I've just downloaded the Debian (Sarge) network installer (RC1) and although the install worked, when the system boots to the "Debain base system configuration" it suddenly reboots. This happens randomly, approximatly 30 seconds into the process of setting the system time, giving the root password, etc.

Any ideas what could be causing this?

I installed Debs by resizing a fat32 partition, using grub to boot into win or linux.

I don't think my problem is the same as thread 223595 but it could be the same as thread 212221.

I don't have time to boot to a terminal so I can't enter any commands to try to solve the problem.

I had this same problem when I updated my kernel from 2.4.25 to 2.6.7. The way I got around it was to disable the acpi module (advanced power management). For grub, write something like this:

title Debian GNU/Linux, kernel 2.6.7-1-686
root (hd0,0)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.7-1-686 root=/dev/hda1 acpi=off ro hdc=scsi
initrd /boot/initrd.img-2.6.7-1-686
savedefault
boot

And then try it again. Hopefully it will work for you then. Although I'm a little disappointed that I have to disable power management. If anyone has an idea of how to fix the problem without disableing acpi please share.

If I quickly press "e" in the grub bootloader screen it allows me to edit the boot commands and I inserted "acpi=off" in the kernel line. I then pressed "b" to boot.
Unfortunatly this didn't change a thing - the computer still reboots without warning 30 seconds into the process of setting the system time, giving the root password, etc.
any other ideas?

I seem to remember reading something about a module being loaded that causes this on the debian-user@lists.debian.org mailing list you may want to search the archives for the last month or so at http://lists.debian.org or search the BTS at http://bugs.debian.org.

I had the same problem and then i used the netinstall from the debian bussinesscard iso (only a 40 MB download or so)
with no problems whatshowever

However this tip is only usefull if you have a broadband connection to the internet

This problem is in the Debian Errata at http://www.debian.org/devel/debian-installer/errata:

Hotplug bugs lead to reboot loops, no display. The version of hotplug installed by rc1 may try to load hardware watchdog modules that cause the system to reboot about 1 minute after they're loaded. Or it might load a frame buffer driver that makes the console unusable. To work around these problems, boot into emergency mode, and either add the unsafe modules (such as "i810-tco") to /etc/hotplug/blacklist, or disable/remove hotplug (warning: disabling hotplug may make USB keyboards unusable). These bugs will be fixed in newer versions of hotplug, but please do let us know if you experience such a bug.

Their advice about going into "emergency mode" doesn't help me because reboot loops still occur.

Thats the one, do you have a knoppix disk handy? If so then boot with it and mount your / partition and edit the file put the module name in there and save the file then reboot to Debian.