*sigh* Is this it? (PC problem)

[Brennihelvete]

Originally posted by andrewas: Nah, overheating wouldnt be so regular. It tends to hit semi-random after the machines be up a while. Sometimes only during intense CPU/GPU activity. This sounds like a software glitch to me.

Depends on how effective his fan is.
But yet again I must agree that that its very unlikely, although there is a possibility. Yes it can be a faulty ram brick. They cause all sorts of painful errors. Though I havent been into this sort of errors before, and windows XP would shut down itself and generate an error log if this was the issue. It may be a software glitch and it may not...
To find out if its overheating go into BIOS(Hit DEL on start up) and check the temperatures. Is it stable? or Rising?
To find out if its a faulty RAM, do as Ziroc told you.
If its none of these I'd reccomend taking your HD to a friend and check if it boots up properly there. If it doesnt try to format your HD and do a fresh install before you start looking for a ne HD. If it does however, its not your HD nor a system glitch and it should be some else faulty component...

[Bungleau]

Swapfile: Control panel, System, Advanced options, Performance (on Win2k). Also known as virtual memory, it's disk space that gets used like memory. Swapping in and out of it is bad... SEt the initial size and max size to the same thing, and you have fixed swap space.

You might also consider reinstalling Windows over the existing installation. That may correct any bad DLLs or other files which could be causing grief. It's also a less stressful option than completely reinstalling the hard drive.

Also, consider doing a full scandisk. Switch your virtual memory around to a smaller size (but don't get rid of it!) and be sure to scan the entire drive, including a low-level scan.

And from Simmtester.com, you can get a memory testing program for free which will do some in-depth checking of your memory, and can help clue you in as to whether it's bad or not. Of course, if you can't run any programs, that won't help much...

[slicer15]

I had a previous problem fo when my PC would reboot by itself randomly, during anything. This could be an escalation of that problem, and I had Win2k before. I upgraded to XP a little while ago. But anyway, the point I'm trying to make is that the hard drive could have been unstable from the start with the previous problem.

[Ziroc]

Do you have a lot of HD Space free?

[Animal]

Turn off Quick POST in your BIOS. This will run a more comprehensive scan of your memory during initial boot. Usually any RAM problems will show up during this test.

What configuration of memory modules do you have? You've got 256MB dimms, so do you have 1 or 2 modules? If you have two, you can pull 1 and test each module individually. If it crashes both times, it's not a memory problem.

A log file certainly would be extremely handy to have.

[slicer15]

Sorry, haven't got round to checking it yet (school, revision etc.) but I feel I have to tell you that my PC also stalls and reboots even if I do nothing. That is, I left it on for a while, in the Select User screen and after a little while it stalled and restarted. Does this change anything? I just feel it was an important point to mention, since it is not only when I start a program. That just encourages the problem.

[Brennihelvete]

Now it looks more like a software problem. Faulty Memory, create more random errors. Dont you get a blue screen when it reboots? Or does it just reboot? Did u uncheck the "System Failure: Reboot"? Because if you dindt you should do so.

[slicer15]

When you say uncheck the System Error: Reboot, do you mean in case of an error? Like, the small box you can tick and untick? Because if that's what you mean then I have unchecked it. And the memory dump. And no, I don't get a blue screen. It just goes black and reboots. It could be a virus corrupting the .exe files, and if that is so, then I am screwed, right? I will have to wipe the hard drive...again...

Also, unfortunately, my RAM is one stick...*sigh*...I am realy unlucky with PC's, I tell you...they hate me...

EDIT: Oh yeah, these PC's are networkd though, and this one has an AntiVirus program, so wouldn't it try to affect this PC too? So, if it hasn't, it may not be a virus? Just a thought...

[ 04-29-2003, 12:37 PM: Message edited by: slicer15 ]

[slicer15]

Erm...another update (since I can no longer edit the post above) Safe mode works fine. Does this say anything more? Anyway, I will try the previous suggestions...

EDIT: Oh, and to answer Ziroc's question, yes, I have a lot left...25.6GB to be exact...

Okay, another update. I really need advice on this. I went into the Event viewer to check for errors. This is what I found, the topmost one being the latest:

Error 1:-
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load:
Fips
IPSec
MRxSmb
NetBIOS
NetBT
RasAcd
Rdbss
Tcpip

Error 2:-
The IPSEC Services depends on the IPSEC driver service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

Error 3:-
The Messenger service depends on the NetBIOS Interface service which failed to start because of the following error:
A device attached to the system is not functioning.

Now it repeats the above error for the TCP/IP Protocol Driver, the NetBios over Tcpip service. I think that is because of Safe Mode, though.

It also repeats the errors that the NVIDIA Driver Helper Service and the Macafee.com Online Realtime Engine service failed to load because the system failed to find the file specified.

Now, I could be blabbering nonsense, and I think the errors are because of the Safe Mode start, now that I think about it...other than those listed above, it only has a couple of "bad blocks". Please tell me what else I could do in Safe Mode to check for the problem...thank you very much again...I really need help...sorry to inconvenience you and make you wast5e your time. It really is appreciated.

[ 04-29-2003, 01:35 PM: Message edited by: slicer15 ]

[andrewas]

Safe mode working fine implys its a software glitch of some description. Probably, anyway.

Re-install of windows is probably your safest bet.

EDIT]

The errors you post are related to safe mode. In safe mode, there is no networking. So IPSEC and so on and so forth wont be starting. Errors should indicate that, but this is M$ were talking about.

But the log should have more than that in it. Try and find some errors which correspond to crash times.

[ 04-29-2003, 01:40 PM: Message edited by: andrewas ]