Win2k Pro Restarts Radomly!!

Hi,

I have win2k and LATELY ive encountered a problem. I noticed that when insert a CD into the cdrom tray, the computer just randomly resets. I have the "automatically reboot" option unchecked too! I have 2 drives. 1 cd rom drive, and 1 24x sony CDRW. This happens when the cd is inserted into either one. A trick i figured out is to take the content of the cd, for example im trying to install Photoshop 7 so i copy the content and paste into a folder on the harddrive.

Then i double click setup from the folder so im not using the cdrom. That used to work but not anymore. Now EVEN that resets. I have 394mb ram and i have had it for a 1.5 years now. All my setup is exactly the same, the problem is new though. I even took out my ram and replaced 1 stick w/ another + wiped the gold pins w/ a clean clothe. Ive heard that using a pencil eraser to clean the gold pins on the ram is also good. I dont know about that. I have eliminated the problem to not being the CDrom because it resets when i have no cd roms too. Ive eliminated the RAM too because i did standalone sticks one at a time and it still resets.

Ive tried a different harddrive and dumped the image onto it and it still resets so its not the harddrive. My hd is a 40gb maxtor. Ive installed and re-installed win2k many times. Ive reloaded the image many times. Nothing worked. Im down to my last nerve and im now guessing it maybe the motherboard. Ive heard "updating" my Bios might help but thats too hard or atleast i dont know how. It can't be bios because EVERYTHING has been the same all this time and i understand hardware can and WILL
"just break ". Its hardware. I do not have ANY heat problems at all and in fact i have 2 fans pumping air in towards the harddrive at all times and one pointing towards my video card. Another thing i noticed is that win2k did not install my video card this time. I then took it out and put another and the problem still exists.

Its weird...it just Restarts by itself, when it wants. Sometimes im just surfing the net and BAM, restart. Sometimes im playing a game and it happens. I cant even install software right now because it restarts when the setup file is executed. Or sometimes it just restarts at the "splash" screen when the loader is doing its thing. I don't understand why...someone please help.! If this doesnt work, im turning it into a linux desktop..***** windows.

My System:
Win2k Pro Sp3
PIII 800mhz
394mb ram
40gb Maxtro hd
Abit vh6 mobo

Thank you.

 

I'm afraid I don't have any suggestions, in fact I have the same problem on a brand new P4 machine running Win 2K pro. No involvement of the CDROM drive. The machine when left alone for awhile, simply suddently re-boots.

Anyone know whether this could be a Windows OS problem? or perhaps a hardware problem?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Dan

 

Hardware and software can both cause this issue. There are many many things to check when this kind of issue occurs. First, check event viewer, look at your processes list, and run all the updates you can find. Second, check BIOS settings. Third, use your last known good configuration. Fourth, flash your BIOS. Fifth, try running a nice system check utility like BurninTest Pro, available for download from download.com. Sixth, reload. Seventh, pray. Eighth, swear.

If anything turns up from any of this, and it doesn't fix your issue, let me know what you found and I may have something else.

 

Hello :
I have had the same problem ,( strange restarts ) with a p3 800
it was the mother board . Wish I could remember what board it was but no luck . This also fried my video card . At this point I just went to a 2.4 with new getforce vid card so I do not know if you could save the processor .

Good luck


Ps the new 2.4 had a heat issue that did sorta the same thing only mostly crashed programs a new fan fixed this .

 

Tracking down problem

Thanks for both replies, esp Swelldom's suggestions

1. Following your exc suggestions I checked the event viewer -and because I did not get any really useful error messages (the reason why Win2k rebooted) I did the following

2. Went to Advanced Tab (after right clicking My Computer & choosing Properties)

3. Then on this menu hit the button for setting what to do on Startup & Recovery.

4. Here I unchecked the Automatically boot option, figuring that when error occured I would be able to read some message if the machine did not re-boot.

Sure enough, instead of re-booting machine froze with a message about Page Fault -non paged area ..began physical dump of memory...

My suspicion is that I need to rule out Defective RAM -I should be getting some DDR memory in the next few days -so I will swap out the current memory with the new one. If the problem disappears then we'll know that it was the RAM at fault.

If not -then I will put the hard drive into an identical machine & see what happens (I should be getting another machine in a couple of days) this is a kind of easy/fast motherboard/ power supply swap). Since the unit is a Shuttle SS51G -swapping the HD is much faster than swapping the mother board.

What do you think Swelldom?? Anything else I can do before
I get the RAM and/or the identical machine?

Thanks a lot

Dan

 

I did everything..except flash my bios. Nothing worked. I have a basic idea of where its coming from. I think its the motherboard. The reason i say this is ive eliminated the memory, harddrive, nic, video card and OS! Ive installed linux and it resets during the installation of that. I don't mind if it's a motherboad problem cause the piii board is like 18.00 at the stores now!! Im going to build my p4 hopefully soon. I think im gonna go w/ xp this time. win2k wasnt bad but i want XP. Im turning the 800mhz machine into a linux gaming box next to my other linux webserver.

This problem is fairly new too. Seems like lots of people have it. Well, any other suggestions?

OH, how do i flash my Bios?? I have an award bios.

 

Actually, this post has just become funny to me. I was building a machine for a friend last night, and the system would reboot itself. I managed to determine pretty quickly that it had to be one of the pieces of new hardware I had put in from his old machine. Ends up that it was the modem. Possibly just a resource conflict. I'll play with it more tonight. Not suggesting that you remove your modem or anything, just that it could be something other than hardware failure.

 

Memory test utility

 

i can't even get into windows anymore. This *****. Im pretty sure its the motherboard now. It cant be the memory because ive tested it alone and and one by one. its the mother board. Im buying one this week and i'll let you know how it turns out and if that is indeed the problem.

 

Progress

I expected new RAM on Friday, but it did not arrive -maybe Monday.

In the meantime I had changed the DDR RAM clocking as follows

CPU/ DRAM clk ratio.......3:5 to 1:1
CPU clock....................100 to 100
DRAM freq...................166x2 to 100x2

Since the speed setback the machine has not frozen w bugtrack error (blue screen)
No bootup since I told it to not re-boot on errors

So at this point it looks like a DRAM problem.

 

I think there may be a problem with power supply. Since all current motherboards are required alot of power anh the logic (0&1) voltage level is too low. Which means that you need "smooth" DC supply. If not, then your computer may be reset anytime.

 

Problem Solved -RAM settings

In my last note I said the machine was no longer re-booting but that I was waiting for a longer period before concluding the problem was fully solved.

Basically it boils down to this:

The DDR RAM 512k PC2700 Kingston was unreliable running at 166x2 (333), but runs just fine at 100x2 (200)

There is no noticeable change in the computers speed when running ordinary Office programs (wp, spreadsheet etc.).

It has now run without any freezing/rebooting problems for over 4 days. Since I've been dealing with a remote machine (it's not in my house) it's taken a bit longer to troubleshoot than if I had my hands on it but the problem is now fixed. I will get replacement for the RAM from Kingston -it really should run at 166x2 flawlessly.

Thanks to everyone for your help esp Swelldom for putting me on the right track to start with.

Thanks a lot

Dan

 

Thanks for posting back with the information. Always nice to have closure on a thread.