Random Restarts

[chisness]

hello,

on my dell i play poker on i have no problems at all, but on my other homebuilt computer (i wonder why it has problems [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]) it seems to simply shut off every few hours

when it shuts down in the case i actually tell it to, it says theres been an error with Normal.dot not saving and when it starts up after randomly shutting down it says windows has recovered from a serious error

this is an xp system with 1 gig of ram, 3.2 ghz p4, and geforce 6800 gt -- could it be overheating or be some kind of software problem?

suggestions appreciated

thanks,
max

[guller]

My computer used to do this. Turns out I needed to update my bios to fix a temperature sensor shut down problem.

[cgwahl]

Go to START->CONTROL PANEL (may be under SETTINGS)->ADMINISTRATIVE TOOLS->EVENT VIEWER.

Then look under applications and system and see if there are any exclamation marks or something around the time it restarted. If there are, post what it has.

May also want to check device manager (right click MY COMPUTER->PROPERTIES->HARDWARE->DEVICE MANAGER) and see if you see anything with a question mark or exclamation mark.

Although you might not see anything under device manager since I believe you usually only see this when its a software thing.

[chisness]

how do you know what files are needed and where to get these? also, can this be ruled out since it hasn't always happened?

[chisness]

there isn't much in application except a lot of ESENT sources?

in the system, there are lots of System Errors (thats what comes up when the computer restarts), details:

Source: System Error
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: ER_KRNLCRASH_LOG
Message: Error code %1, parameter1 %2, parameter2 %3, parameter3 %4, parameter4 %5.

hmm just found http://support.microsoft.com/default...4278&sd=ee will read now

[krimson]

I would reformat before anything else. Might just be some good ole windows corruption.

If that doesn't solve it, you could try installing the program "Motherboard Monitor", it's freeware and should be easy to find in google. It will show you temps and voltages, so that you can check that your processor isn't getting too hot, and that all your voltages are reasonably close to their expected range.

I'm thinking your problem is likely software related, since overheating and voltage problems don't typically give event errors. When the computer overheats it's the motherboard which turns everything off. Windows doesn't even have a chance to realize something f*d up.

[Wake up CALL]

You did not mention running a recent virus scan. On of the "Blaster" worms will give the symptoms you mentioned although normally your system resources are slowed down as well.

[chisness]

thanks for all the help guys

i ran a free trend micro scan online and i believe it fixed the problem -- it was restarting every 6 or so hours and hasn't for about 24 now

i had only run spyware scans in the past, which apparently didn't pick anything up

hopefully it stays fixed!

[smoore]

hope you fixed it. If not, what you describe can sometimes be attributed to a bad RAM module.

[BusterStacks]

Could also be a really old Windows exploit called DCOM. Although fixed in subsequent patches, this is the only thing in recent memory that mysteriously owned me for several days on end. Still, that was about 2 years ago and almost surely not the problem... ::erases entire post::