Topic: Very strange reboots without any warning.

[Hussaro]

Hello!

I don't know if I should post in Software or in Hardware thread, cause I don't know where the problem is originating from.

Here is the status of my PC to start with:

Motherboard: MSI
HardDrive: 60GB
RAM:512MB DDR
Graphic Card: FeForce4 MX 440
Processor: 2GHz processor
OS: Windows XP Professional

And here is my problem. A few weeks ago my PC was getting weird reboots. They happened with no warning at all. The PC just shut down and restarted. Logically I emmediatly thought of the Sasser Worm. Scanned my whole PC with any Virus Scanner I could think of: nothing. And the reboots kept on happening. I still thought it was the Sasser Worm so I decided to go drastic and do a Format C.

Funny enough: when windows XP was installing my PC had a reboot... So I continued anyways and windows XP was installed. However, after a week, week and a half, without any reboots, they just happened again. And since then they haven't stopped pestering me!

The reboots are weird as well... Sometimes the PC shuts down, restarts and before the BIOS can, get activated, it reboots. Then it starts up again, I hear the "bleep" of the BIOS but nothing happens. My monitor stays in stand by and my PC wont go further in the startup procedure.

Some other times it reboots and restarts absolutely normal, dropping me on desktop with a "severe error" message.

Then other times, it reboots, starts up normaly but during the windows loading screen in the startup procedure it just gets thrown back at the start of the startup...

I'm really clueless... There are no indications why my PC should do this. I cleaned out my PC very well, I changed the battery on the motherboard, I tried booting from CD, I defragmentated and cleaned the C: Drive, but I'm running out of options...

Also it happens at any time, when my PC is just on stand by, when I'm online, when I'm offline, when I'm browsing the internet, when I'm playing a game, etc...

Does anyone have any clue what is going on with my PC? Any help would be appreciated!

Many thanks!

Sandy.

[Sandra]

Hi Sandy and

In order that you can can see any error messages when it reboots I suggest that you go into System Properties/Advanced/Startup and Recovery Settings and untick Automatically Restart in the System Failure part.
This may cure your problem in itself with any luck as XP tends to reboot itself at the slightest sign of a problem which wouldnt normally affect the operation of your PC.
If it doesnt cure it then at least it will stop at the BSOD and give you an error message which may help you, or if you post it on here one of us, to find the cause  

[Hussaro]

Thank you for the warm welcome!

I will try your suggestion right away!

If a reboot happens again, I will post the error message as a reply to this thread

Many thanks allready!

Oh and PS: Sorry if my english is a bit akward sometimes, but I'm Belgian

Greetings!

Sandy.

[Sandra]

Ton anglaise est plus meilleur que ma francais Sandy, a bientot et bon chance  

[Hussaro]

Merci Mais le nérlandais est la langue que je parles le plus Et ton francais n'est pas mal du tous!

Anyways, I've changed the setting from the second I read your reply and so far so good! About 5 hours now without any reboot occuring! Thanks!

Sandy.

[Dack]

I'd have a look at the computer running without the case on to check that the fans are working. It sounds like a 'overheat and reboot' sort of problem to me.

[Hussaro]

Yeah someone told me too. So I opened the case, cleaned the fans out very well. They are as good as new. I had the PC running for a few days without the case, and it still had the same problems.

But so far so good, it STILL hasn't rebooted and it has been on for almost 24 hours now, so I think I finally got rid of the bug!

Thank you so much all! You all saved me a wicked amount of money cause I was this close ---><--- to buy a new PC.

Greetings,

Sandy.

[ketamininja]

Indeed - heat is the first issue I would look at for any "random" reboot.

Your mainboard should have a temperature monitor software available from the manufacturers website.

Grab this, and monitor temps.

2Ghz CPU - don't know if AMD or PENTY, so I would say IDLE temp (pc not really doing anything) of the CPU should be 40c or below if you can. Max temp 65c when running a LOT, but even that could be too much on some PC's.

