[sleepkid]

Problem: Computer keeps shutting itself off at random times with no warning. I'm not getting any Blue Screen of Deaths for an error. However, it's also not shutting down windows or anything, it's just that all of a sudden the computer will just lose power. Twice it "froze" before doing this (mouse locked and I had to reboot). To get the computer to restart, I have to unplug it from the wall (otherwise the power switch doesn't seem to work) wait a minute for the motherboard light to go off, then plug it back in. Sometimes when plugging it back in, it will run fine for several hours, sometimes it will only run for a few minutes.

When the computer is running, it is running sluggishly. (Takes an extra long time to boot up, has broken playback of large video files)

The computer is running Windows XP on a AMD Athlon x64 2.4 Ghz CPU, 1 gigabyte of RAM.

Steps taken so far:

1) Ran a boot time virus scan of the hard drive using Avast. No viruses found. Also ran Ad-Aware personal addition and it found nothing.

2) Cleaned up the temp files, unused software, etc. and then defragged both partitions of the hard drive.

3) Swapped out and checked the memory. I had an extra stick of memory, and I placed it in both memory slots and then ran MEMTEST for several hours to see if it could find any errors in the RAM. It didn't find any errors with the memory in any of the configurations.

I'm at a bit of a loss as to how to proceed next, and need some advice. This is a computer that I brought with me from Japan several months ago, and it ran fine until just the other week, so I don't think it is a voltage issue (100v vs 110v - the power supply says 115v ~ 230v). One thing that I did just before these problems started to happen was I installed the drivers to a Hewlett Packard all-in-one printer (HP 1210) so maybe registry corruption? But I've gone through the registry once and it seems ok. Also, I uninstalled the drivers, but it seems to have the same problem whether I have them or not? Or could it have corrupted the registry in some way I'm not noticing? I'm almost tempted to think that it could be a short in the power switch itself? Does this seem possible or is this sloppy thinking on my part?

I appreciate any advice you can provide. Let me know what to do, and I'll get right on it.

Thanks in advance.

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Hardware issue, I suspect bad memory, a bad PSU (the input voltage means nothing, you need to look at the output voltages on the various rails) or an issue with the hard drive.

[Neil Jones]

Hardware issue, I suspect bad memory, a bad PSU (the input voltage means nothing, you need to look at the output voltages on the various rails) or an issue with the hard drive.

[The Skeptic]

Download Everest (a link in my signature below) and run Computer > Sensor. Wait a few seconds until the table feels up. Leave the program open and at the same time run a scan of your antivirus. After about 10 minutes look in Everest for the temperatures of the cpu, motherboard and HD. Also report the voltages shown on the same table.

[zbd]

Possible help.

AWC
http://www.majorgeek...onal_d4991.html

chkdsk
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/315265

dial a fix
http://www.majorgeek...wnload4899.html

[sleepkid]

Download Everest (a link in my signature below) and run Computer > Sensor. Wait a few seconds until the table feels up. Leave the program open and at the same time run a scan of your antivirus. After about 10 minutes look in Everest for the temperatures of the cpu, motherboard and HD. Also report the voltages shown on the same table.

Done. Here are the results:

Field Value
Sensor Properties
Sensor Type Winbond W83627EHF (ISA 290h)
GPU Sensor Type Driver (NV-DRV)
Motherboard Name Asus A8V-E Series

Temperatures
Motherboard 42 °C (108 °F)
CPU 48 °C (118 °F)
GPU 58 °C (136 °F)
SAMSUNG SP1614C 37 °C (99 °F)

Cooling Fans
CPU 2885 RPM
Power Supply 2009 RPM

Voltage Values
CPU Core 1.62 V
+3.3 V 3.34 V
+5 V 5.59 V
+12 V 12.34 V
Debug Info F FF EA 54
Debug Info T 42 48 30
Debug Info V BD E8 D1 D0 FF CB FF (03)

No information for the hard drives either.

