help - computer suddenly restarts

[baffy11]

hello all,

my machine is p4 2.8
512 RAM
6600GT AGP
win XP pro

in the last week i noticed that my machine restarts itself randomly
if about hour of work or 16 min of work or even 12 hour witout problem it suddenly restarts itself witout no error messege.

sometimes, after the initial restats it goes into this restart "loop" and doesnt get to the window loading screen, sometimes it even restart for about 5 times at any point during the load up, and sometimes it will run normally, no pattern what so ever (regarding work time, restart time, or times it will get to return to normal)

i dont think it could be overheating because sometimes it didnt restart for about 16 hours and other times, after a night of not working it restarts after 5 min.

also once it restarted while i was looking in the setup(DEL while booting) screen so i dont think it could be driver\software problem

also i have norton 2005 up to date so i dont know about virus

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Hello and welcome to Techspot.

Go HERE and follow the instructions.

If that doesn`t help. Zip 5 or 6 of your latest minidumps together, and attach them here.

Regards Howard :wave: :wave:

 

[baffy11]

i only have

i only have 2 files in my minidump directory

also how can i tell if my system could be overcloacked

 

[howard_hopkinso]

You can tell if your system is overclocked by looking in your bios.

Since a system doesn`t overclock itself. Either you, or someone else would have had to have done this.

You can always set your bios to the default settings, if you`re not sure. However, please be aware that if you do this, you may need to reset somethings in bios later.

Just follow the instructions I gave you, and if that doesn`t help, feel free to post your 2 minidumps.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

i dont think it could be bios because i can work on my machine for long time

do you have any idea what can go wrong?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

It could be any number of things.

Software/driver problems/hardware problems etc.

That`s why I want you to follow the instruction before posting your minidumps. This is to try and rule out a ram/hard drive/page file problem.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

tnx i will
but,
could it still be a driver/software problem
if a couple of times the machine restarted itself while on the bios screen?
and while not even loading windows?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

That could be caused by amongst other things an overheating problem. Check you system temperatures.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

well,
ram seems ok, and works ok according to Memtest86+
checked my bios it says 2.8 so overcloack is out of the question

according to the speed fan:

fan 3771 RPM

temp 1 24c
temp 2 30c
temp 3 -48 ?
local 29c
remote 37 c
HD 28c

now?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

You do realise that you need to let Memtest86+ run for at least seven full passes don`t you? This normally takes quite a long time to complete.

In any case post your minidumps, and I`ll see if they show anything.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

well here it is

by the way
do you know any viruses that may have infected me
so i can at least try to download some fix meanwhile

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Both your minidumps crash at smwdm.sys. This is your Soundmax onboard sound driver.

Go to your mobo manufacturers website and download, and install the latest sound drivers.

If you suspect a virus, go HERE and have your computer scanned.

Then, go and read both these threads by RBS. Follow all the instructions exactly.

How to remove Trojans and its ilk! and How to remove Begin2search / coolwebsearch and other nasties.

Then see How to post your Hijackthis log-file as an ATTACHMENT.

Then, start a new thread in the security and the web forum, and post your HJT log only after doing the above.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

well no restarts since the first post

i downloaded the latest soundMAX drivers from asus.com

hope it will work...
do you think a sound driver can just fault all of a sudden and cause the machine to random restart itself?

well anyway if this wont work ill format and install everything again

thanks

 

[howard_hopkinso]

For whatever reason drivers do sometimes become corrupt, which can make the system fall over.

Sometimes doing a reformat will help, othertimes it won`t. It just depends on what the problem actually is.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

so youre saying that windows installed currupt drivers can make the system reboot even in the bios screen (before windows boots up)?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

No that`s not what I`m saying. I was refering to BSOD`s within Windows.

I don`t know as yet why your machine rebooted in the bios screen.

Unless it does it again, I wouldn`t worry to much about it.

It could quite easily have been some type of glitch, that won`t appear again.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

well just had another 3-in a row reboots a min ago

dunno what to do

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Post the minidumps, and I`ll take a look at them.

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

here it is

tnx

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Unfortunately they`re the same two minidumps that you posted before.

I need the minidumps from your most recent crashes.

It did crash from within Windows didn`t it?

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

yeah it suddenly rebooted, from windows and then it rebooted two more times wwithout even getting to the windows loading screen

these are the files that in my
C:\WINDOWS\Minidump

i downladed the latest soundMAX drivers from asus.com

my mmotherboard by the way

p4p800s SE

 

[howard_hopkinso]

Go and run the Memtest programme, and let it run for a full seven passes. This will take several hours to complete.

Let us know if Memtest gives you any errors on your ram.

Then we can take it from there. Also test your hard drive as well. Instructions are HERE

Regards Howard

 

[baffy11]

hello again

well i finally finished the ram test 7 passes and it turned out with no errors
also did the dskchk and it turned out ok


what next?

 

[howard_hopkinso]

I need some fresh minidumps. Untill I get those there`s not a lot I can do.

I suppose you could try doing a Windows repair, as per this thread HERE. It might help.

Regards Howard

 

[Tedster]

what kind of stop errors are you getting?
what does your admin error log contain?