Topic: Yet another restarting problem

[Lindsay]

Hiya.
I have XP.
My computer has been restarting for about a year now so I finally decided to do something about it!
It is always when I am doing something that makes it "work hard" like playing a game or listening to music. It's ok for about 5 minutes but after that you are just waiting for it to crash. Listening to music is actually ok, I can do that for about half an hour before it restarts but not if I am running a few other programs.
I don't get any warnings or anything, it just does it, and once it has restarted, it will keep doing it until you turn it off and leave it for a while.
I thought it sounded exactly like a temperature problem but I dunno.
One time after it restarted I got a wee box saying I had a trogan horse..it was a wee AVG warning thing. I had one saying I had a virus as well once. I have done virus scans though and it can't find anything so I don't know what's wrong. Oh yeah and sometimes I get the blue screen but not very often.
Thank you!
Linz

[Simon]

Until someone more technical comes along with a possible reason for the restarts, what you could try, to stop them, is right click My Computer (on your desktop), click Properties > Advanced > then click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery.  There, you should be able to untick the box, under System Failure, which says Restart Automatically.  Then if the problem occurs, you may well get an error message, or a blue screen, which might give some more clues as to the reason for the problem.

[Lindsay]

Oh big development! I did try that thing you suggested, but it didn't make any difference. Things have got a lot worse now though, because not long after I posted that topic, I was playing a game (silly I know but it was just for about 1 and a half mins max) and it restarted, but then I was faced with a blue screen and on it it said "PAGE_FAULT_IN_NONPAGE_AREA" and
*** STOP: 0x00000050 (0x8B790017, 0x00000001, 0xE2E4A438, 0x00000000)

So I restarted as it suggested but I kept getting the blue screen. It didn't always say the same thing though, I got lots of different 0x00.... things and I also got "DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL"

After about 7 or 8 blue screens I gave up and turned off the computer at the wall and came back to it about an hour later. It started up ok, apart from the Everex logo thing not coming up, but the colour is all messed up, like, really bad quality. I tried to change it, but color quality is at lowest 4 bit and it won't let me change it.
Also when I logged on, I got a box saying something about a failure and dynamic link library and C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\NvCpl.dll
Its not looking good, is it?   :'(

[Sandra]

Hi Lindsay, Have a look here :

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?
url=/resources/documentation/Windows/XP/all/reskit/en-us/prmd_stp_czgw.asp

I would be tempted to uninstall and disconnect any equipment connected to your computer, scanner, printer etc and see if it runs ok for a few days with the minimum peripherals connected.
Then add one and try it for a few more days, then another and so on to see if you can narrow it down to one thing.
In fact I would be tempted to uninstall every device you have and reinstall just what you need to run the pc initially and see how that goes for a day or two  

* Simon modified link for Mozilla users.  

[Simon]

If it's any help, C:\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\NvCpl.dll is your Nvidia graphics card control panel, which lives in your system tray.  Maybe you have a problem with the graphics card?  Overheating, perhaps?

[BMF]

I have a similar problem but with 2 different files.. please read it here
http://pc-pals.com/index.php?board=28;action=display;threadid=12555

and help me out, if I disconnect do I need to disable anything too? All I got connected is my USB ethernet for broadband (which I think may be causing the problems) but I need that connected to be able to get on the net.

BMF

::EDIT::
Also, does it matter if there are like 4 things using IRQ 21?  There are 4 USB devices (apparently) connected to IQR 21 everything else has its own IRQ.

[Simon]

In the absence of any techies, I have been desparately trying to find something on Google to relate to this, and wondered if this might be of any help?

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=820759

It's not exactly your symptoms, but it does relate to USB devices and a problem with Usbehci.sys, which you mentioned in your other thread.  

I believe the "ircq less or not equal" thing is indeed a driver conflict, but that's as far as my technical knowledge goes.

Hopefully, someone will be able to help you better this evening.

[ketamininja]

Just to let you know, unchecking that box FORCES the blue screens. What really happens when your pc restarts is the blue screen comes up, but Microsoft thought that scared people, so had it restart automatically (saving you the job).

XP BSOD issues are usually HARDWARE (including driver software) related - XP does run very well with non-faulty equipment and the correct drivers for them.

0x000000?? errors are the easiest to diagnose. You had 0x00000050 (exclude the numbers after that in brackets for now), so that becomes 0x50. If you do any google search for that type of number and XP, you will get results.

http://www.osr.com/ddk/ddtools/bccodes_4qsn.htm

^^ That might get you resolved, but if there are any issues you are unsure of (ie what NTFS means), get back to us. Also tell us your success and failures so that anyone else with the trouble might find a solution here!

Good luck!

[ketamininja]

BMF: Usb is a controller - it has the IRQ 21. Any devices that are attached are through the controller, hence they all have the same IRQ (unless you have more than one controller).

You can actually attach 127 devices through one USB controller!
But, USB devices consume up to 5v each. Obviously, a bigger power supply may be required for a lot of devices - and if you have a poor PSU, then it might not support even two devices!

That may be the problem for both of you. If you have a faulty device (PSU, graphics card, whatever) then power may not be distributed correctly - your GFX card may be drawing a lot of power, causing the restart (or BSOD) cause the computer crashes (if CPU loses power and can't do its IDLE cycle, it will STOP! CPU, must ALWAYS be doing something, even if its telling itself to do nothing!).

HTH.