[mr. bill]

Hi,

I think I have a hardware/electrical problem.

My Windows XP PC periodically starts rebooting instantaneously, with no warning, as if power were quickly switched off and on. There are no warnings in the system logs. Virus/adware checks come
up clean (using Norton anti-virus & multiple spyware programs).

I would like suggestions, wondering if I might have a flaky power supply or an intermittent short circuit.

A few months ago it started rebooting frequently (several times an hour). Swapping a flaky CD-Rom drive
fixed it. Last week it started rebooting again (several times an hour). This time, it semi-fixed when I pulled the fax/modem card. However, it still reboots, maybe once every 24 hours of use. Could there be something more than these components going bad, like a flaky power supply or whatever? Are there tools and/or techniques I can use to analyze this?

It's an HP Pavilion/AMD processor, about a year old, no add-ons besides what was factory installed.

Thanks so much for all suggestions.
- Bill

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check your system temps in bios.. and
In safe mode:

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose PROPERTIES, choose ADVANCED, choose the SETTINGS button in the Startup And RECOVERY section, and uncheck AUTOMATICALLY RESTART

Now reboot. This will result in the BSOD error...report the STOP ERROR and any parameters.


p.s. OOOHHH NOOOOO MR. BILL!!!

Edited by dsenette, 13 December 2005 - 03:22 PM.

[dsenette]

check your system temps in bios.. and
In safe mode:

Right click MY COMPUTER, choose PROPERTIES, choose ADVANCED, choose the SETTINGS button in the Startup And RECOVERY section, and uncheck AUTOMATICALLY RESTART

Now reboot. This will result in the BSOD error...report the STOP ERROR and any parameters.


p.s. OOOHHH NOOOOO MR. BILL!!!

Edited by dsenette, 13 December 2005 - 03:22 PM.

[mr. bill]

Hi,

Thanks for the tip! My PC crashed in safe mode while I set things up as you said.
Then it ran fine until today, spewing out:

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL
STOP: 0x0000000A ( 0xFFFFFF94, 0x2, 0x0, 0x80533281)

I don't understand what you meant by checking system temps in BIOS. I checked
the BIOS settings and they looked reasonable, but I left on the advanced options
like caching.

BTW, if there is a good reference book or website that I can read and learn more 'bout
this stuff, please let me know!

Many thanks again...
Mr Bill

[dsenette]

what i meant by checking your temps in bios is that in most bios versions now adays..there is a section called "pc health" or something like that...that shows your processor temps and voltages....that irq_less_than_equal_to...is usually a hardware/driver issue...i will research it for you today and let you know

[dsenette]

http://support.micro...b;en-us;Q314063

this is a microsoft article about the irq error....which is generally related to a misconfigured driver (often times a video driver) did you install any hardware or software before the problem started

read through the suggested causes on that list...and see if any of them match

[mr. bill]

As I continue to crash I get various values on the BSOD:

STOP 0x19 (0x20, 0xf9f202d0, xf9f20318, x0a090013)

STOP 0x06a4840B (0x0, 2, 0, x904ff387)

STOP 0x7f (x11, 0, 0, 0)

STOP 0x24 (1902f3, 138a6a3f0, b8a6a03c, f83df3d2)
ntfs.sys - Address f83df3d2 base at f83B8000 date stamp 41107eea

The temperatures in the BIOS... about 53 Centigrade (127 Fahrenheit). Same when I checked later. I can't find voltage levels in the BIOS.

I have not installed any hardware except 3 months ago, when an old CD drive was failing.
At that time the machine was crashing then like now, no warning. HP sent me a
replacement CD drive and the problem fixed (though I think I had one or two crashes in the
next 2 months).

I did REMOVE my modem/fax card when first debugging this round of re-boots. It seemed to
help, I went from many crashes a day to about one crash-a-day.

I have installed application software, but none (I think) that tightly ties to hardware
or drivers. Blaze media pro, Examdiff (file comparison), and a trial version of Macromedia Dreamweaver.

I am checking the suggestions at the Microsoft site you suggested, but this
seems like flaky hardware to me. For one thing, it crashed even in SAFE mode
(as I was trying to make the no-auto-reboot change you recommended). Also, it occasionally
crashed without a reboot, just is stuck somewhere with no video signal.

I may retry a rollback (as per Microsoft site), but when I tried this before, it screwed up

application software like Norton... it's kind of a pain.

QUESTION. If this is faulty hardware, is there a fair chance it is a particular part, like
the power supply? I can replace that for I think $100 or so, but would prefer not to unless
I thought there was at least a reasonable chance that would fix it.

Thanks for all your help, it is truly appreciated!!!

[dsenette]

it could very well be a hardware issue...i'll research the new errors that you're getting....

[dsenette]

0x19 seems to be related to bad ram (though not done searching)

"STOP 0x06a4840B" offers no results

STOP 0x7f could be anything from bad ram to scratches on your motherboard to a dead cpu to bad software
http://www.microsoft...md_stp_ukdq.asp


STOP 0x24 is generally a file system corruption in the ntfs.sys file which microsoft suggest running chckdsk /r to fix
http://support.micro...b;en-us;Q228888

the temps are in the upper to midland range...so those shouldn't be causing this many crashes (unless the thermal sensor is failing and reporting the wrong temps)

[mr. bill]

I forgot one thing. I am setup to automatically check for updates from Microsoft. May have installed one of them.

One curious thing that happened (about when the crasheis started) was a change in the boot time login screen. The one where XP want's you to login as administrator or whomever. My PC used to pre-select HP_Administrator and I could type the password directly.

The curious thing was a bootup change to a screen where I first had to PICK the account to login as... I always use the HP-ADMINISTRATOR name. Only then could I type. I assumed this was some update to XP that I picked up, or some change I made that I couldn't remember.

At some point in the last day or two, after one of these crashes, it changed back! Now I again go directly
(on a powerup) to the screen that has pre-selected HPADMINISTRATOR, and I can immediately type the password.

I will look into the references you gave. Thanks.

[dsenette]

from the last barrage of error messages....it seems like a hardware issue...i would point fingers (and shake my fist angrily) at your ram...

[mr. bill]

FIXED!

It turned out to be the power supply. I've been up 3 days on a new one... (before I couldn't last even one full day). I tried replacing the RAM earlier, made no difference.

Do any companies take such power supplies to refurbish? I'd rather do that than fill up a landfill...

[warriorscot]

Get it recycled its full of valuable metal.