Windows XP system suddenly reboots

rob4470

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I've been having PC issues and hope someone might have some ideas. For what it's worth I have an Intel Duo Core E6750 (2.66 G) CPU, 2 GB DDR 2 memory and a 500 GB WEstern Digital SATA 2 hard drive. The motherboard is an MSI "P35/G33 Neo Series Express Chipset". No overclocking of the CPU.

In the last couple weeks I've started having issues with my computer rebooting randomly. It can be once a day (I leave it on almost all the time) or several times a day. There seems to be nothing in common with when this happens. Sometimes I may be using the Internet, sometimes typing a document, etc.

I'm using Windows XP, Service Pack 3 on a PC built in 2007. I have looked in the Event Log but find no entries that indicate an error. When the reboots occur the screen simply goes black. Checking the log after each of these shows two events, 6005 and 6009 at the time of the reboot. The previous events are often minutes before the reboot and are usually 7035 and 7036, which seem to be fairly common based on the number of them in my log. I've told Windows not to automatically reboot on an error but this seems to have no effect as there is no message or anything - just the black screen and then rebooting. On a couple of occasions it has frozen totally for a few seconds before blacking out but nothing appeared in the log from this either.

I have used both AVG and ewido to neaten up my system. These seemed to find only smaller things like tracking cookies, etc. I also used Registry Mechanic to clean up the registry.

I've downloaded some freeware stuff to check out some hardware. "HDD Health" tells me my hard drive has 100% health. I also ran the disk checking program included in Windows and after three hours it found no errors.

I did several passes with the memory test program (Windows Memory Diagnostic) that I got from the Microsoft website and it found no issues with my 2 GB of memory.

I'm using "Speedfan" to monitor temperatures, fan speed and voltages. My CPU temperature is around 55 C but was higher than that (around 62 C) when I left the case off a couple of days ago to clean up in there. There seems to be no capacitors on the board that are bubbled out, or whatever that phenomenon is called. Everything looks normal.

Last night I left the machine running in Safe Mode overnight and it didn't reboot. I had to use it today so after 11 hours of no problems with Safe Mode I restarted into full blown Windows and had two reboots in two hours.

I'm left wondering if maybe I should replace the power supply. The voltages monitored by the "Speedfan" program seem to be very consistent (eg. 12.3-12.4 V) over the several days I've ran this program. There are no significant deviations across this period in any of the readings although fan speed may vary by up to 200 rpm (normal speed is about 2200 rpm).

The only other things I can think of are to format or attempt to repair Windows. This is not something I really want to do and am hoping someone here might have some better ideas? I'm running out of things to try.

I haven't changed anything in the past while. The system hasn't been moved and I've installed no new hardware. There are no errors reported in "Device Manager". The one curiosity I noted is that my "System Restore" points don't work. I did install several Windows Updates and I read somewhere that could affect the ability of System Restore (not sure) so restoring to an earlier date is not an option for me.

Everything sounds normal and all the fans are working.

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
 
Mmm...

If you have set the system not to reboot after a BSOD and the system shuts off unintentionally then i'd lean toward an unstable PSU. If you have a spare PSU available then give that a try before you do anything more drastic.
 
I installed a new power supply but still have the rebooting problem.

I have had a couple of blue screen incidents but now have to figure out how to view the Minidump log.

I also wondered about simply finding and installing all of my drivers again - would this help fix any possible driver issues?
 
if it didn't reboot in safe mode, my first thought would be a driver/os issue,not hardware. i'd try doing a repair install of xp. if that didn't work,i'd make an image backup of the xp partition,then format and reinstall. then play with it for a day or two while using only the default drivers that came with your mb cd. i'm assuming you've updated them since you bought the pc. if it still reboots, then i'd start swapping hardware if possible to pinpoint the culprit.

you said "Last night I left the machine running in Safe Mode overnight and it didn't reboot." did you use it at all during that time? what happens if you boot normally and let it sit without using it? i'd definitely make a repair install my first option.
 
When I left it sitting in Safe Mode I had opened a few folders and messed around a bit with no problems.

When it reboots by itself it gets to the screen where you select the user and sits there. Looking at the Event Viewer today I noticed that it seemed to reboot itself from this screen. I had not noticed that before - I was pretty certain that it would sit at that blue "Choose user" screen with no problems.

It is odd because I can at times get a few hours straight out of it - I made half a dozen data DVD's last night, just music and other non-essential things. This afternoon it reset about four times in two hours but I'm now heading to three hours without a problem.

I did try making a new "user" as I believe there are less processes running when you do this. That made no difference and I guess maybe I shouldn't think it would since the same Windows is still running in the background.

I haven't been good with updating drivers, I will confess to that. I always just let it be if it was working well. I did look at the MSI website this afternoon and noticed there are updated drivers for the P35/G33 Neo Series board I have. Having never done anything like this should I just go ahead and update all of the drivers that I can find that have been updated?

Could there still be a leftover virus or spyware problem? I had used Ewido and AVG and found nothing wrong...is it possible something has been missed? Can you recommend better anti-virus or diagnostic software?
 
I Having never done anything like this should I just go ahead and update all of the drivers that I can find that have been updated?

ABSOLUTELY!

Could there still be a leftover virus or spyware problem? I had used Ewido and AVG and found nothing wrong...is it possible something has been missed? Can you recommend better anti-virus or diagnostic software?

i've heard avast is rated pretty good for being free. i've never used it though.
just update all your drivers. but i'd make a backup or at the very least a system restore point. i'm guessing the driver updates will do you a world of good. download them to a folder on your desktop. uninstall previous versions. reboot. cancel windows messages saying "found new hardware". install new drivers. reboot. i can't stress enough to get yourself a backup/hdd imaging program. there are a couple basic free ones that will save your butt in a jam.and also,save you countless hours of reinstalling apps.and you will also have a copy of all your data files.
 
Here's the update to this ongoing saga...

I found a few of the drivers that needed updating and did that the best that I could. There were still rebooting problems so I got impatient and did the "Repair Windows" function. That didn't fix the problems either.

Finally I installed a new 500 GB drive (got one on sale, a Caviar blue) and installed Windows XP on that. And still have the problem.

Now I don't have any real solid evidence of it but I am a little bit suspicious of the whole sound thing. Playing files in media player will make it reboot fairly quickly (within 1/2 hour) after sitting for a few hours on the desktop with no problems. I have a Realtek driver that installs from the MSI mainboard disk and judging from the Internet there are many issues with this driver.

But I've also disabled audio in the BIOS and let it sit for awhile and it will reboot in this situation too.

So at this point I've thought about picking up another board and installing it. But my issue here is that I have an OEM Windows XP and have read that I may not be able to install a new board without getting a new Windows - and if that is the case there's likely no place I'm going to find an XP. I don't feel the need to upgrade to Windows 7. The devil on my right shoulder has me looking into Linux but that seems like a big step.

Any comments on the motherboard/OEM Windows situation, Linux or more troubleshooting steps would be appreciated.

Rob
 
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