Windows XP crashing. | The Coffeehouse

zhuo

Hey guys,

My windows XP machine crashes every now and then, i.e. no blue screen or nothing, it just goes black, sometimes it reboots itself, other times it just goes black and i have to manually reboot.

Is there a log or something that I can check to see what problem it is? I suspect it's the video driver but I've updated that with no luck.

This has already corrupted my system once, lucky i had all my data in tact.

Any suggestions is much appreciated. Cheers

James Smiley

jamie

is your internal fan working? (ie is the cpu over heating and shutting off?)

Cornelius Ellsonpeter

CannotResolveSymbol wrote:
Make sure "Automatically Restart" on the Startup and Recovery dialog (found on the advanced tab of System Properties) is not checked. That way, if it's Windows crashing (and not your processor overheating or something), you'll get a blue screen instead of a mysterious dialog.

Yep...I didn't know about this until somebody posted that here. I downloaded some buggy updates to WMP and when I would go into certain menus/tabs the PC would suddenly reboot for no reason.

Like, right in the middle of a song.

I think it's kind of a stupid XP default option to have your PC boot and leave the user guessing as to what happened.

Angus
.

This happens to me, but I have tracked it down to my graphics card, it only happens when I am playing games, and like you it makes the screen go black, and sometimes reboot, although, I usually have to manually reboot.

My advice is to try and track down the problem by testing with heat sensors, and doing tests with different types of application, i.e. those that test the hard-drive, the graphics card, the sound card, etc.

Angus Higgins

CannotResolveSymbol
{insert caption here}

Make sure "Automatically Restart" on the Startup and Recovery dialog (found on the advanced tab of System Properties) is not checked. That way, if it's Windows crashing (and not your processor overheating or something), you'll get a blue screen instead of a mysterious ~~dialog~~ reboot.

That said, you can check to see what the errors were in the event log. Go to Control Panel->Administrative Tools->Event Viewer and look for any errors in the "System" log. It's been a while since I've had a blue-screen, so I don't know what the label for the event will be, but it should be reasonably obvious.

[edited: don't know where that came from...]

code001
very simple and linear like Picasso

Two things:
You can try with the old fellow Doctor Watson in Accessries>>System Utilities>>Dr. Watson

And then I have strong problems with a Graphic chip on a portable: their pins were unsolded by the cause of excessive heating (I don't thing it is your case)

zhuo

Thanks very much guys. The windows' automatic restart option is already unchecked so I am guessing it's a hardware issue that is causing a restart, very annoying.

I will try Dr Watson as suggested, i haven't tweaked my PCs since years ago so I don't know what's out there, much appreciated if you guys could point me to more of the same sort that you think is good.

Cheers
James Smiley

beeman99

I've been having a similar problem. With me it's been when I've been transfering files to my Ipod, PSP, or treo that it kills windows, and it only does it every once in a while. I put a new 2.0 card in and a new power supply, and my heat isn't a problem. What the hell could be causing the usb port to screw over windows??

cescotto

beeman99 wrote:
I've been having a similar problem. With me it's been when I've been transfering files to my Ipod, PSP, or treo that it kills windows, and it only does it every once in a while. I put a new 2.0 card in and a new power supply, and my heat isn't a problem. What the hell could be causing the usb port to screw over windows??

Buggy USB drivers? Try using websites like drivershq or radarsync to see if there are updates available for your drivers, especially USB drivers.

If the machine just reboots however this sounds more like an hardware issue (especially if you have a VIA chipset) rather than a driver issue.

beeman99

I wish my system just rebooted. My sys will lock up, and then reboot. When it reboots windows is dead, it's happened 4 times now, and each time it's been a little different, but in the end it's been the same result. I try a clean install of windows everytime, but it eventually happens again

cescotto wrote:

beeman99 wrote:I've been having a similar problem. With me it's been when I've been transfering files to my Ipod, PSP, or treo that it kills windows, and it only does it every once in a while. I put a new 2.0 card in and a new power supply, and my heat isn't a problem. What the hell could be causing the usb port to screw over windows??

Buggy USB drivers? Try using websites like drivershq or radarsync to see if there are updates available for your drivers, especially USB drivers.

If the machine just reboots however this sounds more like an hardware issue (especially if you have a VIA chipset) rather than a driver issue.

JChung2006

Faulty or failing hardware is usually the culprit for Windows XP crashing.

cescotto

beeman99 wrote:
I wish my system just rebooted. My sys will lock up, and then reboot. When it reboots windows is dead, it's happened 4 times now, and each time it's been a little different, but in the end it's been the same result. I try a clean install of windows everytime, but it eventually happens again

Does this happens only when doing USB transfers? Have you tried updating all the drivers with radarsync or drivershq like I said? (just install them, see if there are newer drivers available and then download them from the manifacturers websites)

cescotto

beeman99 wrote:
I wish my system just rebooted. My sys will lock up, and then reboot. When it reboots windows is dead, it's happened 4 times now, and each time it's been a little different, but in the end it's been the same result. I try a clean install of windows everytime, but it eventually happens again

Does this happens only when doing USB transfers? Have you tried updating all the drivers like I said?

beeman99

cescotto wrote:

beeman99 wrote:I wish my system just rebooted. My sys will lock up, and then reboot. When it reboots windows is dead, it's happened 4 times now, and each time it's been a little different, but in the end it's been the same result. I try a clean install of windows everytime, but it eventually happens again

Does this happens only when doing USB transfers? Have you tried updating all the drivers like I said?

it only happens when I am doing USB transfers, and I did update the drivers like you said. I'm a little timid in hooking anything back up to make some transfers, but I will either tonight or tomorrow, will know better then