Computer Keeps Rebooting

[Lucasinio]

Hi, My PC keeps rebooting every now and again whilst playing LFS. It usually happens as i connect to a race, or when watching a replay. Any ideas?:shrug:

[MadCatX]

Simple, you have overheated CPU......

[Albieg]

If you have Windows XP, chances are that the computer may be rebooting and you may miss the Blue Screen of Death...
Windows XP, as a default setting (a very suspect default setting), reboots automatically without stopping whenever there's a critical error. First of all check if automatic rebooting is enabled. To disable automatic rebooting (right mouse click on My computer, select properties, select the Advanced tab, push Settings button in Startup and Recovery section, deselect the Automatically restart checkbox. Reboot if required to do so. Whenever the next crash occurs it should halt with a blue screen with some diagnostic codes. Sometimes they're useful, sometimes not, but anyway they're good to start troubleshooting.
Generically speaking: check network (modem), video and audio card drivers, test the memory with memtest86 (free), verifiy the SMART parameters of your hard disk with HDTune (free) or similar, check the Event Viewer for suspect entries (www.eventid.net and microsoft knowledge base might be useful). And temperatures, of course, as said in the previous post.
Try posting the codes of the blue screen of death here, if you have them. The numbers and the reason at the top of the page are the important bits.

[Lucasinio]

Cheers, next time it happens, i will post screen here.

[Lucasinio]

OK, just rebooted, all it did was just go black screen and stayed still. I left it a couple of minutes and it just stayed idle. I then reset it, and it just continued through to windows, and came up with the serious error message. :shrug:

[Albieg]

It seems that it crashes and it's unable to print the BSOD (video adapter or driver error? It could well be...). However the fact that it stops and does not reboot after modifying the settings specified above points to a kernel error. Look in the event viewer for event log messages and other errors, you may find the reason stated there if the option to write the error in the event log is enabled, provided the system had the time to write it.
What were you exactly doing when the computer halted? You say it happens when you join a race or start a replay... That could well mean it happens when some intensive graphic routines kick in. Look if dxdiag hints at some troubles.
Gotta have some sleep now. I'll check back tomorrow.

[Lucasinio]

Ok, it did it after the race had started, thne about 1-2 secinds in it ust went black, froze because the sound was stirring constant. I sent the error report to microsoft, unfortunately no joy:
Error type:Windows stop error (A message appears on a blue screen with error code information)Solution available?:No (see Next steps)What does this error mean?:Windows has encountered an error from which it cannot recover and needs to restartCause:Unknown device driverComputer symptoms:A message appears on a blue screen with error code information (for example: e.g. 0x0000001E, KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED)Additional steps for you to take:Important: Please continue to send error reports so analysts at Microsoft can study and try to correct the problem as quickly as possible

Any more things i can try will be appreciated :thumb:

Edit: Although it says blue screen, dont actually get a blue screen.

[MrGrumpy]

Do you have a Radeon graphics card and does your motherboard have a VIA chipset?

Do a search for 'infinite loop' and Radeon on the ViaArena forums (http://forums.viaarena.com/search.aspx) - you'll find many attempts to solve the problem, although I didn't have too much success with most. In the end, I had to use the standard MS "PCI-PCI bridge" driver - it stopped the random reboots but I can't run AGP at anything other than x1.

[Albieg]

There's almost no use in sending reports to MS. Knowing the error codes from the event log would be much more useful. Knowing the video adapter and driver version too.
I know that some troubleshooting hints may sound too generic, but without an exact knowledge of the machine and without the possibility to operate directly on it it's impossible to give an exact solution to the problem, if present. There are zillions of things that generate stop problems. Most of them are generated by drivers and hardware. Without proper and exact info it's almost impossible to do or say something.

[Lucasinio]

Inno3D Geforce 6200
Driver Version: 7.7.7.2

Next time the error comes up, i will post them back on here.

[Albieg]

Check here:
http://www.inno3d.com/support/download_inno3d.html
The drivers you use seem to be quite old, and they're not certified WHQL. First, I would upgrade them. Keep in mind that there may be some hardware or software issues that could make things go bad. This may sound excessive to someone, but I've faced a minor number of problems resulting from ordinary computer maintenance procedures. Although updating drivers is an operation that generally has no negative consequences at all you might consider getting help from someone who is experienced and can operate on your computer if you have any doubt.

[Lucasinio]

Ok, i will do that when i get home.

Cheers for your help, much appreciated:thumb:

[SparkyDave]

hi ,

I think it would be a good idea to post your full system specs and driver revisions here so we can have a better idea of what might be going on with your PC prob , if you have any 3D Mark banchmark program you can get a system summary from that . as others have said above there are many things that could cause a CTD or reboot , to obtain a BSOD message try running LFS in windowed mode (shift F4) and you should get some message before the reboot or start Dr watson before LFS .

Just a stab in the dark have you got anything overclocked?

EDIT: just a thought , when was the last time you took the side off the PC and cleaned all the dust off the fans and fins with a soft paintbrush or air duster can ? :)

SD.

[Lucasinio]

Not that i know of Dave, although after downloading that thing tonight, i havent had any problems so far fingers crossed :bannana_p

[X-Ter]

You know, this proble sound just like what I had with NR2003. It turned out it was my gfx card that was burning too hot and not the main CPU or anything else.
Not that I'm an expert but reading what you've posted it seems very familiar :)