Stop and Restart

[Steve Gunn]

Hey guys,

This has been happening to me for a while and I've been wanting to know what the hell is going on and how I can fix it.
My computer occasionally restarts randomly or even just stops.
Do you know what could cause this?

It gets really annoying sometimes.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Could be quite a few things. Likely either your PSU is unstable, or a component (such as your CPU), is overheating. Monitor your system's temperatures and if they're abnormally high during the freeze/shut down then you've found your problem.

 

[Steve Gunn]

how can I tell the temperature of my CPU and my PSU?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Eh, you can't really check your PSU's temperature from within Window's as far as I'm aware. I wasn't suggesting that your PSU was overheating anyhow, just unstable.

There are quite a few applications you can use to check your CPU's temperature.

Your BIOS
Speedfan
Motherboard Monitor
HMonitor
SensorView
CPUCool
I think some of the BurnInTest applications monitor temperatures and Everest might as well.

The list could go on forever. Go use a search engine and use what you care to.

 

[Steve Gunn]

Where could I find some of these applications?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

www.google.com
search.yahoo.com

Have at it...

 

[Steve Gunn]

Ok I got CPUCool...now how do I read the readings its getting?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

What do you mean how do you read them?

What does it report your CPU's temperature to be?

 

[Steve Gunn]

This is all the temperatures or this is what shows up.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Your temperatures appear to be fine although I'm sure that reading is probably one that was taken during very low load.

What are you usually doing during the time that your PC freezes/reboots?

 

[Steve Gunn]

the usual..I have my media player running, my Browser...a couple of windows...with files...Skype, MSN...the usual...nothing out of the ordinary. And before I was missing a couple of .dlls and I thought that was the case. But it appears that it isn't. Before it was more often. But now it only happens once every week or so...sometimes once every three days. Is there a software out there that might be able to gather disgnostics to see what might be the problem?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

You can check the Event Viewer.

Start>Control Panel>Administrative Tools>Event Viewer

 

[Steve Gunn]

I got this error report this morning...http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/....2.0?SGD=5dccf428-a6f8-4d71-9b77-abed03a27b05

Not sure if it will come up for you...it said it was a "Stop Error" Caused by a Device Driver. Do you know what Device Driver it is?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Look in the directory C:\Windows\Minidump for a .dmp file and post the latest one (or few). If that directory doesn't exists, search your HDD for a .dmp file.

 

[mattb2e]

Your computer is restarting because by default when windows encounters a system error it will log the error and automatically restart, if you turn off automatic restart you will get a BSOD (blue screen of death) which will tell you a generic description of your error. You should have quite a few minidumps if you have had this problem for a while, post your minidumps and we should be able to tell you what is causing the problem.

 

[Steve Gunn]

Here are all 4 of the Minidumps I have in that file.

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Try uninstalling AVG and see if it clears up.

 

[Steve Gunn]

But then I won't have a Anti-Virus

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Eh, if it is causing your system to lock up and/or crash isn't it worth getting a different AV?

 

[Steve Gunn]

Ok, but if it is AVG then what do you reccomend as my new AV?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

I don't know free AVs too well. I've been using NOD32 for years, and wouldn't go back. People seem to praise Avast as much as they do AVG though.

 

[Steve Gunn]

Between Avast and NOD32 which one is better?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

NOD32 by far. Check out the charts at Virus Bulletin.

 

[Steve Gunn]

but what version of NOD32 do you use? Business Edition or Home Edition?

 

[Matthew DeCarlo]

There aren't two seperate editions from what I can see. The "Business" option allows you to buy a bundle package of their software. Unless you want to buy 5, 10, or 15 copies, it'd be wise to go with "Home & Home Office".