Dyne Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Recently, I completed a complete wipe and reinstall of the operating system (using XP Pro). Now, sometimes when I attempt to run certain programs, it automatically reboots. For example, I attempted to run Adobe After Effects just a little while ago, and it rebooted the system. Now, it didn't just exit out of windows normally, no, it was like I hit the power switch and then turned the switch on again. I haven't ruled out anything yet, so I'm looking for a solution. Anyone have any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kanthos Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 Have you changed any hardware? Did you update the drivers on things like your video and sound cards? That's the only reason I can think of at the moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Wolf Posted February 15, 2007 Share Posted February 15, 2007 You may need an update for the Adobe software. I work computing support for a lab that uses a lot of Adobe products, and this exact issue is fairly famous. Most of the time it's resolved by running Windows update and Adobe software update. Worth a try... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyne Posted February 16, 2007 Author Share Posted February 16, 2007 Well, thought I had it worked out last night after I rebooted and ran scandisk, HOWEVER, now, as of a few minutes ago, Winamp is causing the machine to reboot. So, it's rather weird that it's doing it for Winamp now. I'm starting to wonder if it's a virus or some other kind of hacker job. Then again, I don't understand why a hacker would target me, I've got nothing of value on the computer's hard drives. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueMage Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Sounds very similar to what a friend of mine experienced with her machine - random restarts. Unfortunately, we were unable to determine whether it was hardware or software causing it - we swapped out RAM, graphics cards, hard drives, mobo, CPUs and PSUs and it continued to happen. I realise that isn't very heartening, but I honestly think you should prepare yourself for the fact that you may need to replace your existing machine sooner than you thought. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyne Posted February 16, 2007 Author Share Posted February 16, 2007 Sounds very similar to what a friend of mine experienced with her machine - random restarts. Unfortunately, we were unable to determine whether it was hardware or software causing it - we swapped out RAM, graphics cards, hard drives, mobo, CPUs and PSUs and it continued to happen.I realise that isn't very heartening, but I honestly think you should prepare yourself for the fact that you may need to replace your existing machine sooner than you thought. I just built this thing a year ago. I'm not replacing it this damn quickly. Also, if you swapped out all of that gear, wouldn't that indicate a software issue instead? What I'm think is that somehow, during installation of one of the pieces of software I reinstalled, somehow, some way, something was installed that started causing this. In fact, it did this BEFORE I reinstalled the OS. Which leads me to believe that something I may have clicked on before, and subsequently downloaded, is causing this problem. Oh yeah, by the way, Winamp now causes the reboot to happen. On top of that, it looks as though it completely WIPED OUT all of my damn bookmarks in Firefox. Explain that one to me. And by all of the bookmarks, I mean EVERYTHING that I just added tonight, as well as over the last three nights. Not like when Windows shuts down, reboots, and then things you were working on that were sitting in RAM just up and disappear, I'm talking about stuff that has been on the machine for DAYS. GONE. WTF?!?!?! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dyne Posted February 16, 2007 Author Share Posted February 16, 2007 Just did a full virus scan, and scanned for Trojans. Found nothing. So what the hell can it be? Also, I don't run enough toys on the computer to be able to wreck my power supply. I'm going to make sure every card is seated correctly, but I doubt that it's anything to do with hardware. It's basically picking random programs, even stuff that's in mid-setup, and just rebooting. And I had another reboot because of Winamp, and it once again wiped out all of my bookmarks in Firefox. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bahamut Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Do you have a way to test whether there is a faulty hardware part? Simply swapping things in and out won't let you detect whether something is faulty, such as if it is a faulty motherboard. If it happened before you reinstalled XP, I'm guessing it is highly likely that it is something faulty with an essential hardware component. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hellcom Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Why don't you try dual booting Linux to determine whether it's the OS or hardware that is the issue (just throwing out ideas)? Also, you could try some hardware stress tests like http://www.memtest86.com/ for your RAM or other hardware to get a full diagnostic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smoke Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Might wanna turn your BSoD's back on, that should help a hell of a lot with diagnosing. Could be faulty drivers, could be faulty hardware, could be faulty software. No way to tell without the BSoD. Recovery SettingsOne of the things that is quite different about Windows XP compared to Windows 9x (9x is shorthand for Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me in all their various versions), is that one can control how it responds to certain critical errors—those that cause the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSOD). In Windows XP, the default setting is for the computer to reboot automatically when a fatal error occurs. If that fatal error only occurs when you're shutting down, the system reboots automatically. If you haven't changed any of the system failure settings, you should be able to see the error by looking in the Event Log. But a better long-term solution is to turn off the automatic reboot so you can actually see the error when it happens—chances are it will tell you enough about itself to let you troubleshoot further. To change the recovery settings to disable automatic rebooting: 1. Right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. 2. Click the Advanced tab. 3. Under Startup and Recovery, click Settings to open the Startup and Recovery dialog box. 4. Clear the Automatically restart check box, and click OK the necessary number of times. 5. Restart your computer for the settings to take effect. Now when you go to shut down and a fatal error occurs, you'll at least see it and it won't cause an automatic reboot. You still have to sort out what's causing the problem, but that gets us to the next section quite nicely. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HalcyonSpirit Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 On top of what Smoke suggested (DO IT), I also suggest trying to run the programs that are doing it (WinAmp) in Safe Mode. If it still does it while in Safe Mode, that eliminates a lot of potential software and/or OS conflict issues that would need to be taken into consideration. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AMT Posted February 16, 2007 Share Posted February 16, 2007 Also, two things to check for: faulty RAM, and your processor fan. I've seen both of those things cause that exact problem. To test you're ram, just swap it out with known working ram and see if it still happens. For the fan, just run it with the case open. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Effef Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 Also, two things to check for: faulty RAM, and your processor fan. I've seen both of those things cause that exact problem. To test you're ram, just swap it out with known working ram and see if it still happens. For the fan, just run it with the case open. I think you are referencing overheating, and there are much better ways to fix that than just running it with the case open. Overheating will cause random reboots however. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
al3xand3r Posted February 24, 2007 Share Posted February 24, 2007 As far as losing all your Firefox bookmarks, maybe that happened when Firefox updated (I know there was a recent update released this week or so). It's sometimes happened to me when Firefox updates... You should export your bookmarks so that you can just add them later on, in case this happens (makes a nice backup). If you don't know how to export your bookmarks, it is easy: On the menu tab on the firefox browser go to: Bookmarks - Organize Boomarks - File - Export. That's it! To import do the same, except select "Import" of course. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.