Random Reboots

[Clayton]

Now and then my system would randomally reboot with a message about
recovering from a serious error, so I did some searching on google and there
was mention about ATI graphics cards, so I removed everything from
add/remove programs relating to the ATI card and reinstalled the latest
RADEON drivers from the ATI website and restarted.
I went into system properties and unchecked automaticlly restart to see if a
BSOB would give me an idea of what is wrong, now I have been online (modem)
for 3 hours now and goto disconnect and walked away from the pc for a few
mins to return to find that the system had froze up, this is a new problem
or maybe related, any idea's? bad video card?

 

[Kelly]

More info on the former:

Windows XP Patch: System Recovery Error Appears After Every Reboot:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/release.asp?releaseid=36920

Use one of these three options.

Right Click the My Computer Icon/Properties/Advanced/
Performance/Settings/Advanced/Change.

1. Set Page File to 0, ok your way out and reboot. Then follow the same
procedure and reset the Page File to System Managed File.

2. No Page File. Reboot. Then delete C:\Pagefile.Sys then revert the page
file setting.

3. Set the swap file size to zero, reboot. Re-set to System Managed,
reboot. Reset the Custom setting, reboot.

You Receive a "System Has Recovered from a Serious Error" Message After
Every Restart
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q317277

Windows XP Problems if Your Profile Is Damaged
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q326688

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[RWN]

I had the same problem and the culprit was heat.
The cage holding the heatsink/fan had a broken tab and over time got loose.
It started rebooting every few hours and gradually the time got down to a matter of
minutes.

 

[Clayton]

What happens if you have disabled system restore? it mentions a system
restore point on this site
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;Q326688

 

[Clayton]

Funny thing is that the My Documents folder was missing from the desktop and
then it appeared as a standard folder

 

[Kelly]

Have you disabled it?

Missing as in how and when? Is it selected via Desktop/Customize Desktop/My
Documents?

--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[Clayton]

I noticed it after a few days, it is NOT checked via Destoptop/Customize
Desktop/My Documents, I have checked it now and it appears on the desktop.
I now get a BSOD referring to win32k.sys and 0x0000008E and
PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGED_AREA 0x00000050

 

[Clayton]

I found 6 entries in Event Viewer with it's own sub folder saying

Event Type: Information
Event Source: ACEEventLogSource
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 7/07/2005
Time: 2:05:31 p.m.
User: N/A
Computer: PCC
Description:
0000000001: 2005-07-07 14:05:28:437 Exception: Cannot delete a subkey
tree because the subkey does not exist.
Exception Called by: ATI.ACE.LOG.Foundation.Service.Service::UnPublish
processID:03500 threadIDCLIDashboard )
) assemblyNameLOG.Foundation.Service,
Version=1.2.1958.42103, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
************************************************************************************************************************

Could this be my problem?

Thanks



For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

 

[Kelly]

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




--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP)

Troubleshooting Windows XP
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com

 

[frodo]

another recommendation: remove the ATI Catalyst Control Center, and
install the ATI Control Panel instead. The CCC uses the .Net framework,
and is a big hog. The control panel offers virtually the same set of
controls, just not as "pretty". [ATI Driver packages come in two versions,
one w/ CCC and one w/ just the control panel - get the latter].

As stated, RANDOM restarts are often caused by either heat or memory
issues. Check that all your fans are working, and there is no dust
clogging things up. If possible get a motherboard monitor utility to
check the temps (or use the bios Health Screen, if it has one). Get
memtest86+ and check your memory. It should report ZERO errors after at
least one hour of testing - even one error is too many.

 

[Clayton]

Cheers

 

[Daranman]

I found 6 entries in Event Viewer with it's own sub folder
saying

Event Type: Information
Event Source: ACEEventLogSource
Event Category: None
Event ID: 0
Date: 7/07/2005
Time: 2:05:31 p.m.
User: N/A
Computer: PCC
Description:
0000000001: 2005-07-07 14:05:28:437 Exception: Cannot
delete a subkey
tree because the subkey does not exist.
Exception Called by:
ATI.ACE.LOG.Foundation.Service.Service::UnPublish
processID:03500 threadIDCLIDashboard )
) assemblyNameLOG.Foundation.Service,
Version=1.2.1958.42103, Culture=neutral,
PublicKeyToken=90ba9c70f846762e)
**************************************************************
**********************************************************

Could this be my problem?

Thanks



For more information, see Help and Support Center at
http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.

I would refer you back to Notlikely’s comment of Heat possibly being
the problem. Check to make sure your CPU fan and heatsink are in good
shape. If you have fan / heat monitoring software, check that to see
how things are doing...this is especially a problem with AMD chips.

Hope this helps
Daranman