[JordanSinister]

I am using Windows XP Pro SP2, ABIT NF7-S2G, AMD Sempron 2500+, 1GB DDR400 RAM, 400W PS, and an ATI Radeon 7500 video card.

I am having random spontaneous restarts, sometimes several times before Windows can be loaded. When Windows DOES load, my Active Desktop has been turned off and Windows sometimes sends me an error report saying it "Recovered from a serious error". If I send the report, it directs me to their page that says the problem is due to my graphics driver. My temps are good, I have all the latest Windows and ATI drivers, and (as per Windows advice) I have changed my Hardware Acceleration in my display settings from Full to None. Yet, still I get restarts. In my Bios, I set my AGP Apperture to 64M, and disabled 8x compatibility and fast write capability...I don't know if any of that matters.

Also, my comp takes a LOT longer to boot up than before this problem and is generally slower. AND, one time my mobo made for loud and distressing beeps when Windows loaded. This problem started less than a week ago, and actually stopped for a few days...coincidentally while I was getting help to rid my computer of some malware. But, today I turned off my PS, put in a 512MB RAM chip identicle to the other one I already had, and the problem came back with a vengeance!! I know how to build computers, and I know I didn't mess anything up physically.

What the [bleep] is going on?! Somebody please help!

P.S. I can't believe I was able to type all this without it restaring!!

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on some motherboards there is a setting in the bios that if your cpu reaches a certain temp the system will shut down, try that, if not make sure that your psu is not going bad

[billsworld]

on some motherboards there is a setting in the bios that if your cpu reaches a certain temp the system will shut down, try that, if not make sure that your psu is not going bad

[Samm]

Could be a number of things I'm afraid. I'm ruling overheating out here as you said you checked all that...

To eliminate the obvious first :

You said the new ram module was identical to the original one. Do you mean 'identical' as in : same manufacturer, same cas latency, same FSB, same size etc etc or do you just mean that they are both DDR400?

Also, is this new stick replacing the original or in addition to it?

I also suggest, you

recheck for malware/viruses
Try using a different video card
check the hard drive for errors

[JordanSinister]

Ok, so my problems got worse when I started getting the now-infamous BSOD IRQL_NOT_LESS_THAN_OR_EQUAL. I've looked at tons of forums and I ended up solving all the problems doing 4 things. Prior to doing this, I unchecked the "Auto Restart On System Failure" box in the System - Advanced - Performance settings.

1) I used this link: http://www.tweakxp.com/tweak1222.aspx to uninstall everything related to my ATI Radeon card.

2) I installed a GeForce MX 4000 128mb DDR card.

3) I set my Virtual Memory (System - Advanced) settings to "No Paging File".

4) I increased my CPU voltage by 3% (that's how my cpu voltage increases) and my DRAM voltage to 2.7...it's running between 2.75 and 2.78. And set my Mem ?Frequency? to "By SPD" instead of "Auto".

After this, I could set my Virtual Memory to "System Managed Size" without further problems when before it just reactivated the BSOD.

I'm quite sure that this completely solved the problems because I have not gotten any restarts of BSOD (even after reenabling Auto Restart on Failure). I have run all the programs that used to cause a failure and done many things at once with no problem.

I think this information could be quite valuable to many many people who are experiencing the same problem as I was. I am posting this solution on 3 forums and I encourgage others to post this on more forums.

Thanks for all you help!!