One thing I have discovered though, is that if I unplug my computer after using it, and leave it unplugged for a few hours, or overnight, then when I plug it back in, it doesn't crash, though it still boots up sluggishly and has trouble running certain applications. However, if I turn it off, leave it plugged in, then turn it back on in a few hours, it is likely to crash.

Not sure if that information helps. Ready for whatever step you suggest next. (Sorry it took me a few days to act on that first step - was out of town)

[The Skeptic]

The video card that you use is it integrated into the motherboard or is it an add-on. If it's an add-on try to move the monitor connection to the other video connection, remove the add-on and see if it makes any difference.

In Control panel > administrative tools > event viewer > system. Do you see any errors (red) that are linked in time to the crashes? When you double click an error a data window shows up. Look in Description and tell us what you see. Are they most of the same description?

[ClickRight]

My advice is to see if it's load or heat related. Download Prime95 and unzip it.

1) Run PRIME95.EXE
2) Click "just stress testing"
3) "Pick In-place large FFTs"

Let us know what happens. Keep an eye on temperatures (using everest) while this is going on if you can.

[sleepkid]

The video card that you use is it integrated into the motherboard or is it an add-on. If it's an add-on try to move the monitor connection to the other video connection, remove the add-on and see if it makes any difference.

In Control panel > administrative tools > event viewer > system. Do you see any errors (red) that are linked in time to the crashes? When you double click an error a data window shows up. Look in Description and tell us what you see. Are they most of the same description?

It's an add on video card (it's occupying a slot). It may be considered "integral" to the motherboard though. However, there is no other monitor connection possible on this computer. So switching video connections and pulling the card is not an option. (Pulling a replacing the card could be if we determine that is the problem.)

In my Event Viewer under system I have a few errors for DHCP - my network card having trouble identifying the IP for my wireless router? They don't seem to correspond to the times of my crashes, and are infrequent.

Howver, poking around, in the Event Viewer under Applications I have a regular stream of this:

ERROR 3011: Unloading the performance counter strings for service WmiApRpl (WmiApRpl) failed. The Error code is the first DWORD in Data section.
ERROR 3012: The performance strings in the Performance registry value is corrupted when process Performance extension counter provider. BaseIndex value from Performance registry is the first DWORD in Data section, LastCounter value is the second DWORD in Data section, and LastHelp value is the third DWORD in Data section.

...and having looked this up, could this be the culprit? Here is someone else with the exact same problems, and symptoms as myself. However, he didn't seem to get a solution. Is this a cause or an effect of my problem?

[The Skeptic]

The reason I asked about the video card is that it showed 58 degrees which is quite high and could get higher under the load of a game or something like that.

Download BurnIn test from the link in my signature. It's a trial version free for 30 days. It gives you only 15 minutes of hardware test which is not much but better then nothing. When you run it insert a disk into the cd drive and a floppy into the floppy one if you have any. Let's see what happens.

[sleepkid]

Ok, well, I'll try the BurnIn test, but did you not have any thoughts about this part of my previous post:

Howver, poking around, in the Event Viewer under Applications I have a regular stream of this:

ERROR 3011: Unloading the performance counter strings for service WmiApRpl (WmiApRpl) failed. The Error code is the first DWORD in Data section.

ERROR 3012: The performance strings in the Performance registry value is corrupted when process Performance extension counter provider. BaseIndex value from Performance registry is the first DWORD in Data section, LastCounter value is the second DWORD in Data section, and LastHelp value is the third DWORD in Data section.

...and having looked this up, could this be the culprit? Here is someone else with the exact same problems, and symptoms as myself. However, he didn't seem to get a solution. Is this a cause or an effect of my problem?

[The Skeptic]

The truth is that at the moment I am not even sure whether the problem is hardware or software related because the computer behaves in a way that could be the result of both. What I am trying to do is to is to find out, at this stage, where the general source of the problem is (hardware or software).

