strange and worrying computer problem

[mklynds]

you can get ram checking software that is essentially a chkdsk for your ram that should tell you if it is a Ram problem. your idea of swapping out Ram will also work but isn't very time efficient although it is the cheapest way. Is the computer still covered under store warranty? If you have warranty coverage then they will be able to swap out any faulty hardware. Hope that helps.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by mklynds

you can get ram checking software that is essentially a chkdsk for your ram that should tell you if it is a Ram problem.

thanks, that's very useful. any suggested names ?

your idea of swapping out Ram will also work but isn't very time efficient although it is the cheapest way.

yes, the problem with it is that it's impossible to predict when the reboot will occur so it's hard to know whether it's fixed or not, but i really dislike the idea of carrying the damned thing to the store (it's very heavy to carry, plus i live on the 4th floor with no elevator, and the staircase is quite narrow. when i carried down my old tower which i was giving away i scraped all my fingers repeatedly. ).

Is the computer still covered under store warranty? If you have warranty coverage then they will be able to swap out any faulty hardware. Hope that helps.

yes it should be, i know i have at least 1 year warranty and maybe 2 on everything. i'll have to check.

i'm going to investigate the ram chkdsk apps now.

[Peverel]

Also I would suggest you run a check disk (chkdsk) on your hard disk. Just open a command prompt window and type 'chkdsk C:', it will probably say it can't do the check until the next restart. (this is assuming you are running a varient of Windows, not sure under Linux but under good old Unix it was fsck, possibly is under Linux too....... ok I am an ass - there was a post about the event log and that makes it windows sorry)

I suggest this for 2 reasons - firstly, duff sectors on a disk can cause dome funny issues especially if a sector calls within a pagefile. Secondly crashes as you have described can occasionally cause soft sector errors that check disk will fix.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Peverel

Also I would suggest you run a check disk (chkdsk) on your hard disk. Just open a command prompt window and type 'chkdsk C:', it will probably say it can't do the check until the next restart.

I suggest this for 2 reasons - firstly, duff sectors on a disk can cause dome funny issues especially if a sector calls within a pagefile. Secondly crashes as you have described can occasionally cause soft sector errors that check disk will fix.

okay, thanks very much ! doing that now.

hm, i was expecting it to program the check for next bootup as well but it appears to have launched... that seems odd to me... and now it's done. it mentioned a few "deletions of entry something or other" in the window but i didn't have time to note them before it closed...

something tells me i did that wrong, i'll try it again.

[Peverel]

Its my mistake:

Open a command windows by typing cmd in the run command dialog(search on Vista).

Than type chkdsk C: /F

Sorry I am an ass sometimes

[zelda_pinwheel]

all right, i've set up a checkdisk for the next time i launch my computer. i'll see how it goes...

no worries, i found a different way :

http://www.ehow.com/how_2037270_run-chkdsk.html

step 1 Initialize the properties of the hard drive you want CHKDSK to run. Open My Computer. Right click your mouse on the drive in which you want CHKDSK to run. Click the Properties button and click the Tools tab. In the Error-checking box, click the Check Now button.

Step 2 Set up the Check Disk options by checking one or both check boxes displayed. These are labeled “automatically fix file system errors” and “scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors”. If you want CHKDSK to run in read-only mode, do not check either box. After this, click the Start button.

[Moejoe]

I had this same problem about two or three years back.

Here's what I did:

Checked the ram with a ram check utility.

Checked the HD for faults with chkdsk and a seperate utility.

Ran virus scans.

Reinstalled windows.

Finally I re-seated the ram -- seems the ram had come loose while shipping, it just needed re-seating and everything was fine.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Moejoe

I had this same problem about two or three years back.

Here's what I did:

Checked the ram with a ram check utility.

Checked the HD for faults with chkdsk and a seperate utility.

Ran virus scans.

Reinstalled windows.

Finally I re-seated the ram -- seems the ram had come loose while shipping, it just needed re-seating and everything was fine.

okay, i will do all of that except reinstall windows (bane of my existence). as for the ram, i installed it myself when i brought the computer home, so it shouldn't have been able to come loose, but i can always open the box and wiggle it a bit just in case...

i've found 2 ram checking utilities :
memtest and memtest86. the second one is an .iso which must be burned to a cd and run at bootup so i'll start with memtest and see if it finds anything. but memtest86 is probably a more thorough test so i'll try that one as well.

[Peverel]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

all right, i've set up a checkdisk for the next time i launch my computer. i'll see how it goes...

no worries, i found a different way :

http://www.ehow.com/how_2037270_run-chkdsk.html

I always forget those new fanggled Graphical User interface ways - guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks - woof woof

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by Peverel

I always forget those new fanggled Graphical User interface ways - guess you can't teach an old dog new tricks - woof woof

google is my friend. i've done chkdsk before but not in a long time, i couldn't remember how i did it last time...

