PC randomly restarting

[ch00se]

hi guys, new to the forums (wave)

right, i decided last week i had had enough of my pc (which was full of useless junk, causing it to run slow)

i formatted, however i got some weird blue screen while installing windows (an error about win32k.sys), it said reboot and try again

i did, no error message (hoorah) and windows installed with no problems

now, since i formatted my pc has the rather unsavoury habit of turning itself off whenever it wants

im almost certain this problem is software related, as my cpu/mobo are at 50/40degrees respectively (and also this problem had never happened before format)

so i formatted again, a similar message about win32k.sys

now ive literally just installed windows, noticed the problem was still apparently to started googling, which is how im here

i saw suggested was :

The behavior may occur if the win32k.sys is corrupted. Go to
C:\WINDOWS\System32 and rename the Win32k.sys file to Win32k.old and then
close the window. Now go back to the system32 folder and you will have a
new and non-corrupt Win32k.sys file.

The behavior also may be caused by that the virtual memory of the Windows XP
is corrupted. Disable and then enable the Virtual Memory to see whether it
solved the problem.

To disable Virtual memory:

1. Right click My Computer and choose properties
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Under Performance click settings.
4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Under Virtual memory click change
6. Click no paging file
7. Click OK
8. Restart the computer

To enable Virtual memory:

1. Right click My Computer and choose properties
2. Click the Advanced tab
3. Under Performance click settings.
4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Under Virtual memory click change
6. Click System Managed Size
7. Click OK
8. Restart the computer

-----------------------------------------

now, ive done all of the above, yet the problem still persists

like i said, im not sure what is causing the problem - the computer runs fine (really fast infact), it just likes to reboot

any advice please?! (desperate)

(i know this is hardware forum, but really need help :< )

 

[itsme]

Have you turned OFF restart on error ? I take it your using XP.
Oh and welcome

 

[Spezi]

Try going to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer and see if there are any error messages in there that give you a better hint as to the cause of the shutdown.

It should have an entry that corresponds with the time of your shutdown and often if you select that one then right click and look at properties you could well narrow down the problem.

I recently had a machine shut down randomly and the problem ended up being a corrupt video driver which I discovered after looking in the event viewer and seeing NVidia mentioned in the error.

I uninstalled the video driver then installed a new recent version and all has been well.

This happened to me on a recent clean install of XP.

 

[JIM451]

Re:

When You Done The New Install Did You Repartition And Format?you May Have To Check The Disk For Errors.

 

[ch00se]

Try going to Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer and see if there are any error messages in there that give you a better hint as to the cause of the shutdown.

It should have an entry that corresponds with the time of your shutdown and often if you select that one then right click and look at properties you could well narrow down the problem.

I recently had a machine shut down randomly and the problem ended up being a corrupt video driver which I discovered after looking in the event viewer and seeing NVidia mentioned in the error.

I uninstalled the video driver then installed a new recent version and all has been well.

This happened to me on a recent clean install of XP.

ive now reinstalled windows, and received no error messages


in the event viewer under application there are a few warnings and an error report, is this what is causing the problem?

 

[ch00se]

Have you turned OFF restart on error ? I take it your using XP.
Oh and welcome

thats via the bios?

 

[itsme]

thats via the bios?

Nope!
On the desk top>Right click my computer>properties>advanced>start up recovery settings>un-tick Automatically restart.

 

[ch00se]

Nope!
On the desk top>Right click my computer>properties>advanced>start up recovery settings>un-tick Automatically restart.

i have fixed the reboot problem

and im fairly sure it was my gfx card drivers

my card is nvidia 6800gt, i was previously using the most recent drivers on the official site

ive now installed third party and reboots no longer occur

however applications randomly freeze

how would i get hold of an older version of drivers? i have checked

(thanks for responces)

 

[Spezi]

i have fixed the reboot problem

and im fairly sure it was my gfx card drivers

my card is nvidia 6800gt, i was previously using the most recent drivers on the official site

ive now installed third party and reboots no longer occur

however applications randomly freeze

how would i get hold of an older version of drivers? i have checked

(thanks for responces)

In response to your previous question about the error reports, they can be helpful in narrowing down a problem although some of them are meaningless.

