P
Pop
Crossposted to ...xp.hardware:
Hello folk.
Hope you'll forgive the crosspost, but I'm not exactly sure where
to post. Therefore, please, feel free to redirect me if you know
of a more likely center of experience. Last time I came on with
a question I ended up feeling pretty dumb for not knowing the
answer: I'm hoping you folk can do that to me again, but ...
<g>.
I also hope someone will have the patience to wade thru this
missive. I tried to keep it short, but, well, it just doesn't
seem to be in me to do that.
SYSTEM:
GW 700XL, P4, 2.6 GHz, 512 RAM, 2 80Gig 7200 rpm internal (not
RAID), 1 160Gig ext USB, XP Pro/SP2/Hotfix, Off XP, AV, Spyware,
etc., all updated & were current yesterday, 27 Jan 05, event logs
running, fair amount of peripheral equip: AV stuff, scanner, 2
printers, etc. etc.. Nvidia Gforce 5200/TV out, max video RAM,
all equip in use, 56k dialup 'net connection. Not simultaneously
of course. LAN is turned off/disabled, not being loaded.
SYSTEM STATUS:
Everything is functioning with a small but important
exception. No obvious problems with any specific application.
Everything functions re apps, so - that leaves OS, HW, or ME! I
think.
PROBLEM:
For some time, a very occasional spontaneous reboot would
occur. Messy, like the power cord was pulled - black screen,
keyboard off, no lights, etc.. But, after a few seconds it would
restart as though it had done a cold boot. Error message
indicating a Serious Error Occurred would appear, click OK and
boot continued normally and loaded windows. Not using multiboots
either; only the one OS.
Forgot about bootlog.txt until just now: Will turn it on next.
Event Logs all running.
For a long time it seemed to have no pattern but then
apparently I woke up enough to notice the pattern; it was simple,
and is repeatable every time.
HOW TO REPLICATE PROBLEM:
Clicking for the Summary tab on any Properties view which
includes a Summary, sets up the necessary condition. Upon
LEAVING the Properties window, whether by Cancel or OK, causes
the spontaneous reboot. Click, nothing happens, then about three
seconds later, it acts just like the power cord had been pulled
from the wall, and about another three seconds later initiates
what seems to be a full bootup from scratch.
RESULTS:
-- The Serious Error message already men tioned above, and
-- Sometimes partial rearrangement of desktop icons and/or Quik
Start icons in the Taskbar (lower left side) and
-- Other unpredictable but so far always minor setting changes
with one or two exceptions. Never any actual damage or
corruption I'm aware of. For instance, once it completely
rearranged desktop, single-click setting back to double click,
and once the entire thing re-defaulted. Every customization (for
the OS, not apps) that I had set went back to default. Weird; to
me at least. Apps like Office, etc., did not reset.
EFFORTS TO DATE (2 days):
-- Two to three weeks ago, I did a Repair install of XP, just
for grins, but they kept happening now and then. I make a fair
amount of use of the Summary tab in Properties for various files.
-- Backed up System State and all data.
-- I'm pretty confident there is no virus/Trojan/spyware etc..
Norton System Works, Adaware, Spybot, two others I can't recall
at the moment, oh, spyguard, and another. All known good, clean
applications used by many fellow spamfighters on Spamcop.net.
-- ALL cookies, temps & TMPS removed, completely cleaned every
account & manually verified. ONE file, perflib_perfdata_xyz
cannot be removed and so is ignored. I cannot seem to figure out
what it is, but the "xyz" is always different, and it's owned by
the OS. It's been there ever since I can remember. There are no
apps which, to the best of my ability, are not known-good,
known-safe apps installed. Most recent install was a reinstall
of Partition Magic 8 several months ago in the spring. Norton
Systemworks 2005 about the same time.
-- Systemworks says Registry is OK, and has been all along.
There WAS a Program Integrity problem Norton found, but it fixed
it and it didn't seem related to anything and changed nothing.
-- I've run every diagnostic I have and a couple I downloaded
yesterday, to no avail. All the hardware, including temperatures
looks fine. Nothing's sputtering, UPS shows no power line
disturbances, no brownouts, no blackouts in over 30 days. Last
time UPS came on was mid-Fall - power dropped for about three
minutes.
