XP crash - HD, motherboard or software ?

Just looking for input. Have a barebones system that I have added stuff to, but is based on an AMD Athlon 1.4 GHZ, 512 MB RAM and XP, Service pack2. I have a 50 GB drive with only 17 GB of stuff on it.

Every few days, sometimes weeks, the system will turn itself off - I am usually doing something like opening a program or performing a search, but it is not repeatable. The computer turns off as if I had hit the reboot button. Goes straight to a black screen and starts a complete reboot.

I never have the problem (and this may be part of XP) where on start up it will state that the system was shut down incorrectly forcing a Scandisk. The system starts absolutely normally, usually pretty quickly and then continues normally.

I originally had Windows 98 on this system, but upgraded to a clean installation of XP about 6 months ago and then SP2 last month. This did also happen previously, but not as regularly.

I presume it must be hardware related - I never have too many programs running at once and therefore my system resources are usually fairly low. I therefore think that it is either hard drive related - the drive somehow overloading when performing a task - but I don't know if this would cause a reboot; Or a motherboard problem with RAM or CPU.

Any suggestions for trying to isolate the problem?

Many thanks,

Rob Frais

 

Try all the easy stuff first. Be sure the power cord is not being disturbed accidentally. Open the case and clean the dust out if needed. While in there, operate the system while probing on all cables and boards gently with a wooden dowel. Reseat CPU, drive cables and cards. Check fans. Check temps using AIDA32 or equal.

If still no joy, pull half the RAM and run for effect. Switch to the other half if needed to eliminate a bad stick.

Your power supply could be going south or is too small. Intermittents problems can be tough to define. Try operating with the cover removed to see if it affects the problem. Rap gently on the case to see if the problem is related to vibration. Once you get a response, you're on the road to the cause and cure.

Best of luck.

 

Well, I would guess it's a CPU overheating problem, that would be a possible cause. Also, if Power supply is fluctuating that can also cause reboots. You could check to see if the CPU has enough heat transfer paste between processor and heatsink, also make sure cpu fan is turning well, sometimes the bearings go out over time. You can use a multimeter to check Power supply output.

NOTE: this thread should really be under the hardware section if you want help troubleshooting hardware.

 

Rob,
untick automatically reboot. Right click My Comp. and select advanced.
You should get a BSOD screen with a stop error the next time the problem occurs. You could post that error here for help, or do a search with all or some of it for additional help.

Cause could be hardware or software. First I would check that the system isn't getting to hot. I would blow out any dust from the CPU fan and heatsink.
I would reseat graphics, memory and other cards as well as carefully reseating the CPU and reconnect the various cables.
Try swapping out the memory and run on just one stick if your 512 is made up of 2x256. A process of ellimination is required.

I would also set the BIOS back to the default settings and maybe look for a BIOS update. B4 this I would update the graphics and motherboard drivers as well as other hardware drivers, and disconnect any external devices as part of the ellimination process.

You may even get a clue if you look in the event viewer for Application or system events. Found in Admin Tools/Computer Management.

HTH

 

In addition to surferdude's advice, look for errors in the event logs: System - application - security.

Right click My Computer > manage > expand Event viewer under system tools.

Regards - Charles

 

We were all flat out answering this one at the same time.

 

Yes Paul and all the advice turns out to be complementary and in the same vein. The answer must be in there somewhere guys!

Best regards to all.

 

You guys are really quick - thanks for all the input. I've got some work to do,

Rob

 

So MANY possibilities with these intermittent faults. Will be interested to hear any results.