Computer restarts repeatedly

My computer has been restarting repeatedly. It would boot up into windows, detect a new modem, and when trying to install it, the comp immediately shuts down and restarts.

The only problem is, I can't determine the exact cause, because (obviously) I just got a new modem, but it worked fine for the first few days I got it. Then, there was a huge storm and I came home to find my computer continually rebooting. I thought maybe something came up the phone line and wrecked the modem. Seems logical, right?

But, I have ANOTHER modem in the computer, (a slower 33k one) and that one also does the same thing. Yet, this one wasn't hooked up to any phone line, and sort of lied there dormant. If I try to reinstall it, it will shut down just like the new one.

And there are a few more kickers too. I can no longer get my computer to detect either modem. I plug it into either of my open PCI slots, and it doesn't detect it. But, let's say I choose the option to choose the equipment from a list and do it all manually - the computer will then restart repeatedly in this situation also. I can get it to restart even when THERE IS NO MODEM IN THE COMPUTER!

This puzzles me. Anyway, if it helps, I snatched the error code from the restart but I couldn't send it to Microsoft because, ironically, my modem doesn't work. Here it is:

BCCode : 1000008e BCP1 : C0000005 BCP2 : F4A9D683 BCP3 : F4D9571C
BCP4 : 00000000 OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 2_0 Product : 768_1

Any ideas? I tried uninstalling and reinstalling the drivers for the modem, which didn't work. Could it be something on my motherboard that got fried?

do any other PCI cards cause this problem? Have you tried other PCI cards?

I'd have a buddy or someone download a Live linux cd and see if it does the same thing with that... Find out if it's software or hardware based.

Do the BIOS settings look OK?

I think I'm gonna take the two modems over to my parent's house and see if they work okay on their computer. I'll also try to find some other PCI card and bring it over and see if it gets detected and installed okay. I'll chime back in later and let you guys know how it goes.

I'm not sure if this will help you are not but you may want to take a look at your hard drive if your getting these reboots. My friend had this rebooting with his system and it turned out to be his hard drive getting ready to die. I talk about this in a article i did for my web site if you want to read about it here is the link.

Thanks to all. I think I got this mostly figured out. I took the two bad modems over to another comp and they were not detected. Then I took a known good modem out of that comp and tried it in mine and it installed and operated fine. I guess it was the fact that both modems went out at the same time that threw me.