Ambient temps indside case should be less than 50c if you can.


A+++++

[measter]

you should be able to check the processors and the motherboard temp in the bios. in mine there's a hardware..... damn it! i can't remember the word! anyway, theres a "page" where i can see the temp and fan speeds, so mayby you got one in your bios too.

[Hussaro]

I checked the temperature when the PC was running for a long time (like 6 hours or something) and it had 39° then. So I don't really think it has something to do with the temperature.

So yeah, I have been reboot free for some time. But today I got booted to a blue screen. With a lot of yabbing text on it, wich seemed pretty standard. However, this combination letters and numbers (wich seem random to me  ) was in it:

***STOP: 0X0000000A (0XF5042004, 0X000000FF, 0X00000000, 0X804F7E8C)

Then when I started the PC again (it wasn't really a reboot, it fell back to the blue screen and I had to shut down the pc with the power-button and start it again) a few minutes later, I crashed to the blue screen again. With pretty much the same blahblah also the combination of letters was added (see above) but now something else was added! It was the following thing:

NPFS.SYS - ADRESS F8906C64 base at F8905000, DateStamp 367d8376 (the last combination could also be 3b7d837b <Damn my handwriting>)

Dunno if those are any help. But Sandra told me to post what I saw with error messages and such... And obedient as I am

Anyways, since the last reboot, it didn't occur again... And the reboots are much less frequent as they were before. Thanks allready for that!

Greetings,

Sandy.

[Sandra]

Hi Sandy, sorry to hear that you are still having random reboots.
Unticking the Auto Restart box has worked on all the other pcs I have been involved with that are running XP  

I have had a quick look around for those error codes but cant find anything at all so far, usually the ones I have seen have been 07xxxxxx or 05xxxxxxxxx I dont think I have ever seen 0Xxxxxx nor apparently has anyone else as far as I can see  

The next time it blue screens can you look in Admin Tools/Event Viewer/System, after you successfully restart of course and see if there is an event ID number in there from around the time it blue screened  

[Hussaro]

Ok I searshed for logs and found the two errors that occured yesterday.

They both are under category (102) and both carry the event-ID 1003.

It also says something with parameters, so I'll add these too, jus tin case you might need them.

Here are the parameters for the first boot I got:
Errorcode: 0000000a
Parameter 1:f5042004
Parameter 2:000000ff
Parameter 3:00000000
Parameter 4:804f7e8c

These are the parameters for the second boot:
Errorcode:1000008e
Parameter 1:c0000005
Parameter 2:f8906c04
Parameter 3:f5335b80
Parameter 4:00000000

If I didn't knew any better, those errorcodes and parameters look like HTML color-codes  

Anyways, thanks for putting your time in this guys, very much appreciated!

Greetings,
Sandy.

[Sandra]

The reason for the event ID 1003 is here :

http://66.200.20.8/evtbkstart.asp?Name=Demo&Email=Demo&key=N1251D9-U10-4269-RLFEF-JJFG-16&Eventid=1003&MsgSearchByEvent=True

Unfortunately it doesnt say what is causing it  

[ketamininja]

0x0000000A

Typically due to a bad driver, or faulty or incompatible hardware or software. Not limited to this - could be temp or memory issue.

If you check your temp in the BIOS this can give a false reading.
Whenever you are in the BIOS your CPU is idle.

Temp can fall dramatically when you reboot, even if it only takes a few seconds. I've seen the temp (during a stress test) go from 69c in the software, PC crash, reboot (7 seconds or so) and its 40c in the BIOS! Thats just 7 seconds, but the overheating was causing the problems.

[Hussaro]

Well, the problems never really went away. So I took the PC to the repairs shop. Something seemed to have been wrong with my power feed. And the problem radiated over onto my motherboard. So they replaced motherboard and power feed and now the problems have been solved:  

I would like to thank you all for the good help I've received here! Really many thanks!

 

Many hugs,

Sandy.