My computer restarts at random times? XP HOME

[Guest]

I have upgraded my system lately. New Ram, Hard Drive and Graphics Card, and
I have installed the latest drivers for them all, as well as updated my
motherboard bios, and system drivers, I've also run countless diagnostic
tools to test all my hardware, to find the problem, but everything seems
fine? apart from when I ran the prime95 test, and my system decided to
freeze? And after my computer restarts, the error reporting thing runs to
send a report to MS, and once sent, it brings up an webpage that tells me a
device driver caused windows to encounter a problem it could not recover
from, this message showed up the first 5 - 10 times it happened, then it
changed to, a video device driver caused windows etc etc, then today, it came
up and said, the error report was corrupt, and that this could be because
there is a serious problem with my system? PLEASE, if anyone has suggestions,
I'd be very greatful. Thanks.

 

[Ed Metcalfe]

I have upgraded my system lately. New Ram, Hard Drive and Graphics Card,
and
I have installed the latest drivers for them all, as well as updated my
motherboard bios, and system drivers, I've also run countless diagnostic
tools to test all my hardware, to find the problem, but everything seems
fine? apart from when I ran the prime95 test, and my system decided to
freeze? And after my computer restarts, the error reporting thing runs to
send a report to MS, and once sent, it brings up an webpage that tells me
a
device driver caused windows to encounter a problem it could not recover
from, this message showed up the first 5 - 10 times it happened, then it
changed to, a video device driver caused windows etc etc, then today, it
came
up and said, the error report was corrupt, and that this could be because
there is a serious problem with my system? PLEASE, if anyone has
suggestions,
I'd be very greatful. Thanks.

Have you looked in your system's event logs for an indication of which
driver is causing the issue?

Ed Metcalfe.

 

[Ed Metcalfe]

I have upgraded my system lately. New Ram, Hard Drive and Graphics Card,
and
I have installed the latest drivers for them all, as well as updated my
motherboard bios, and system drivers, I've also run countless diagnostic
tools to test all my hardware, to find the problem, but everything seems
fine? apart from when I ran the prime95 test, and my system decided to
freeze? And after my computer restarts, the error reporting thing runs to
send a report to MS, and once sent, it brings up an webpage that tells me
a
device driver caused windows to encounter a problem it could not recover
from, this message showed up the first 5 - 10 times it happened, then it
changed to, a video device driver caused windows etc etc, then today, it
came
up and said, the error report was corrupt, and that this could be because
there is a serious problem with my system? PLEASE, if anyone has
suggestions,
I'd be very greatful. Thanks.

Karl,

Another thought - have you checked your CPU and case temperatures?

Ed Metcalfe.

 

[Guest]

Another thought - have you checked your CPU and case temperatures?

Ed Metcalfe.

Funny you should ask that.. I have just installed MSI Core Center, which
gives you system and cpu tempratures in real time, and you can adjust the fan
speed etc. When my computer is idle the temprature is 45 Degrees celsius, and
the prime95 program I mentioned earlier, as it made my computer freeze last
time I thought I'd run it again, keeping an eye on the CPU temprature. The
very second I click start test, the temprature goes straight to 58 degrees,
and whithin another 15 - 20 secs it's at 65 degrees, thats when I decided to
end the test because that didnt seem right to me. So can this can cause the
error messages that were showing, like, device driver errors etc? I'm no
expert obviously, but that seems really odd to me.. anyway I have purchsed
new thermal grease from ebay, and I cleaned the fan already because that was
a bit dusty, but that made no differance, but I will update this once I clean
the old thermal grease off and reaply new, as if this solves the problem then
this might help someone else out with the same symptoms. Also I heard that
AMD processors are known to run hot? so is this normal and I'm wasting money?
System Config:-
MSI Nvidia nForce 3 250gb Chipset K8N Neo Platinum Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.4GHz
1GB DDR 3200 Samsung 184 Pin RAM 3-3-8-3 (soon to be 2GB)
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB DDR3 Graphics
2 Hard Drives (IDE 80GB OS Drive) (IDE 500GB Slave)
PSU 450W

 