For example I can see entries on mine where it generates an error because my computer couldn't access the site to synchronize the time because their server was down or such which is nothing to be concerned about.

In my case I saw Nvidia so figured the display driver had something to do with the issue and it turned out it did.

In your case it also sounds like the issue is the display drivers.

Make certain when you install the drivers that you temporarily disable any anti virus software that may be operating in the background.

Also make sure that you uninstall the old drivers using add/remove programs before attempting to install new drivers.

In my case I'd been using the drivers that came with my video card support CD so when I went and downloaded the latest drivers directly from the Nvidia site and installed them the issue went away.

I did notice though that they were very explicit on how to go about installing the drivers.

 

[Alf]

the latest drivers?
get the 94.xx series drivers
all the other ones are specifically for the 8800 series and vista

 

[Nishikanth Reddy]

Hi,

This problem occurs if the Win32k.sys Windows file conflicts with a device driver that is installed on your computer. You can download and install hotfix from Microsoft website or try to run Windows Update. This will fix your problem. If you any quries you also mail me.

 

[tirtha127]

Guys I am new to this forum......however, for the last 3 weeks or so my computer have been showing blue screen, and shows the following:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
and
STOP:0X000000D1(0XFFFFFFFC,0X00000002,0X00000000,0XF76ACBEA)
NDIS.sys-ADDRESS F76ACBEA base at F7697000, Datestamp 41107ec3

And after restarting, the further detail are shown as below when I have click the link on the window thea appeared with the message 'system recovered from serious error':

BCCode : 100000d1 BCP1 : FFFFFFFC BCP2 : 00000002 BCP3 : 00000000
BCP4 : F76ACBEA OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 2_0 Product : 256_1


I have already done memtest for a night but no errors were found,
Can anybody help me to sort out the problem
System Specification:
AMD duocore3800 processor
ASUS motherboard M2NPV-VM
NVIDIA CHIPSET
512 RAM, 80 GB harddisk, HITACHI
Please help!!!!!!!!!!

 

[ch00se]

thanks for the above replies, ill crack on with the advice and get back to you

 

[muckshifter]

Guys I am new to this forum......however, for the last 3 weeks or so my computer have been showing blue screen, and shows the following:
DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
and
STOP:0X000000D1(0XFFFFFFFC,0X00000002,0X00000000,0XF76ACBEA)
NDIS.sys-ADDRESS F76ACBEA base at F7697000, Datestamp 41107ec3

And after restarting, the further detail are shown as below when I have click the link on the window thea appeared with the message 'system recovered from serious error':

BCCode : 100000d1 BCP1 : FFFFFFFC BCP2 : 00000002 BCP3 : 00000000
BCP4 : F76ACBEA OSVer : 5_1_2600 SP : 2_0 Product : 256_1


I have already done memtest for a night but no errors were found,
Can anybody help me to sort out the problem
System Specification:
AMD duocore3800 processor
ASUS motherboard M2NPV-VM
NVIDIA CHIPSET
512 RAM, 80 GB harddisk, HITACHI
Please help!!!!!!!!!!

Please start your OWN THREAD so we can help you better.

 

[tirtha127]

@MUCKSHIFTER
I have opened a new thread'blue screen and error message' please help now.

 

[ch00se]

hmmmm

well my computer is still rebooting, and ive formatted (AGAIN)

basically it happens randomly, when im using an application - say a game or a java/flash webpage

just browsing the net is fine, its usually occurs when i ask something more demanding of the system

when it reboots, theres no error messages at all (which suggests overheating?)

although like i said, my computer was fine before i formatted, ive checked the bios temps and they seem fine, and also it doesnt happen when i leave my pc idle

any more suggestions?

 

[Nishikanth Reddy]

It is a RAM error. Follow step one below, review the logs and see if there are any outstanding error messages.