The Event Logs don't show anything especially helpful. There are
a couple of Medium errors, but they always seem to straighten
themselves out either in successive attempts or next Restart.
I purposely caused the spontaneous restart to happen four times,
today. Each gave me the serious error message during the boot,
but;
-- First time, all OK.
-- Second time, some icons on left side of screen spread out,
Quicklaunches were rearranged, not by Name or anything obvious;
just rearranged.
-- Other two, nothing special that was eye-able, at least.
While I had the error message on the screen, I opened Notepad and
grabbed the error report data and saved it to a file. As you
likely know, as soon as you close that error dialog, the files go
away; now I see why: The last line of the script is to erase all
the data. Dumb move in my opinion!! It took me a LONG time to
figure out why I couldn't find that error data when it even gave
me the path to the actual filenames! Someone at MS should be
forced to drink a (your favorite here)!
So, if anyone thinks it would be useful, I will share those, or
even create more for testing, but I think they're all about the
same thing. I caught everything from the manifest.txt to the
..DMPs and the XML source. The XML source, though long, looks
pretty useless - it's just a bunch of machine ID's and ends with
an error message at the end where the machine quits, apparently.
I think one was about 49k, the other 140k, both text HTML files.
If I were to write a synopsis of this right now, about all I
could say is that it's a software problem causing something to
act like the power supply goes bonkers. But nothing points
towards that when I dig into it. I think I"m too close to the
problem by now.
Soo, if anyone likes a challenge out there, I'd be more than
willing to accept/debate/try/take under advisement/use/brainstorm
or otherwise make use of any input. I'm at a standstill for
ideas; all I can do for the moment is poke around and hope
something jumps up at me.
BTW, I'm no guru by any means, but I do know more than the
average joe on the streets. I have no fear of tweaking things as
long as I can satisfy myself that I think I might know what I
think I might be doing <g>. So, if you start talking about
DCOM(bobulators) et al, you're likely to lose me, so treat me as
an intermediate, not a power user.
Soooo, if you're looking for a challenge, have I got a deal for
you!! <G>
Thanks in advance, especially if you've manage to even read this
far!
Pop
Hello folk.
Hope you'll forgive the crosspost, but I'm not exactly sure where
to post. Therefore, please, feel free to redirect me if you know
of a more likely center of experience. Last time I came on with
a question I ended up feeling pretty dumb for not knowing the
answer: I'm hoping you folk can do that to me again, but ...
<g>.
I also hope someone will have the patience to wade thru this
missive. I tried to keep it short, but, well, it just doesn't
seem to be in me to do that.
SYSTEM:
GW 700XL, P4, 2.6 GHz, 512 RAM, 2 80Gig 7200 rpm internal (not
RAID), 1 160Gig ext USB, XP Pro/SP2/Hotfix, Off XP, AV, Spyware,
etc., all updated & were current yesterday, 27 Jan 05, event logs
running, fair amount of peripheral equip: AV stuff, scanner, 2
printers, etc. etc.. Nvidia Gforce 5200/TV out, max video RAM,
all equip in use, 56k dialup 'net connection. Not simultaneously
of course. LAN is turned off/disabled, not being loaded.
SYSTEM STATUS:
Everything is functioning with a small but important
exception. No obvious problems with any specific application.
Everything functions re apps, so - that leaves OS, HW, or ME! I
think.
PROBLEM:
For some time, a very occasional spontaneous reboot would
occur. Messy, like the power cord was pulled - black screen,
keyboard off, no lights, etc.. But, after a few seconds it would
restart as though it had done a cold boot. Error message
indicating a Serious Error Occurred would appear, click OK and
boot continued normally and loaded windows. Not using multiboots
either; only the one OS.
Forgot about bootlog.txt until just now: Will turn it on next.
Event Logs all running.
For a long time it seemed to have no pattern but then
apparently I woke up enough to notice the pattern; it was simple,
and is repeatable every time.
HOW TO REPLICATE PROBLEM:
Clicking for the Summary tab on any Properties view which
includes a Summary, sets up the necessary condition. Upon
LEAVING the Properties window, whether by Cancel or OK, causes
the spontaneous reboot. Click, nothing happens, then about three
seconds later, it acts just like the power cord had been pulled
from the wall, and about another three seconds later initiates
what seems to be a full bootup from scratch.
