Help solving random/intermittent reboots

[prjt2501]

OK, here's my biggest issue right now. I'm hoping someone can assist me.

I am having issues with random automatic reboots of my machine. My first thought was that it was potentially a power supply issue, so I replaced my 450 watt supply with a 580 watt supply (unfortunately I do not recall manufacturer of either at the moment, I'm sorry). That didn't solve the issue. I pulled out my IEEE 1394 card, as I'm not currently using it, as well as a bracket card that came with my motherboard that provided a TV-out, as my video card also has a TV out. Still no better. I can go 4 or 5 days without a reboot, then have reboots within 18 hours of each other.

One would then think that the obvious culprit would be a memory issue...and I thought/think that as well. I ran a memory tester overnight, and when I got up this morning, it showed no errors after 7 passes. I'm honestly stumped. The reboots began concurrent with upgrading RAM, and I was certain that the memory tester would turn up something overnight. I've also cleaned out the heatsink and fan for the processor and reapplied fresh heatsink compound; my processor runs, at it's hottest, at 36 Celsius.

I have a mess of minidump files if anyone can parse them...I tried last night, and I simply can't make heads or tails of what the Windows tools are telling me. I can attach them as a zip archive immediately on request.

Here's my system hardware; my PC is more a media center type machine than a heavy duty gaming machine...I use it mostly for music and video editing, photo editing, et cetera. I don't overclock.

MSI K7N2G-L motherboard
AMD AthlonXP 1800+ w/stock heatsink/fan
Linksys LNE100TX LAN card
MSI Geforce4 MX 4000 AGP video card, 128 MB
Seagate 40 GB Hard drive, ATA100 (for OS/applications), primary master
Seagate 160 GB Hard Drive, ATA100 (data), primary slave
Western Digital 320 GB Hard drive, ATA100 (data), secondary slave
LiteOn LH-20A1H DVD-RW DL Drive, secondary master
SoundBlaster PCI 512 PCI sound card
3 x Patriot 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)

Anyone out there able to help me?

 

[Po`Girl]

Hi,

If you could post 3 or 4 minidumps,they might help.

Did you try reverting to your previous RAM configuration ?

That would be a good troubleshooting idea.

 

[prjt2501]

I did not try reverting back...I wish I could say that I could do so, but when I got the 3 512 MB sticks, I took the old RAM (3 256 MB sticks) and installed them in a machine I was building for a family member. In the back of my mind I thought I should have waited, but...they do say that hindsight is 20/20. I guess this is the proof of that.

Should I attach the files singly or as a .zip archive?

 

[prjt2501]

In looking at other posts listed in the "similar threads" field on this page, I see other people posted their dumpfiles as single attachments, so I'll do the same. Here are the four most recent reports.

 

[Po`Girl]

They are all consistent with the memory as being the problem

Bugcheck 50 - win32k.sys

but it could also be something else.Like AVG anti virus for instance.

Here is the official line -

"Defective memory (including main memory, L2 RAM cache, video RAM) or incompatible software
(including remote control and antivirus software) might cause this Stop message,as may other hardware problems"

Try reseating the RAM or just running one stick for a few days.

Change your anti virus to Avast and the firewall to Comodo or Kerio

Run your computer with the bare minimum of hardware and software for a few days.

 

[prjt2501]

Thanks. I'll do that. I'll pull the system down this evening, remove the RAM, make sure the slots are clean, and start off running a single stick.

Thanks for the quick reply; I'll post again in a day or so once I've had a chance to test things out.