any advice on tracking down a winXP crash problem?
Friday, June 27, 2003 by feline | Discussion: WinCustomize Talk
i am on the verge of going into hibernation, and stopping using my computer. that, or a total reformat.
my home machine (winXP pro) has two types of crash. both happen at complete random, and i can find no pattern or cause for these crashes.
in type 1 the machine experiences a hard lock. the screen just freezes, the mouse stops working, and the keyboard caps lock light no longer changes. the only option at this point is a hard reset >
in type 2 the machine spontaneously reboots.
both have happened to me already today.
now for the details:
i have run anti-virus and spyware checks, and found nothing.
i have a nvidia gforce2 MX 64meg graphics card, with the 40.72 drivers. these are not the most recent, but they are the most recent i have found where DVD playback still works.
i thought i saw a brief flash of blue when the machine spontaneously rebooted today, so it occurred to me i may have had a blue screen of death. so, i have just turned off the "automatically restart" option in system settings for dealing with a system failure. if i do get a blue screen of death, maybe it will give me some clues as to the possible root of the problem.
the only pattern i can provide is that the spontaneous reboots only happen when i am off line (56k modem, dial up connection) and the hard locks only happen when i am online.
i have been unable to find anything even close to helpful in the system event logs
i thought i had a pattern to the online hard locks, in that for every one of them microsoft messenger (the one bundled into winXP, msmsgs.exe) was always running. one night i had 3 hard locks in 3 hours with this program running *sob*
however, earlier tonight, online again, i had another hard lock without this program running.
i am under the impression that no application should be able to do this to my machine. since i have no evidence there is a hardware problem (and i don't really have the spending money to buy a whole new PC on the off chance) a driver problem seems possible. however, this doesn't get me very far.
knowing in the back of your mind that at any moment any and all work i am doing, and any conversations i am having, can be snatched away from me with no cause or notice, this is really starting to get to me. it is taking the fun out of using my computer
my home machine (winXP pro) has two types of crash. both happen at complete random, and i can find no pattern or cause for these crashes.
in type 1 the machine experiences a hard lock. the screen just freezes, the mouse stops working, and the keyboard caps lock light no longer changes. the only option at this point is a hard reset >
in type 2 the machine spontaneously reboots.
both have happened to me already today.
now for the details:
i have run anti-virus and spyware checks, and found nothing.
i have a nvidia gforce2 MX 64meg graphics card, with the 40.72 drivers. these are not the most recent, but they are the most recent i have found where DVD playback still works.
i thought i saw a brief flash of blue when the machine spontaneously rebooted today, so it occurred to me i may have had a blue screen of death. so, i have just turned off the "automatically restart" option in system settings for dealing with a system failure. if i do get a blue screen of death, maybe it will give me some clues as to the possible root of the problem.
the only pattern i can provide is that the spontaneous reboots only happen when i am off line (56k modem, dial up connection) and the hard locks only happen when i am online.
i have been unable to find anything even close to helpful in the system event logs
i thought i had a pattern to the online hard locks, in that for every one of them microsoft messenger (the one bundled into winXP, msmsgs.exe) was always running. one night i had 3 hard locks in 3 hours with this program running *sob*
however, earlier tonight, online again, i had another hard lock without this program running.
i am under the impression that no application should be able to do this to my machine. since i have no evidence there is a hardware problem (and i don't really have the spending money to buy a whole new PC on the off chance) a driver problem seems possible. however, this doesn't get me very far.
knowing in the back of your mind that at any moment any and all work i am doing, and any conversations i am having, can be snatched away from me with no cause or notice, this is really starting to get to me. it is taking the fun out of using my computer
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feline
Reply #122 Saturday, August 2, 2003 12:58 PM
Reply #122 Saturday, August 2, 2003 12:58 PM
Jafo, i am using the very same modem now, on my backup 400mhz win2k machine, and i have never had a single problem with it. also, this doesnt help with the hard locks and spontanious reboots while the modem was turned off.
mrtee, it is an external hardware modem
[Message Edited]
mrtee, it is an external hardware modem
[Message Edited]
mrtee
Reply #123 Saturday, August 2, 2003 5:54 PM
Reply #123 Saturday, August 2, 2003 5:54 PM
Great.
Have you checked the RAM to make sure it is fully seated (mentioned earlier)?
Have you checked the RAM to make sure it is fully seated (mentioned earlier)?
Jafo
Reply #124 Saturday, August 2, 2003 8:25 PM
Reply #124 Saturday, August 2, 2003 8:25 PM
feline....the same modem can be accesing/using different interupts in one comp as against another...perhaps even BIOS settings can influence which resources/address....so again, try a different modem...even a PCI one...
LadyPhoenix
Reply #125 Saturday, August 2, 2003 11:08 PM
Reply #125 Saturday, August 2, 2003 11:08 PM
This sounds like what happened to my computer. I had at the time a brand new HP computer. Only 3 days in home and it started that stuff with WinXP of course. What happened was that WinXP is set up to automatically update from the Microsoft site. It had downloaded the latest and greatest (cough), critical update for WinXP. The site even stated it to be important update. Well it crashed my computer. My computer started acting funny, then it started to reboot at will, and with lock ups. I reformatted and it went away and I shut off that auto update.
There are a few reasons I came up with the conclusion it was that critical update as the culprit.
1. My other computer did same thing afer exact same update.
2. My friends computer did it within hours of that update.
3. Someone in a chat room was complaining of the exact problem and when I suggested the removal of the update and the did that, their problems were solved.
You might check to see if it did an auto update with the critical patch after June 15, 2003. It is an evil little bugger.
There are a few reasons I came up with the conclusion it was that critical update as the culprit.
1. My other computer did same thing afer exact same update.
2. My friends computer did it within hours of that update.
3. Someone in a chat room was complaining of the exact problem and when I suggested the removal of the update and the did that, their problems were solved.
You might check to see if it did an auto update with the critical patch after June 15, 2003. It is an evil little bugger.
feline
Reply #126 Sunday, August 3, 2003 2:20 PM
Reply #126 Sunday, August 3, 2003 2:20 PM
Jafo, i have a spare PCI modem, so i might yet try that
LadyPhoenix, i have auto update turned off, and i tend to be rather slow and careful which patches i install. one one install it was "stuffed" right from the start *sigh*
mrtee, cards (inc ram) in slots is something i am leaving alone at the moment. when i performed this check on my graphics card, the machine stopped booting!
the card was back in the slot as far as i could tell, but it didnt work. someone else put it in the slot and the machine worked *confused*
i gave up opening the case at this point
LadyPhoenix, i have auto update turned off, and i tend to be rather slow and careful which patches i install. one one install it was "stuffed" right from the start *sigh*
mrtee, cards (inc ram) in slots is something i am leaving alone at the moment. when i performed this check on my graphics card, the machine stopped booting!
the card was back in the slot as far as i could tell, but it didnt work. someone else put it in the slot and the machine worked *confused*i gave up opening the case at this point
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Reply #121 Saturday, August 2, 2003 8:29 AM
Before XP was released I was using the Beta version and kept getting "the modem is in use". Changed to an external modem and had no further problems.