?

[noob]

Safe mode only boots essential drivers, but it does use the drivers you have loaded.

To check if you have starforce, and how to remove there are instructions here

Can you see anything in the logs in regards to this error? Is SMART enable on your HDD's? Does it come up with anything?

Did you uninstall drivers before updating new ones? I know in XP they have driver rollback, but especially for nVidia cards, this causes problems, and its best to uninstall the old ones first.

EDIT:
I would also see if you could get a non starforce version of your game, you shouldn't have to put up with programs which destroy your system.
Best thing would be to speak to the company which released the game.
IMHO, Starforce doesn't hinder the people who pirate these games, only the people who play them. Giving paying customers a reason to just get the pirated versions themselves.