XP Restarts Without Warning

[Radioactive Frog 0]

ok. Using the computer and XP decideds to shut down without warning, it just Shuts down. Any ideas y?

Spec: AS7333, XP 2100, 512DDR2100, CDRW, DVD, 40GB HD, Radeon VE AGP GC etc, self built system.

 

Any suggestions would be great, cus it is driving my girlfriend up the wall (her system !)

 

Thanks

[Hubert 0]

By shutting down, I am assuming it just turns off abruptly (no "shutting down Windows" message)? It can be one of three things... either a flakey PSU, dirty power lines (surges in your wall outlet), or overheating. Those are my guesses.

[Radioactive Frog 0]

sorry i should have been more specfic, it restarts. just as if u hit the restart btn! Then i get a win xp fatel error message and the system survived or wotever it says !

 

well a computer has always been plugged in there and the psu is new and so i guess it could be over heating, i will stick in a fan or two and see wot happens. I am tempted to try a diff GC as that seems to get hot !

 

But i understand from another forum that this is happening to a few ppl with win xp !! all with diff spec pcs !!!

 

does that change your answer Hubert? thanks for the reply by the way !!

[adamvjackson 0]

A few suggestions for you; Radioactive Frog...

 

1. Check the BIOS, there should be a screen that lets you monitor the hardware temps... Does anything seem abnormal there?

 

2. While there, there should also be some options for what the system will do in an overheat instance... What is that setting currently?

 

3. Check the Windows XP Event Viewer after one of the restarts... Anything abnormal there?

 

Let me know what you find, and as suggested, some case fans may very well help out.

 

Hope that helps.

[Hubert 0]

Hmm, well, it may be heat. I'd try Adam's suggestion and check the BIOS. If the shutdown temp is set too low, that could cause a problem.

 

Now, I'm assuming this hasn't happened before with this PC, so what has changed since you first experienced this problem?

[Radioactive Frog 0]

well i have only just built the computer ie month old. It has been happening more recetly and that is poss because games are being played on it or it may have something to do with the xp updates. But there are so many where do i start uninstalling?

 

i will try everything suggested so far and get back to you.

 

if anyone has anything else i can try please let me know and i will try that too !!

 

Thanks

[Nick601 0]

i have the same problem with windows 2000

 

again new power supply, i also have 2 blowhole fans on the top of my case, and 2 induction fans running all the time and it keeps restarting like radioactive frog has described

[adamvjackson 0]

What SP level do you have, Nick? Also do you have the latest BIOS and driver versions?

[Nick601 0]

SP3 and not the latest bios version, im not into flashing bios's at the moment after whats happening with my laptop LOL!!

[AndyFair 0]

The other thing to do is set automatic reboot on system failure so that you can see what error the BSOD is throwing up.

 

If I remember it right, it's somewhere like Control Panel -> System -> Advanced -> Startup & Recovery, turn of "Automatically reboot"

 

Rgds

AndyF

[Radioactive Frog 0]

ok, i have updated all drivers, and have put more fans in, it is not getting too hot. Max cpu bout 53deg.

 

I rolled it back to the beginning and it was much better!!

 

ne ideas

Thanks

 

Graham

[PaTiNsAnE 0]

what video card drivers are you running?

 

I had a similar problem with the nvidia 40.72's

[Radioactive Frog 0]

im not sure wot drivers they are im not at that machine at the mo. But did u decide the gc drivers where your prob?

 

G

[shassouneh 0]

You can FORCE windows not to restart when a major problem happens. Instead it will (or at least should) present a BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death). though a BSOD looks ugly, it DOES provide very minimal information.

Here is what to do to start forcing windows NOT to reboot when a problem occurs.

As an ADMINISTRATOR do the following:

 

Start -> Settings -> Control Panel-> Switch to Classic View (if necessary) -> System -> "Advanced" tab -> Startup And Recovery "settings" button

Look under "System Failure", then uncheck "automatically restart". Click OK twice. And you are done.

 

Even though this will give you a blue screen it will sitll give you some minimal information to work with

 

good luck

[Radioactive Frog 0]

tried that but it didn't give the bsod!!!!

 

does neone rekon changing the MB would work?

 

G

[shassouneh 0]

Hmm weird. It SHOULD give a BSOD sooner or later. Keep that setting for now, and sniff around in the Microsot knowledgebase articles. Sometimes they provide some hints to direct you towards a solution. Microsoft maks crapy documentation though, so don't expect any easy-to-understand knowledgebase articles.

[akiss 0]

try to lower your memory speed from bios to see if it work ok...

[Radioactive Frog 0]

i have changed the motherbaord from the asus to an Abit K7333R and reinstalled xp, it seems to have worked !!

 

[Radioactive Frog 0]

ok the motherboard only made an effect as it didn't have sound on it ! once i put in a Inno CMI8378 PCI 5.1 sound card in it started crashing and as soon as i took it out ! it stopped ! DOH ! so that is my prob and i dont know how to solve it ! --other than getting a different sound card ! but i would rather not have to keep splashing out on components ! i aint rich !! )

 

G

[Disgruntal_XP_User 0]

Sry to bring this thread back from the dead but i have a pentium celeron 2.4 ghz (Mother Board =GIS 17). Ive had this pc for almost a year was running under win2k with no problems. recently we had to upgrade to xp pro sp2. after a couple of weeks xp started restarting out of the blues.

 

I am assuming there is no hardware conflict.

 

VGA card built in

Lan Card built in

Sound Card built in

USB built in

 

modem I have the same on on two other computers also running win xp pro sp2.

 

and other than RAM HD Floppy drive and CD-Rom that covers it for Hardware.

 

 

thx for any help i may get