PC Rebooting

gk172

Yes i have disabled the auto reboot so we will see how it goes, and its nortons internet security 2005 im running and went to the site and can see no download patch for sp2, there are patches for 2004 and lower so i presume its uptodate patch wise. Will see how it runs today and will post back with any news or crashes.

gk172

Ferris wrote:

have you followed megazoid's suggestion for disabling automatic restart in windows? this would allow you to see the code from the blue screen which is very useful... make a note of them all, along with all the parameters (the values in the brackets), then do a google search for them.

also, when you log into windows after the crash and you have the option to send the error report to the evil ones (micro$oft), do you send it? whenever i have sent it i have had an immediate web response giving me a vague idea of the source of the problem.

i am in the same position as you, more or less, as i am unable to determine whether my PC's problem is hardware or software based.

one possible test you can do is download a memory diagnostic tool, and run it on your system. as it runs before windows even begins to load, it can definitely help to isolate a hardware problem... try www.memtest.org or http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp.

you may have to leave them running overnight to get meaningful results, however!

good luck.

I will see how pc runs today and then try those tests, im just wary about what tests i can run as this pc has the o.s built in and im sure i read somewhere that theres some tests i cant run

gk172

Ok its just rebooted and it gave me a whole load of codes - bccode bcp1,2,3,4 and os code too if i posted all the codes would that help anyone interprit them? also this time i sent the report to microsoft and it came back saying i have a error caused by a device driver, ive been into device manager and there are no ? at any device but i have noticed my external hard drive isnt found till i unplug and replug it then windows finds it. Is that any use to anyone who could advise me what to do next?

Quonous

When you get a blue screen there should be something like this:

STOP:

0x00000001E FAULT_NAME_HERE

Write that down next time it happens and post it here. The last 2 digits in the first string will change, and it will say something apparently meaningless next to it. I'm going to guess at a 0x00000004E from your symptoms. We'll see...

T4i

When trying to work out a problem p.c its a case of trial and error. Unplug ur external HDD if you can and leave the p.c to crash. If it wont crash then theres your problem.

What motherboard is in your p.c? Do you know? What PCI/AGP/ISA cards do you have installed? Do you keep your drivers up to date?

Take norton out, its a memory hogger and slows a p.c down no-end!

gk172

T4i wrote:

When trying to work out a problem p.c its a case of trial and error. Unplug ur external HDD if you can and leave the p.c to crash. If it wont crash then theres your problem.

What motherboard is in your p.c? Do you know? What PCI/AGP/ISA cards do you have installed? Do you keep your drivers up to date?

I can go to the maxtor website and download and run the diagnostic tool BUT this bit im not sure about as i have the o.s built in and not sure if safe to do so, sorry my knowledge is not too bad when i have the o.s on disc but never had this built in one so a bit unsure what i can and cannot do, also where do i find out what mobo i have? pci/agp/isa - graphics right? sis650/651/740/661fx/741/760 series.

Ferris

gk172 wrote:

I will see how pc runs today and then try those tests, im just wary about what tests i can run as this pc has the o.s built in and im sure i read somewhere that theres some tests i cant run

well, the memory diagnostics i suggested run from floppy before the OS even begins to load, so you shouldn't have any problems there. they use minimal resources and should run on any PC. if they do find any errors, take a photo of the screen so you have some proof for the manufacturers.

the bccode is the bug check code, and it usually has a few parameters. posting the 0x000000xx codes from the blue screen might be useful. depending on the code, one of the parameters may well be the address in memory where the failing driver is located.

if you can't get them from the blue screen, another thing you could try is to check the event viewer (go to start-run-then type eventvwr.msc), then look under 'system'. this should flash up the specific error code (in the 0x000000xx format) that occurred, and it might also give a hint as to what kinds of drivers/hardware were failing immediately prior to the crash. as it typically lists events going back a couple of days, you could look for a pattern of things going wrong immediately before a crash.

one other suggestion is to install the quite wonderful speedfan (https://www.almico.com/speedfan.php), and configure it so that it sits in the tray (by the clock) and keeps you aware of your current CPU temperature (just to make sure its not regularly overheating). if you wanted, you could configure it to keep a log of the temperatures over time. it will also let you see the motherboard voltages; an excessively low voltage may cause problems.

also, norton is evil. on my system it won't even deign to install properly. it leaves bits and pieces all over you pc even when you uninstall it. it is truly the aol of antivirus software. leave it on until you find something better then ditch it from a great height.

hope you get it to work!

T4i

http://www.thetechzone.com/?m=show&id=237

Just seen this ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Maybe of some use!

gk172

Ferris wrote:

if you can't get them from the blue screen, another thing you could try is to check the event viewer (go to start-run-then type eventvwr.msc), then look under 'system'. this should flash up the specific error code (in the 0x000000xx format) that occurred, and it might also give a hint as to what kinds of drivers/hardware were failing immediately prior to the crash. as it typically lists events going back a couple of days, you could look for a pattern of things going wrong immediately before a crash.

I just checked with the above and it is giving me type - error,source - system error, categorie - (102),event - 1003 and looking back it is the same error and discription for all the recent crashes that have occured, there is nothing immediatley close, the only other thing is a yellow i triangle with warning source -dhcp, categorie none, event 1003 but this is no where near where it crashes, and on looking further in going back to 11/04 there is another error which has appeared a few times but not since its source is showing dcom,categorie none and event - 10010 happened maybe 6 times in 2 months.

Does that help anyone? Please.

T4i

dhcp and dcom wont be the cause of crashing.