Computer freezes or restarts randomly

[Tetra]

Hi all,

Since 3 days my 13 month old custom computer freezes or restarts randomly in
any mode, up to the point where it won't even go past the MB logo screen, or
I just get a white screen. I was able to check the memory, HD + adapter, both
DVD/CD drives, heat, no problems found, device manager does not show any
problems either. System rollbacks did not help. The strange thing is, it
won't create a boot log or debug and when I try to start with my windows
automated system recovery disk, it tells me to eject the floppy and push any
button to continue. Sometimes, if the computer has been off for a few hours,
it works for a while, but not long enough to do any bios updates, not to
mention back up. I have not installed/added anything in the last couple of
months, besides automatic updates, Win XP Pro, Norton 360, Firefox,
Thunderbird. I few times I received the BSOD stating something like page
fault in non paged area.

Any ideas?
--
TIA,
Tetra

Intel Core2 Duo E6700
Asus P5N23-E SLI mobo
eGeForce 8800 GTX video card
Adaptec 29320A-R SCSI adater
Seagate Cheetah 137 GB 15000 rpm HD
2x 1GB Kingston HyperX DDR2-800 memory
Seasonic 650W ps
2 LiteOn drives
OEM modem

 

[JS]

Did you install Windows Service Pack 3.
Start/Run and enter: winver

JS

 

[Tetra]

No, still SP2 plus whatever got installed automatically by MS.

 

[JS]

Try running Memtest86+, this runs from a boot disk or CD and should
eliminate or
confirm if your ram is bad.
Let it run for as long as you can, 2,4,6,8 or more hours, if no errors by
then your ram is OK.
See: http://www.memtest.org/

JS

 

[Tetra]

I was assuming that there is a problem with the memory, therefore I tested it
with the utility Microsoft suggested to use. I ran the tests several times
and they always passed. I downloaded the newest version of Memtest86+, but
that did not work, got just garble, the older version worked, but only got to
4% pass and then the system froze again, tried it several times without
success. Might give it a try tomorrow morning after a good night's rest.

Unfortunately, I do not have any similar memories otherwise I would have
switched them for a test. One alone does not work, they have to be in
identical pairs.

I hate to buy new memory just to find out something else is wrong, but maybe
that's my only choice. Any other suggestions?

 

[Gerry]

Please post a complete copy of the Stop Error message which should
appear when the computer automatically restarts.

Change this setting. Disable automatic restart on system failure. This
should help by allowing time to write down the STOP code properly. Right
click on the My Computer icon on the Desktop and select Properties,
Advanced, Start-Up and Recovery, System Failure and uncheck box before
Automatically Restart.

Do not re-enable automatic restart on system failure even when you have
resolved the problem. Watch for variants of the Stop Error message.

Please post copies of all Error and Warning Reports appearing in the
System and Application logs in Event Viewer relating to the last boot in
normal mode . No Information Reports or Duplicates please. Indicate
which also appear in a previous boot.

You can access Event Viewer by selecting Start, Control Panel,
Administrative Tools, and Event Viewer. When researching the meaning
of the error, information regarding Event ID, Source and Description
are important.

A tip for posting copies of Error Reports! Run Event Viewer and double
click on the error you want to copy. In the window, which appears is a
button resembling two pages. Click the button and close Event
Viewer.Now start your message (email) and do a paste into the body of
the message. Make sure this is the first paste after exiting from
Event Viewer.

--



Hope this helps.

Gerry
~~~~
FCA
Stourport, England
Enquire, plan and execute
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

[Anna]

and Tetra later adds:

Tetra:
It really would be a good idea at this point to check out your SCSI HDD with
Seagate's HDD diagnostic utility which you can download from Seagate's site.

Also, is there any possibility that you might have either a PATA or SATA HDD
at your disposal that you could use to install in your system and fresh
install the XP OS onto that disk after disconnecting the SCSI adapter?

I'm assuming you've already accessed your BIOS and all seems well there re
the settings. You've checked the temperatures over a period of time (at
least 15 min to 1/2 hr) while in the BIOS and no problem on that end, right?

If all seems well hardware-wise you might want to consider a Repair install
of the XP OS just on the possibility you're dealing with a corrupted OS
although it does seem unlikely that's the problem based on your description
of the problem. I assume you know how to undertake this.
Anna