[mklynds]

memtest is a good program I have used it for repair work before.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by mklynds

memtest is a good program I have used it for repair work before.

Good luck and let us know how it goes.

oh, great ! thank you. that's good to know. i will definitely let you know how it goes. i'm wondering if i shoult shut everything down and do the test now, but it seems it will take quite a bit of time so maybe i'll wait until i don't need the computer...

i'll definitely let you know how everything goes !

[slayda]

I had a situation like this and a friend suggested it might be faulty RAM. When I opened the computer there was a large dust-bunny between the two ram cards. Once I blew this out with compressed air, it worked fine. {I had the tower case sitting on the floor. After this I keep them on the desk.}

Reseating the RAM (as mentioned) might also be a good idea. Or even swapping the two RAM cards might reveal different symptoms and let you identify the problem.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by slayda

I had a situation like this and a friend suggested it might be faulty RAM. When I opened the computer there was a large dust-bunny between the two ram cards. Once I blew this out with compressed air, it worked fine. {I had the tower case sitting on the floor. After this I keep them on the desk.}

Reseating the RAM (as mentioned) might also be a good idea. Or even swapping the two RAM cards might reveal different symptoms and let you identify the problem.

okay, thank you ! good advice. i'll definitely open it up the next time i turn it off and take a look for dust bunnies. that makes sense and i think it would make it hotter and heat is bad...

[zelda_pinwheel]

it's just happened again.

when it rebooted the chkdsk launched, C disk is clean.

logs :

Type de l'événement*: Erreur
Source de l'événement*: System Error
Catégorie de l'événement*: (102)
ID de l'événement*: 1003
Date*: 24/05/2009
Heure*: 19:51:05
Utilisateur*: N/A
Ordinateur*: DU-EX17W0ZHT5F9
Description*:
Code erreur 1000008e, paramètre 1 c0000005, paramètre 2 bf951755, paramètre 3 a6568c00, paramètre 4 00000000.

Pour plus d'informations, consultez le centre Aide et support à l'adresse http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Données*:
0000: 53 79 73 74 65 6d 20 45 System E
0008: 72 72 6f 72 20 20 45 72 rror Er
0010: 72 6f 72 20 63 6f 64 65 ror code
0018: 20 31 30 30 30 30 30 38 1000008
0020: 65 20 20 50 61 72 61 6d e Param
0028: 65 74 65 72 73 20 63 30 eters c0
0030: 30 30 30 30 30 35 2c 20 000005,
0038: 62 66 39 35 31 37 35 35 bf951755
0040: 2c 20 61 36 35 36 38 63 , a6568c
0048: 30 30 2c 20 30 30 30 30 00, 0000
0050: 30 30 30 30 0000

Type de l'événement*: Erreur
Source de l'événement*: System Error
Catégorie de l'événement*: (102)
ID de l'événement*: 1003
Date*: 24/05/2009
Heure*: 19:50:55
Utilisateur*: N/A
Ordinateur*: DU-EX17W0ZHT5F9
Description*:
Code erreur 1000008e, paramètre 1 c0000005, paramètre 2 bf813017, paramètre 3 a9573878, paramètre 4 00000000.

Pour plus d'informations, consultez le centre Aide et support à l'adresse http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Données*:
0000: 53 79 73 74 65 6d 20 45 System E
0008: 72 72 6f 72 20 20 45 72 rror Er
0010: 72 6f 72 20 63 6f 64 65 ror code
0018: 20 31 30 30 30 30 30 38 1000008
0020: 65 20 20 50 61 72 61 6d e Param
0028: 65 74 65 72 73 20 63 30 eters c0
0030: 30 30 30 30 30 35 2c 20 000005,
0038: 62 66 38 31 33 30 31 37 bf813017
0040: 2c 20 61 39 35 37 33 38 , a95738
0048: 37 38 2c 20 30 30 30 30 78, 0000
0050: 30 30 30 30 0000

Type de l'événement*: Informations
Source de l'événement*: Save Dump
Catégorie de l'événement*: Aucun
ID de l'événement*: 1001
Date*: 24/05/2009
Heure*: 19:49:57
Utilisateur*: N/A
Ordinateur*: DU-EX17W0ZHT5F9
Description*:
L'ordinateur a redémarré après une vérification d'erreur. La vérification d'erreur était*: 0x1000008e (0xc0000005, 0xbf951755, 0xa6568c00, 0x00000000). Un vidage a été enregistré dans*: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini052409-02.dmp.

Pour plus d'informations, consultez le centre Aide et support à l'adresse http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

now i'm going to check the ram for a while.