strange and worrying computer problem

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

my previous computer would occasionally restart itself spontaneously, with no warning. this became more and more frequent, until one day it shut itself off and wouldn't start again at all, and i had to replace it. i thought the power supply had failed. however the new computer is also showing this behaviour. it is currently only about 6 months old, and i made sure to buy a box with a sturdy power supply, precisely for that reason. it just did it this morning in fact. when it comes back, it gives me the message "windows has recovered from a serious error."

so now i'm wondering, it seems unlikely that *two* power supplies in a row should fail, with exactly the same symptoms. could this be a problem with the electric outlet in the wall ? (it's an old building and the electrical installation leaves to be desired, to say the least... maybe there is not enough current in there ?) could it be a software problem ? i started with a fresh re-installation of windows, not from a disk image, but maybe there's a conflict between some drivers, or something ? (i have no idea, i'm really just guessing)

any ideas ??? this is really getting to be a problem, and i don't want to have to replace the damned thing less than a year after i bought it. any help is really welcome.

Zeep,

I have been suffering with the same thing now for ages. Same blue screen of death (except that mine are in English). In my case, it is not the power supply, it is a problem with the motherboard.

Other frequent causes for that kind of constant crash and reboot can be a problem with the graphics card, RAM,and in some cases a virus. I had to rule out virus, graphics card and RAM. Once those were all shown not to be the problem, then it boiled down to the mobo which XFX is replacing.

[Idoine]

I understand from your posts it's not a manufactured PC, am I right ?
What's your OS, XP or Vista ?
I'm thinking of a bad driver too... You could try to use Everest, to check all...

[Wetdogeared]

Do you have any pre-installed hardware diagnostic tools that came from the manufacturer, or did you build this system yourself.

My diagnostic tools came preloaded and run once a month and are found here:

Click Start , All Programs , PC Help & Tools , and Hardware Diagnostic Tools.

This checks all of my hardware and all of my memory.

Its a version of PC-Doctor 5 for windows that came pre-loaded.

WDE.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Zeep,

I have been suffering with the same thing now for ages. Same blue screen of death (except that mine are in English). In my case, it is not the power supply, it is a problem with the motherboard.

Other frequent causes for that kind of constant crash and reboot can be a problem with the graphics card, RAM,and in some cases a virus. I had to rule out virus, graphics card and RAM. Once those were all shown not to be the problem, then it boiled down to the mobo which XFX is replacing.

i'm not getting and bsod, just random reboot. i don't know if it makes any difference.

i've now done a virus check (clean) chkdsk (clean) run memtest (4 iterations, each checking 625mo as it suggested) for about 1 hour, each of them said it had about 200% completion, normally it said in 1 hour it should be able to check everything. no errors found.

Originally Posted by Idoine

I understand from your posts it's not a manufactured PC, am I right ?
What's your OS, XP or Vista ?
I'm thinking of a bad driver too... You could try to use Everest, to check all...

yes, it's a custom built computer. i have a friend who knows everything about computers, when my last one broke i called her and she told me all the references for what to buy and i just took the list to the computer store and let them put it together. all the important components are new ; the only things i kept were my hard drives (used externally now ; i have a sata drive for my system and internal hd), my dvd burner, my disquette reader. i'm using windows xp pro, i think it's sp2...

i downloaded everest but it's just a trial version, is it worth buying it ? should i look for the last free version ? is the trial good enough for now ? i don't really know what to do with it but i'm taking a look through the manual now.

Originally Posted by Wetdogeared

Do you have any pre-installed hardware diagnostic tools that came from the manufacturer, or did you build this system yourself.

My diagnostic tools came preloaded and run once a month and are found here:

Click Start , All Programs , PC Help & Tools , and Hardware Diagnostic Tools.

This checks all of my hardware and all of my memory.

Its a version of PC-Doctor 5 for windows that came pre-loaded.

WDE.

i've got no pre-installed diagnostic tools. i have ccleaner and a few other things like that. i hate doing this kind of stuff so i don't know very much about it. i just want to use my computer, not diagnose it to try to fix stupid mysterious problems ten time a day. for god's sake, i just bought it.

i do appreciate all the help though. (even if this drives me crazy)

[zelda_pinwheel]

oh, also i took the side off and looked inside ; no dust to speak of, surprisingly. i didn't yet touch the ram barrettes because the chkdsk was running at that time.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

oh, also i took the side off and looked inside ; no dust to speak of, surprisingly. i didn't yet touch the ram barrettes because the chkdsk was running at that time.

Well, the best way to check the RAM, is to place one stick on the mobo, then boot the computer and see if it reboots on you.

Then do the same process with each single stick, until you have tested them all individually. If you get the same random reboot in each case, it is not your RAM. You can also then install the sticks and check each slot on the mobo.

It's time consuming, but it is the best way to make certain it is not the RAM.

