Spontaneous Reboot: Is there a Troubleshooting Log?

[petergoode]

I am hoping someone can point me in a direction to solve a problem.

I am running XP Pro on a Dell Vostro 220S, about a month old....I leave it
running 7/24...every couple of days, I noted that Windows Explorer, which is
a problem I also have running at startup, no longer is running...as a test, I
left notepad running, and a day or two later, it was no longer running
either....I suspect my system is spontaneously rebooting.

I doubt this is a malware issue, given the fact that I run Zone Alarm
Internet Security and check with Spybot regularly...plus, I am behind a
router firewall.

I have tried to troubleshoot this by looking at the Event Viewer logs
(application and system), but all I see is the occasional error about Windows
Fax not finding a device to fax with, and something about W32 not being
synchronized...but I can't tell if this is actually triggering a reboot.

Is there any other log which Windows maintains so I could try to see the
precise time at which these suspected reboots occur, and if so, what is
causing them?

Thanks so much for any help.

Peter

 

[Gerry]

Peter

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. Check for variants of the Stop Error message. This will tell
you if the computer has crashed and give some pointers to the cause.

However, most BSOD crashes feature in Event Viewer and you imply there
are none recorded. The exceptions not recorded are those when Event
Viewer is not running and this is usually at the very beginning of the
boot process or if a malware attack disables Event Viewer. It would seem
unlikely that programmes ceasing to run are the result of what you term
spontaneous rebooting.

I am not a fan of running a computer 24/7. It allows memory leaks to
grow and grow.

How much RAM does the computer have? Right click on the My Computer icon
on ther Desktop and select Properties to get this information.

Try Ctrl+Alt+Delete to select Task Manager and click the Performance
Tab. Under Commit Charge what is the Total, the Limit and the Peak?

Process Explorer records the Start Time of explorer.exe and notepad.exe
if you select the right column.

Download Process Explorer.
For further information about Process Explorer see here:
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/SystemInformation/ProcessExplorer.mspx

--


Hope this helps.

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

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

Peter

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. Check for variants of the Stop Error message. This will tell
you if the computer has crashed and give some pointers to the cause.

However, most BSOD crashes feature in Event Viewer and you imply there
are none recorded. The exceptions not recorded are those when Event
Viewer is not running and this is usually at the very beginning of the
boot process or if a malware attack disables Event Viewer. It would seem
unlikely that programmes ceasing to run are the result of what you term
spontaneous rebooting.

Other spontaneous reboots that will not appear in any log are those
where the reboot is caused by failing hardware. Examples are video
cards overheating, CPU overheating, failing power supply, or bad
capacitors. The last doesn't seem likely as the system is supposed to
be only a year old. The only way to find these problems is using a
monitoring program like Speedfan.

 

[Gerry]

Thanks Michael for your contribution. My comments are based on personal
observation as very little is written on this aspect of Event Viewer. A
failing sata cable not so long ago made me appreciative that events
could go unrecorded. The Process Explorer suggestion would confirm
indirectly whether an event of the type you highlight had occurred. The
existence of Event IDs 6005 and 6009 would also confirm the time that
the restart. occurred.


--


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

 

[petergoode]

Thanks to you both for trying to help...I was not receiving reply
notification, and only now looked back at the group, so very sorry for the
delay in acknowledging your suggestions.

I have reposted this as a separate thread, as in actuality my system was NOT
rebooting, instead something was simply closing windows explorer...and in the
new thread I mentioned the lack of definitive clues I can find to explain
this.

Thanks again, Peter