[Ed Metcalfe]

Funny you should ask that.. I have just installed MSI Core Center, which
gives you system and cpu tempratures in real time, and you can adjust the
fan
speed etc. When my computer is idle the temprature is 45 Degrees celsius,
and
the prime95 program I mentioned earlier, as it made my computer freeze
last
time I thought I'd run it again, keeping an eye on the CPU temprature. The
very second I click start test, the temprature goes straight to 58
degrees,
and whithin another 15 - 20 secs it's at 65 degrees, thats when I decided
to
end the test because that didnt seem right to me. So can this can cause
the
error messages that were showing, like, device driver errors etc? I'm no
expert obviously, but that seems really odd to me.. anyway I have purchsed
new thermal grease from ebay, and I cleaned the fan already because that
was
a bit dusty, but that made no differance, but I will update this once I
clean
the old thermal grease off and reaply new, as if this solves the problem
then
this might help someone else out with the same symptoms. Also I heard that
AMD processors are known to run hot? so is this normal and I'm wasting
money?
System Config:-
MSI Nvidia nForce 3 250gb Chipset K8N Neo Platinum Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ 2.4GHz
1GB DDR 3200 Samsung 184 Pin RAM 3-3-8-3 (soon to be 2GB)
Nvidia GeForce 7600GT 256MB DDR3 Graphics
2 Hard Drives (IDE 80GB OS Drive) (IDE 500GB Slave)
PSU 450W

Karl,

I'm not sure what the maximum safe operating temperature of your CPU is, but
I'm sure you'd be able to find it on Google somewhere. My CPU (an Intel)
never goes over 50 degrees, even after hours of 100% CPU usage. Assuming
your temperature sensor is reasonably accurate (a lot aren't) even your idle
temperature sounds a little high to me. 65 degrees is definitely high.

Check your PSU fans as well. If you take your PSU apart be *very* careful
what you're touching. Capacitors can store dangerous charges even after
unplugging the PSU.

Be careful to follow the instructions when applying thermal paste. A lot of
people assume more is better - not the case!

My understanding is that overheating can cause all sorts of weird behaviour.
Even if this isn't the cause of your problem it still needs sorting out.

Ed Metcalfe.

 

[Guest]

Karl,

I'm not sure what the maximum safe operating temperature of your CPU is, but
I'm sure you'd be able to find it on Google somewhere.

With reference to questions regarding CPU temperatures there might be some
useful information found in two articles on James A. Eshelman pages,

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/CPU/CPU Temperatures.shtml

http://www.maxpc.co.uk/tips/default...id=16113&subsectionid=712&subsubsectionid=546

Regards,
Ka2H

 

[Guest]

With reference to questions regarding CPU temperatures there might be some
useful information found in two articles on James A. Eshelman pages,

http://www.pantherproducts.co.uk/Articles/CPU/CPU Temperatures.shtml

http://www.maxpc.co.uk/tips/default...id=16113&subsectionid=712&subsubsectionid=546

Regards,
Ka2H

Hi, WOW thanks for that, suprised me, this info states the maximum
temperature for my CPU is 70 Degrees Celcius? only the other day after
leaving prime95 running for 5 mins or so, MSI Core Center was reading the
temperature at 80 Degrees, and an automatic shutdown process started, so I
switched off prime95 and the temp dropped immediately from 80 to 64 so I
aborted the shutdown, then it steadily came down to 50 ish where it stayed
even at idle.. Could this be a sensor error, or a serious cooling issue, I
have the standard heatsink and fan that came with my AMD Athlon 64, and even
with the fan maxed out at 4200RPM (the highest I have ever seen it reach) the
temperature still gradually rises past critical? I also have a large fan at
the back (not sure of the mm's but bigger than the standard case cooling
fans), I've even tried taking all the sides off the case with no change at
all.. Any one know of a great colling solution I could try Thanks..

 

[Guest]

temperature still gradually rises past critical? I also have a large fan at
the back (not sure of the mm's but bigger than the standard case cooling
fans), I've even tried taking all the sides off the case with no change at
all..

