[SomeCrazyStuff]

Anyone know how, or where, I can get an error log of failing devices or programs from previos system crashes? I keep getting BSODs about everyday or so, but the computer reboot too quick for me to read the BSOD error code info. Also there are no entries in the event viewer log that pertain to any system failures... I would love to know why my computer insists on rebooting itself every night for no apparent reason.

Any help is much appreciated!

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Much to the surprise of many, we are not mind readers. We cannot even guess if this is a laptop or PC. If Windows 95, XP, Vista, MacOS or Linux. If the problem just started happening, or if it has been occurring for a long time.

So I am going to guess this is XP and suggest you turn off automatic reboot so the BSOD will remain displayed. Then, maybe, you can discern the error message.

Right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab,
Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings,
Clear the Automatically restart check box,
Click OK as needed,
Restart computer for settings to take effect.

[Digerati]

Much to the surprise of many, we are not mind readers. We cannot even guess if this is a laptop or PC. If Windows 95, XP, Vista, MacOS or Linux. If the problem just started happening, or if it has been occurring for a long time.

So I am going to guess this is XP and suggest you turn off automatic reboot so the BSOD will remain displayed. Then, maybe, you can discern the error message.

Right-click My Computer > Properties > Advanced tab,
Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings,
Clear the Automatically restart check box,
Click OK as needed,
Restart computer for settings to take effect.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

Yes my appologies.. i was more frustrated tha n anything when i posted...

This is a Custom built desktop running XP Pro SP3 32 bit. I havent been having these BSODs and seemingly random reboots for more than a couple of months.. I have had the computer for about 2 years now. If needed I can get a system hardware info log for you..

I did uncheck the auto restart. i had forgotten where that option was.. lol

[Digerati]

Yes my appologies.. i was more frustrated tha n anything when i posted...

No problem.

I did uncheck the auto restart. i had forgotten where that option was.. lol

Then I guess it is wait and see what happens.

In the meantime, do make sure your system if clean of malware, and the interior is clean of heat trapping dust and dirt.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

meh.. i just had to restart due to system lockup.. again no entries in event viewer. I have a cpu/ram/pagefile monitor on my desktop that was reading cpu at 33% (avg.. machine is quad core) and ram at 35%...

it always seems to freeze up when i let it idle.. It will bluescreen while i am working on it. Never does it freeze while i am working one it nor does it bluescreen while idle. I am starting to think that this is going to be software related.

any thoughts?


Edit: just had another BSOD, but again it restarted immediately. Going to check that auto restart option to make sure it was turned off. Again there was no entry in the event log. As far as i can tell computer is malware free(if there is such a thing). I do have a malware topic opened for a system checkup but noone has responded yet. MBAM had found 2 items in system restore which is why i posted in the malware foums for the system checkup.. but more recent scans come up clean. I am going to go do a kaspersky online scan here in a lil bit to see what it comes up with.

As for the BSOD, this time i think i had open 4 tabs in Firefox.. not sure about cpu/ram usage but it couldn't have been any higher than when it locked up before. I believe i had thunderbird running in the background. Of course i have some 3rd party apps like speedfan, rainmeter, rainlendar, object dock and such running from system startup. I dont believe this to be a memory issue.. computer has 4GB of ram (32bit so of course only 3.5 gets used) and i never see any of the monitor or task manager or such go above 35%. Matter of fact 35% was the highest i think i have ever seen RAM usuage get to. I used to have ypops!, an add on for thunderbird to get email from free yahoo accounts, running at system startup but it started causing system slowdowns where cpu usage would spike to 100% and stay there until either computer was restarted or ypops failed..

I believe when this BSOD occured i was currently in firefox mousing over a site that was flash oriented.. perhaps there is a conflict in flash plugin and something else in the system?

Edited by SomeCrazyStuff, 11 September 2009 - 02:43 PM.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

kaspersky scan came up clean... well relatively.. It referenced a cain&able file i was playing around with a while back but i am certain that that is a false positive(in this situation anyways).

[Broni]

Download BlueScreenView
No installation required.
Double click on BlueScreenView.exe file to run the program.
When scanning is done, go Edit>Select All.
Go File>Save Selected Items, and save the report as BSOD.txt.
Open BSOD.txt in Notepad, copy all content, and paste it into your next reply.

[SomeCrazyStuff]

Oook.. If BlieScreenView is supposed to auto scan when it is opened then it didnt find anything. Yet i know for a fact that i have seen BSODs. Again I must point out that the BSODs don't seem to leave an error log in the event viewer either.. as if either the log isnt being created or is being deleted....

any advise?

[Broni]

Make sure, your settings are correct...

1. Click Start, point to Settings, and then click Control Panel (Start>Control Panel in Vista).
2. Double-click System.
3. Click (Advanced system settings link in Vista, then --->)the Advanced tab, and then click Settings under Startup and Recovery.
4. Make sure, there is a checkmark in Write an event to the system log.
5. In the Write debugging information list, click Small memory dump (64k).

[SomeCrazyStuff]

wow i am sorry for not replying sooner.. I have been playing with this computer in the early mornings and this morning i woke up a good bit late and was rushing around. I will get the memory dump for you first thing tomorrow morning..

[SomeCrazyStuff]

alright i guess it is just wait and see if/when we bluescreen again if it write an error... hopefully so. I would like it to go away...

Ths for the reply. Anything else i should do while we wait for that error?

[Digerati]

So when was the last BSOD? Almost 2 weeks ago?

[SomeCrazyStuff]

no no not at all.. I dont remember the exact days but i get them pretty often. rarely more than 2 days without one, often no more than 1 day. But again I must say that it seems to be random. Most of the time I believe I have several tabs open in Firefox while also have other program running.

However when it freezes up while idling normally i don't have anything running and it will freeze overnight as if it has gone to sleep. I turned Hibernation off a long time ago so unless something turned it back on it should definitely not be going into hibernation.

I am at a loss as to what it could be that is causing these headaches.. perhaps it would just be better to format.. though I would love to not have to... 500GB HDD takes a good while...

Edit: auto restart is disabled yet everytime it does bluescreen it autorestarts. for what ever reason the setting for it to write a small system dump was not checked so that would explain why there was no log to look at. Perhaps the next one will give us the log we need.

Edited by SomeCrazyStuff, 24 September 2009 - 07:47 AM.

[Digerati]

Have you tested your RAM? There's a brand new version of MemTest86+ just released 2 days ago. Here's my canned text on testing RAM:

You can test RAM using one of the following programs. Both require you to create and boot to a bootable floppy disk or CD to run the diagnostics. Using the floppy method is generally easier (and another reason to include floppy drives in new builds). However, the CD method is just as effective at detecting RAM problems. Allow the diagnostics to run for several passes or even overnight. You should have no reported errors.

Windows Memory Diagnostic - see the easy to follow instructions under Quick Start Information.
or
MemTest86+ (for more advanced users) - an excellent how-to guide is available here.

Alternatively, you could install a single RAM module and try running with that to see if it fails. Repeat process with remaining modules, hopefully identifying the bad stick through a process of elimination.
***

[SomeCrazyStuff]

Ok I will run Memtest tonight... Hopefully though it is not memory. I would much rather a format than have to pay for more memory...