RESULTS:
-- The Serious Error message already men tioned above, and
-- Sometimes partial rearrangement of desktop icons and/or Quik
Start icons in the Taskbar (lower left side) and
-- Other unpredictable but so far always minor setting changes
with one or two exceptions. Never any actual damage or
corruption I'm aware of. For instance, once it completely
rearranged desktop, single-click setting back to double click,
and once the entire thing re-defaulted. Every customization (for
the OS, not apps) that I had set went back to default. Weird; to
me at least. Apps like Office, etc., did not reset.
EFFORTS TO DATE (2 days):
-- Two to three weeks ago, I did a Repair install of XP, just
for grins, but they kept happening now and then. I make a fair
amount of use of the Summary tab in Properties for various files.
-- Backed up System State and all data.
-- I'm pretty confident there is no virus/Trojan/spyware etc..
Norton System Works, Adaware, Spybot, two others I can't recall
at the moment, oh, spyguard, and another. All known good, clean
applications used by many fellow spamfighters on Spamcop.net.
-- ALL cookies, temps & TMPS removed, completely cleaned every
account & manually verified. ONE file, perflib_perfdata_xyz
cannot be removed and so is ignored. I cannot seem to figure out
what it is, but the "xyz" is always different, and it's owned by
the OS. It's been there ever since I can remember. There are no
apps which, to the best of my ability, are not known-good,
known-safe apps installed. Most recent install was a reinstall
of Partition Magic 8 several months ago in the spring. Norton
Systemworks 2005 about the same time.
-- Systemworks says Registry is OK, and has been all along.
There WAS a Program Integrity problem Norton found, but it fixed
it and it didn't seem related to anything and changed nothing.
-- I've run every diagnostic I have and a couple I downloaded
yesterday, to no avail. All the hardware, including temperatures
looks fine. Nothing's sputtering, UPS shows no power line
disturbances, no brownouts, no blackouts in over 30 days. Last
time UPS came on was mid-Fall - power dropped for about three
minutes.
The Event Logs don't show anything especially helpful. There are
a couple of Medium errors, but they always seem to straighten
themselves out either in successive attempts or next Restart.
I purposely caused the spontaneous restart to happen four times,
today. Each gave me the serious error message during the boot,
but;
-- First time, all OK.
-- Second time, some icons on left side of screen spread out,
Quicklaunches were rearranged, not by Name or anything obvious;
just rearranged.
-- Other two, nothing special that was eye-able, at least.
While I had the error message on the screen, I opened Notepad and
grabbed the error report data and saved it to a file. As you
likely know, as soon as you close that error dialog, the files go
away; now I see why: The last line of the script is to erase all
the data. Dumb move in my opinion!! It took me a LONG time to
figure out why I couldn't find that error data when it even gave
me the path to the actual filenames! Someone at MS should be
forced to drink a (your favorite here)!
So, if anyone thinks it would be useful, I will share those, or
even create more for testing, but I think they're all about the
same thing. I caught everything from the manifest.txt to the
..DMPs and the XML source. The XML source, though long, looks
pretty useless - it's just a bunch of machine ID's and ends with
an error message at the end where the machine quits, apparently.
I think one was about 49k, the other 140k, both text HTML files.
If I were to write a synopsis of this right now, about all I
could say is that it's a software problem causing something to
act like the power supply goes bonkers. But nothing points
towards that when I dig into it. I think I"m too close to the
problem by now.
Soo, if anyone likes a challenge out there, I'd be more than
willing to accept/debate/try/take under advisement/use/brainstorm
or otherwise make use of any input. I'm at a standstill for
ideas; all I can do for the moment is poke around and hope
something jumps up at me.
BTW, I'm no guru by any means, but I do know more than the
average joe on the streets. I have no fear of tweaking things as
long as I can satisfy myself that I think I might know what I
think I might be doing <g>. So, if you start talking about
DCOM(bobulators) et al, you're likely to lose me, so treat me as
an intermediate, not a power user.
Soooo, if you're looking for a challenge, have I got a deal for
you!! <G>
Thanks in advance, especially if you've manage to even read this
far!
Pop