If you didn't run the BurnIN test, or in addition to it, I would like you to download and run Sandra XI (a link in my signature). It's a very good program which I stopped using because some computers couldn't load. Now I am back to it and consider it to be the best free program for computer tests. Depending on the results we'll think about how to continue and will probably perform some windows repairs. Please follow these instructions:

How to create a Sandra XI report.
Important Note: Sandra, like all computer test programs, stresses computer components beyond the average use. This is necessary to discover weaknesses in the system. On the other hand, if the system is in a marginal state a permanent failure of components may occur . Before running the program make sure to save any unsaved data.

Download Sandra XI using the link in my signature. Please note that if you run XP 64 you need a different version of Sandra then when using XP 32. Install and run the program.

Click on Tools and then on Create Report. Follow the instructions and when given the options uncheck everything which need not be tested. Choose a place in which to save the report. The report can be very long and complex so do not attach it to your post unless specifically asked to do so.

Run the program. The test is quite long. On my computer a hardware test takes about 40 minutes. There is an idicator to show that the test is running. At the end look at the report on the screen and report items which did not pass the test successfully.

[sleepkid]

Download Sandra XI using the link in my signature. Please note that if you run XP 64 you need a different version of Sandra then when using XP 32. Install and run the program.

Click on Tools and then on Create Report. Follow the instructions and when given the options uncheck everything which need not be tested. Choose a place in which to save the report. The report can be very long and complex so do not attach it to your post unless specifically asked to do so.

Run the program. The test is quite long. On my computer a hardware test takes about 40 minutes. There is an idicator to show that the test is running. At the end look at the report on the screen and report items which did not pass the test successfully.

Done. Everything passed. Where do we go from here?

[ClickRight]

Download Sandra XI using the link in my signature. Please note that if you run XP 64 you need a different version of Sandra then when using XP 32. Install and run the program.

Click on Tools and then on Create Report. Follow the instructions and when given the options uncheck everything which need not be tested. Choose a place in which to save the report. The report can be very long and complex so do not attach it to your post unless specifically asked to do so.

Run the program. The test is quite long. On my computer a hardware test takes about 40 minutes. There is an idicator to show that the test is running. At the end look at the report on the screen and report items which did not pass the test successfully.

Done. Everything passed. Where do we go from here?

Did you run Prime95 as per my suggestion above?

Please record your temperatures both before and during the test.

[The Skeptic]

Click Start > Run. In the dialog box type sfc /scannow and then press Enter. For this process you will need xp installation cd. Let the process run to the end.

If this doesn't help try to perform windows repair. In my signature you will find a link for detailed instructions. For this you will need the xp installation cd and the product key of the windows which is installed on your computer.

[sleepkid]

Did you run Prime95 as per my suggestion above?

Please record your temperatures both before and during the test.

I did. It was unremarkable. After about 40 minutes of stress testing the temperature had only changed a degree or two. My CPU fan had clocked up it's RPMs a bit to keep the CPU cool. Thanks for the advice though.

Click Start > Run. In the dialog box type sfc /scannow and then press Enter. For this process you will need xp installation cd. Let the process run to the end.

If this doesn't help try to perform windows repair. In my signature you will find a link for detailed instructions. For this you will need the xp installation cd and the product key of the windows which is installed on your computer.

Skeptic, I'm starting to feel that we may be barking down the wrong path here.

I ran through the registry using the AWC program which zbd suggested above, and that cleared up a few of the performance issues, though it still won't handle large .AVI file playback smoothly. And it still crashes if I leave it plugged in and tun it on. (If I leave it unplugged between uses, and only plug it in right before I intend to use it, it runs fine.)

I'm not sure why you're asking me to run the sfc checker, since Sandra XI also ran a system file check and turned up no errors.

I'm still concerned about those 3011 and 3012 errors that I found in the event viewer, and which still appear everyday, as those are related to performance counter strings in the registry. What can you tell me about these? I still think these may be related to the problem, but you haven't said anything about them.

Edited by sleepkid, 05 July 2007 - 01:46 PM.