Suddenly big trouble..

[Dave VanHorn]

No new software installed, no new hardware installed.
XP Pro, SP2 installed more than 2 weeks ago, 1G ram.

Up to this evening, everything's fine. Now, when I try to browse the hard
drive (I: if that matters), when I open up a second window prior to dragging
and dropping some files to a different directory, the system reboots. No
error messages, no warnings, just as if I mashed the reset button.

I've rebooted (obviously) powered down, no help.
The drive passes scandisk, and can be defragged, no problems.

 

[Len]

Not much help here but a thought... have you checked Event Viewer to see if
there are any clues there?

 

[Jon Erlandson]

Review your system log for information and/or disable "auto-restart"
(Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery) which should then
give you the BSOD and error message.

 

[Dave VanHorn]

Review your system log for information and/or disable "auto-restart"
(Control Panel > System > Advanced > Startup and Recovery) which should
then
give you the BSOD and error message.

Auto-restart was already disabled.
As I said, this reboot acts exactly like a reset button hit.

I don't see anything in event viewer that would shine any light on it.

 

[Nathan McNulty]

With Service Pack 2 came a little more heat produced by my system at
least. You may want to check the heat inside your computer as well. I
have seen an average of 5C increase since SP1. It sounds more like the
computer is shutting down at the hardware level instead of the software
level which means that something such as the CPU overheating or the
memory failed would be a more likely cause.

 

[Dave VanHorn]

With Service Pack 2 came a little more heat produced by my system at

least. You may want to check the heat inside your computer as well. I
have seen an average of 5C increase since SP1. It sounds more like the
computer is shutting down at the hardware level instead of the software
level which means that something such as the CPU overheating or the memory
failed would be a more likely cause.

Doubtful. A: I don't see it on the temperature display (91F)
B: it happens within seconds of opening the window to browse the disk.
If I don't do that, it runs fine all day, including raytracing, which is
100% CPU utilization for hours.

 

[Jon Erlandson]

Long shot but you might disable any spyware/antivirus and see if it helps. I
once ran into a problem with Spy Sweeper that caused the BSOD when I right
clicked into Explorer. It was solved by unchecking "add sweep for spyware
to Windows Explorer context menu."

 

[Dave VanHorn]

Long shot but you might disable any spyware/antivirus and see if it helps.
I
once ran into a problem with Spy Sweeper that caused the BSOD when I right
clicked into Explorer. It was solved by unchecking "add sweep for spyware
to Windows Explorer context menu."

I don't run antivirus, and my spyware SW is only running when I ask it to.
(spybot SD and Lavasoft ad-aware)

 

[Jon Erlandson]

[snip]

I don't run antivirus, and my spyware SW is only running when I ask it to.
(spybot SD and Lavasoft ad-aware)

A virus is a possibility so scanning, just to eliminate the element, isn't a
bad idea. Anyway, it seems to me there are a host of other possible issues
that would be best covered by system diagnostic software like "system
mechanic." And, assuming you want to solve the problem and not change to a
different "file management utility" you may need to start uninstalling
programs like spybot, ad-aware, roxio (if you have it) and etc. until the
system responds normally. You've said you'd run Scandisk (though chkdsk /r
might be better - run it last thing in the day and defragged the drive
but you might also defrag your pagefile (
http://www.theeldergeek.com/defragmenting_a_page_file.htm .) There is also
a registry fix for problems related to "drag & drop" (
http://aumha.org/regfiles.php ) but I don't think it's your fix. If you
clear things up, post back as it might help me at some point

 

[Dave VanHorn]

"> A virus is a possibility so scanning, just to eliminate the element,
isn't a

bad idea.

In the last 8 years, I've run three computers 24/7, and heavy email/net.
I've been hit once. On my laptop, in the hospital, when I was under some
fairly aggressive painkillers. I clicked on an attachment.

I've run the popular on-line scans, and come up clean.

Anyway, it seems to me there are a host of other possible issues
that would be best covered by system diagnostic software like "system
mechanic." And, assuming you want to solve the problem and not change to
a
different "file management utility" you may need to start uninstalling
programs like spybot, ad-aware, roxio (if you have it) and etc. until the
system responds normally.

Why would I do that? The system hasn't had any new software installed in
weeks.
Spybot and ad-aware only run when I invoke them, and I wouldn't run anything
from Adaptec's evil spawn if you paid me.

You've said you'd run Scandisk (though chkdsk /r
might be better - run it last thing in the day and defragged the drive
but you might also defrag your pagefile (
http://www.theeldergeek.com/defragmenting_a_page_file.htm .) There is
also
a registry fix for problems related to "drag & drop" (
http://aumha.org/regfiles.php ) but I don't think it's your fix. If you
clear things up, post back as it might help me at some point

I'll check those out.

I just can't see any rational cause for this.
The dirs that I've experimented with don't have any unusual number of files
even.
Maybe 30-50 ish?

In the past, I've had trees with >1M files in 50+ branches, but not in the
last few months.