Karl

Not very familiar with PCs, however having been working with electronics for
quite some years, I would say (guess) the temperature sensing of your PC is
ok, based on your observation that it works over a range from 80 degrees down
to 50, which is assumed to be a "working range".

Cooling of electonic devices in general is however an interesting animal.
First part of it is proper given requirements and following design performed
by the manufacturer.

Secondly are the environmental aspects of significance, with respect to
space and temperature. Some kinds of fans may stall i.e. reduce capacity,
sometimes by a great amount, when ducts / airflows are changed with respect
to original design. I assume the “- large fan at the back -†of your PC is a
kind of tubeaxial, which wouldn’t stall, however is it important that there
is some free space behind the outlet to allow maximum airflow. “- taking all
the sides off the case –“ may not be a good idea, presuming that cooling of
your PC was well designed, in accordance with the manufacturer requirements.
I also assume that there has been made no hardware changes to the PC, which
possibly could have made the two fans to point the airflows towards each
other.

Thirdly is it important the the PC is working within environmental
temperatures, as specified by the manufaturer. The tower of my PC is situated
in a separate space of a PC furniture, which is not really smart, as it
accumulates the “local†environmental temperatures a lot on warm days.

Regards,
Ka2H

 

[Guest]

Karl

Not very familiar with PCs, however having been working with electronics for
quite some years, I would say (guess) the temperature sensing of your PC is
ok, based on your observation that it works over a range from 80 degrees down
to 50, which is assumed to be a "working range".

Cooling of electonic devices in general is however an interesting animal.
First part of it is proper given requirements and following design performed
by the manufacturer.

Secondly are the environmental aspects of significance, with respect to
space and temperature. Some kinds of fans may stall i.e. reduce capacity,
sometimes by a great amount, when ducts / airflows are changed with respect
to original design. I assume the “- large fan at the back -†of your PC is a
kind of tubeaxial, which wouldn’t stall, however is it important that there
is some free space behind the outlet to allow maximum airflow. “- taking all
the sides off the case –“ may not be a good idea, presuming that cooling of
your PC was well designed, in accordance with the manufacturer requirements.
I also assume that there has been made no hardware changes to the PC, which
possibly could have made the two fans to point the airflows towards each
other.

Thirdly is it important the the PC is working within environmental
temperatures, as specified by the manufaturer. The tower of my PC is situated
in a separate space of a PC furniture, which is not really smart, as it
accumulates the “local†environmental temperatures a lot on warm days.

Regards,
Ka2H

Hi, Thanks for that.. I have now (touch wood) fixed the heat issue.. idle at
40 degrees celcius full load bearly reaches 60 degrees, it probably wouldnt
get that high if my lazy cpu fan got of its arse, it still sits at 3100 rpm,
when the temprature is at 60 degrees even with my settings set for it to run
at full speed? anyway I can live with that.. however that did not solve my
issue.. I've had 3 more random BSOD's all starting 0x000000 then one ending
in E7 another 24 and lastly A .. and since then I tested my ram again.. as i
had tested it before with windiag at normal settings which runs 6 tests.. but
this time I set it to run extended test and this time it found errors, after
3 passes it found 54 seperate errors, but still passed most of the tests? on
the previous test as it passed the first 3 tests I assumed it was ok and
ended it early.. this time it still passed those tests but after the 6th test
it started to fail a few.. So if anyone reading this has had similar
problems, I urge you to you windiag, windows free memory tester, and let it
run for a minimum of 3 passes on extended tests, you'll know what I mean when
you get it up and running.

With regards to the heat issue, I now have one large and two small fans on
the side of my case, which had a perspex window in it, which made cutting the
holes for the fans easier .. they are blowing air against my motherboard
and obviously also my CPU and the large fan at the back is drawing air out..

I know have an old RAM stick in, and as of yet have had no BSOD's.. it seems
crazy to me how all these differently coded error messages could have been
the result of a RAM stick gone bad? Windows should really have been able to
diagnose this, and report the error correctly. I will post again in a few
days if all is well, which would mean it was definately the RAM, if not you
will hear from me soon Thanks to all those that gave me advice