Random restarts... Windows bugchecks... please help.

[Darric]

Hi everyone,

I've been grappling with this problem for quite some time now, and I'm at the end of my tether. Basically I've been having random spontaneous restarts of my system, and I just can't seem to work out what's causing them.

At first they seemed to be isolated to when I was playing games, but it seems now it's happening in Windows as well. Anyway, first thing I did was turn off automatic restart, but unfortunately in the game causing the most problems (World of Warcraft) the BSODs were unreadable.

Last night however, a BSOD occurred while I was just browsing, labelled BAD_POOL_HEADER.

I suspected that my RAM was maybe faulty, so I ran the memtest86+ floppy disk test, it ran successfully for 5 hours without any errors.

I just dunno what to do anymore, whether to blame hardware or software. These are my specs:

Windows XP Pro (SP2)
AMD Athlon XP 1800+ (1.53 GHz)
MSI MS-6734 Mainboard (VIA KM400 chipset)
768 MB DDR RAM in 2 slots (512 and a 256)
Sapphire Atlantis Radeon 9600 Pro (Catalyst 5.5)
Onboard AC-97 sound (VIA vinyl v600a drivers)
DirectX 9.0c

I've attached the last few minidumps, as well as an up to date DXdiag output file.

All help is appreciated.

 

[Darric]

No one? =\

 

[Darric]

The extent to which I've ping ponged on this issue over the last week is insane. Hardware, drivers, hardware, drivers, overheating, PSU, drivers. *cries*

I think after a lot of testing I can verify that my RAM is not the problem.

New suspect: Could it be the newish Hard Drive?

The thread seems to have been mostly ignored, but as ever if anyone has any opinions are would be so kind as to analyze my minidumps, I'd appreciate it...

 

[IronDuke]

Hang on in there Darric. It is mostly one guy has the skills with these. Hopefully he will find time to look at them.

 

[Darric]

Heh, I'm trying but I've never been so frustrated in my life. You know, you spend all week fixing your parents' PC issues but you just can't fix your own. ;p

And I assume you're talking about cpc2004? His skills are legendary. ;p

*waits and hopes*

 

[cpc2004]

3 cases crashed with BC 19, 1 case with BC 50, 1 case with BC C2 and 1 case with C5. You have random bugcheck code and all the bugcheck codes are related to RAM. I believe that it is RAM problem. Some faulty ram can pass memtest. Reseat the memory to another memory slot.

If it is ram problem, you will have huge DrWatson log with a lot access violation at different modules. Provide that you does not disable DrWatson.
C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Microsoft\Dr Watson\drwtsn32.log


BC means Bugcheck Code

 

[Darric]

Thanks for looking over the minidumps, cpc2004, you have no idea how much I appreciate it!

I was past suspecting the RAM when memtest86 ran without errors, but I guess even that can't be infallible.

I have tried reseating the RAM a while back, in that I removed them (I have two modules and two slots), gently air-cleaned them (both slots and modules) and then replaced them in each other's slots. This did not stop the crashes.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it in the original post, but I have removed the 256 module and run the PC on only the 512, but the crashes remained. So I have every reason to suspect that it is thus the 512 module that is faulty. Removing it seemed like overkill at the time, but I'll try that and see if it works.

Alas I'm going on holiday for 10 days, so I'll have to try it when I get back. =\

One last thing: Do you think it's possible that it might be the power supply? I've had at least one suggestion that perhaps my power supply is too low for my system, causing the BSOD's/resets. Unfortunately this is somewhat harder to test as I don't have a higher power PSU lying around. =(

Thanks again.

 

[mulato0707]

random restarts

Darric, were you able to get your problem fixed. I too have the same problem. Computer will rebot suddenly no matter what I am doing. Then when it rebots I get the blue screen of death. stating BAD_POOL_HEADER. I have a ATI ALL IN WONDER 9600 and tried to reinstal the drivers but that did not work. I also tried to run all the windows updates and patches with no luck. I am getting very frustraded with this error. If you find any information out please let me know.


BCCode: 10000050 BCP1: A5EC8E35 BCP2: 00000001 BCP3: BF89F5F1 BCP4: 00000000 OSVer5_1_2600 SP: 2_0 Product 768_1

I am also getting a error message when I log back on stating "Can't find script engine VBScript ror Script

 

[puppetgrimm1]

One last thing: Do you think it's possible that it might be the power supply? I've had at least one suggestion that perhaps my power supply is too low for my system, causing the BSOD's/resets. Unfortunately this is somewhat harder to test as I don't have a higher power PSU lying around. =(

Thanks again.

I had the same problem. The symptoms were Overheating, random shut downs and the blue screen of death. You should try checking the fan on the power supply and the one on the CPU a quick way to do this is to simply touch the side of your tower if its hot to the touch its obviously over heating then, if the fan on the power supply is still working try cleaning it the best you can with canned air do the same for the CPU fan. you could also clean the inside of your computer throughly of all its dust as this can damage the mother board or other hardware. If you have to get another power supply try going to fry's\outpost if you have one in your area. They can be had anyware from 20.00 to 500,00 A desent one should only cost around 100.00.


P.S. If your getting the blue screen of death after you install the powersupply try booting from the windows disk and do a repair "It worked for me"

Hope this helps!
Late
Puppetgrimm1

 

[mulato0707]

Random Restarts

Thanks for the information puppetgrimm1, good to know for the future. My problem ended up being bad RAM. I had 1GB of SDRAM (1 each 512mb and 2 each 256 mb). I just pulled the two 256mb cards, restarted the computer and no problems at all. It’s been two days now and working great. It was getting pretty frustrating trying to solve this problem because the computer would restart about every 2 to 5 mins.

I first thought the problem was a bad graphics card. I installed an ATI ALL IN WONDER 9600 Pro (128mb) about a month ago and though for sure that was it. Reinstalled all the software/updates and still had the problem.

This serous problem ended up being a very easy fix.

Thanks again for the information. mulato07

 

[Darric]

Well, just got back from my holiday. Time to begin testing...!

Removed 512MB module... let's see how things go.

Updates to follow...

 

[Darric]

At the request of cpc2004, an update...

Having tried various ways to get around the problem (I eventually realized that my RAM was perfectly alright), I eventually narrowed it down to my ISDN modem. Merely installing it in my brother's PC and connecting to the net would cause similar resets.

So, based on that I took a plunge and forked out for a new ISDN modem (a Dynalink PCI ISDN modem) which worked like a charm. For a while I wasn't having a single reset. Then I started getting bugcheck 35 resets...