No BSOD .... most of those error messages you noted looked like the aftermath of a BSOD. Especially the Windows is recovering from an error stuff. And really, the BSOD is just the precursor to a random reboot ... it's not like any of the error codes mean anything to much of anyone. (Really, I defy anyone to find someone who can honestly decipher those things).

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

Well, the best way to check the RAM, is to place one stick on the mobo, then boot the computer and see if it reboots on you.

Then do the same process with each single stick, until you have tested them all individually. If you get the same random reboot in each case, it is not your RAM. You can also then install the sticks and check each slot on the mobo.

well, i have 3 installed and one spare (they were sold in pairs) so i was thinking of swapping them out one by one, the problem is that the reboots don't happen regularly ; i had 2 today within a few hours but i hadn't had any all week previous ; i can't remember the last time it happened specifically but definitely more than a week ago.

It's time consuming, but it is the best way to make certain it is not the RAM.

No BSOD .... most of those error messages you noted looked like the aftermath of a BSOD. Especially the Windows is recovering from an error stuff. And really, the BSOD is just the precursor to a random reboot ... it's not like any of the error codes mean anything to much of anyone. (Really, I defy anyone to find someone who can honestly decipher those things).

it doesn't show an error or freeze or anything ; it just suddenly clicks off and reboots, just like if i pushed on the button, or if i accidentally kicked the switch on the power strip (which i didn't do !!!). that's why, the last time, i thought it was the power supply. and i don't think it's linked to a specific program... the first time today i had a lot of things running because i was working, but the second time i had only the browser open i believe.

[Idoine]

Do you have a resident antivirus, and a resident antispyware ?

[zelda_pinwheel]

yep, i'm using avast, and i've got spybot and adaware around here somewhere (but they don't run in the background). i ran a full check of all disks with avast just today and it said it was all clean.

also sygate personal firewall, however, to be honest i disactivate that sometimes when i'm working, because it's constantly sliding a little window up in the bottom of the screen to tell me pointless info i don't care about it, and it gets in the way of my palettes (and also changes the focus from whatever i'm doing, like typing. grr. stupid thing. i keep clicking "don't show this window anymore" but it keeps coming back...).

[Andybaby]

system instability can happen when ram isn't paired correctly. its strange to see a computer with 3 ram slots but I know they exist, but if all ram slots are filled with the same exact stick it shouldn't be this problem.

that error in the error report is a BSOD, it might be flashing too quickly for you to notice it. you can force it to show by going to
Right click my computer, Properties, Advanced, Under startup and recovery click settings, In the new window un check automatically restart.

reading this article may help http://www.maximumpc.com/article/fea...survival_guide

Memtest86 is great, and you should be able to run it off a usb stick, but burning it to a CD is just quicker, it literally takes 20 seconds.

My PC has random BSODs about once a week, but since I use my laptop now for everything, and just that one for my tv shows. I have no real reason to get to the bottom of it.

[zelda_pinwheel]

hm, thanks andy. it shouldn't be a problem with the ram pairing ; it's all the same. i only installed 3 because apparently winxp doesn't do well with more than 3go of ram and it would be more time and trouble than i feel like spending on it to tweak the settings even to get it to see the 4th barrette.

i'll try memtest86 next then ; memtest (no number) said i had no errors on the first pass but it's possible it was too short / too superficial a test to be conclusive.

[RickyMaveety]

Originally Posted by zelda_pinwheel

hm, thanks andy. it shouldn't be a problem with the ram pairing ; it's all the same. i only installed 3 because apparently winxp doesn't do well with more than 3go of ram and it would be more time and trouble than i feel like spending on it to tweak the settings even to get it to see the 4th barrette.

i'll try memtest86 next then ; memtest (no number) said i had no errors on the first pass but it's possible it was too short / too superficial a test to be conclusive.

It's not that XP doesn't do well with more than 3 gig of RAM, it's just that the OS won't see more than that. However, it depends on whether you are using the 32bit or 64bit versions of XP. The 64bit version will see the additional gig of RAM.

[zelda_pinwheel]

Originally Posted by RickyMaveety

It's not that XP doesn't do well with more than 3 gig of RAM, it's just that the OS won't see more than that. However, it depends on whether you are using the 32bit or 64bit versions of XP. The 64bit version will see the additional gig of RAM.

right. like i said...

further update, i ran memtest today for about 3 hours while i was out and it found no errors.

[jinlo]

Unless you really need 3 gigs of RAM to do whatever it is you do, I would suggest just removing 1 of the sticks and testing it on 2 gigs of RAM as opposed to switching one out for your extra.

If it works with the 2 you know those 2 are good. It's just a bit more time efficient than this one in and this one out three different times.

[zelda_pinwheel]

actually i really do need the 3 go. and the difficulty with any kind of diagnostic in this case is the problem is so irregular and unpredictable. yesterday i crashed twice, today so far nothing (touch wood) and nothing for at least the previous week...