General Troubleshooting of STOP Messages:

If you can’t find a specific reference to your problem, running through the following checklist stands a good chance of resolving the problem for you. This checklist is also usually the best approach to troubleshooting some specific Stop messages, such as 0x0A and 0x50.

1. Examine the “System” and “Application” logs in Event Viewer for other recent errors that might give further clues. To do this, launch EventVwr.msc from a Run box; or open “Administrative Tools” in the Control Panel then launch Event Viewer.

2. If you’ve recently added new hardware, remove it and retest.

3. Run hardware diagnostics supplied by the manufacturer.

4. Make sure device drivers and system BIOS are up-to-date.

5. However, if you’ve installed new drivers just before the problem appeared, try rolling them back to the older ones.

6. Open the box and make sure all hardware is correctly installed, well seated, and solidly connected.

7. Confirm that all of your hardware is on the Hardware Compatibility List. If some of it isn’t, then pay particular attention to the non-HCL hardware in your troubleshooting.

8. Check for viruses.

9. Investigate recently added software.

10. Examine (and try disabling) BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.

 

[ch00se]

thanks for the above responce

i got a lovely blue screen reading :

STOP 0X0000008E (0XC0000005, 0XBF87C6DD, 0XBA727C8C, 0X00000000)

WIN32K.SYS - ADDRESS BF87C6DD, BASE AT BF800000, DATESTAMP 3b7de698


youve given me a lot of pointers above, but i believe we've definitely narrowed it down to the RAM now.

is there a reason why this never happened before the format, but after?

and are we talking software problems, or has the RAM actually had it?

 

[ch00se]

It is a RAM error. Follow step one below, review the logs and see if there are any outstanding error messages.

General Troubleshooting of STOP Messages:

If you can’t find a specific reference to your problem, running through the following checklist stands a good chance of resolving the problem for you. This checklist is also usually the best approach to troubleshooting some specific Stop messages, such as 0x0A and 0x50.

1. Examine the “System” and “Application” logs in Event Viewer for other recent errors that might give further clues. To do this, launch EventVwr.msc from a Run box; or open “Administrative Tools” in the Control Panel then launch Event Viewer.

shows nothing, only some application (browser/msn error)

2. If you’ve recently added new hardware, remove it and retest.

nope

3. Run hardware diagnostics supplied by the manufacturer.

cannot find any

4. Make sure device drivers and system BIOS are up-to-date.

tried to update bios, however had trouble connecting to their servers

5. However, if you’ve installed new drivers just before the problem appeared, try rolling them back to the older ones.

formatted very recently, so not an issue

6. Open the box and make sure all hardware is correctly installed, well seated, and solidly connected.

yet to have done this

7. Confirm that all of your hardware is on the Hardware Compatibility List. If some of it isn’t, then pay particular attention to the non-HCL hardware in your troubleshooting.

is fine

8. Check for viruses.

am clear

9. Investigate recently added software.

again, formatted

10. Examine (and try disabling) BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.

and havent done this yet

 

[muckshifter]

... and are we talking software problems, or has the RAM actually had it?

I'm still out for debate ... These are nearly always hardware compatibility issues (which sometimes means a driver issue or a need for a BIOS upgrade) the "easy" solution is to swap out your Ram for good known working Ram.


STOP 0X0000008E ... The Stop error occurs in the Win32k.sys driver. You may receive the Stop error when you use the keyboard to activate and control the menu items of some programs.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/834450

One or more of the random access memory modules that are installed on your computer are faulty ... or ... The RAM configuration in the BIOS is incompatible with Windows XP

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=315335&sd=RMVP

When you use the highlighter feature and the font color feature in Microsoft Windows XP programs, your computer may stop responding and you may receive a "0x0000008E" error message on a blue screen.

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=829578&sd=RMVP


XP, especially when first installed & on re-installs, is the best memory diagnostic tool I know of ... 9 time out of 10, you have a bad stick of Ram.