 My Computer Just Randomly Restarted?, Is this related to a Windows XP OS update? |
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  Apr 28 2008, 06:42 PM
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#1
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Member  Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291  |
My PC recently randomly restarted itself. I'm not sure as to why...I was just in the middle of doing my usual programs and it abruptly restarted. When it loaded to the desktop everything looked fine...but I noticed the little yellow shield with the exclamation icon pop up on my bottom blue bar for a second and then disappear. This icon usually appears whenever my computer is installing an OS update or notifying me of when it is done...Odd thing was that when, I checked my most recent updates log and saw that nothing had updated(?) My computer is running the Windows XP Pro OS. Can anyone help me with this problem? Thanks TTC /final edit: After observing the log further I think I found the root of the cause. 4/28/2008: Save Dump - The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. [etc etc etc] Anything I should be concerned about? This post has been edited by TTC: Apr 28 2008, 07:04 PM |
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Apr 28 2008, 07:02 PM
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#2
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 Bleepin' Cynic Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,213 Joined: 11-November 06 Member No.: 94,959 |
This type of rebooting behaviour is can be caused by your computer overheating. You can check your system temperatures with SpeedFan, which should give you an indication of whether your system is running too hot.
Also, I would recommend that you open your computer case and make sure all the fans are spinning okay and that there isn't an excessive amount of dust in there that would impede air flow. See the following Bleeping Computer tutorial for guidance on cleaning inside your computer. Cleaning the Interior of your PC -------------------- Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
—Albert Camus |
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Apr 28 2008, 07:27 PM
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#3
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Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291 |
Before the random restart the tower felt pretty cool, and even now (it hasn't had any restarts since before) its still pretty cold.
My fans were replaced sometime back...And the thing in my tower that was found to be causing heating problems in the past (the graphics card fan died) has been removed and replaced with a brand new card. Back when the tower was overheating during those days, the computer emitted a loud humming noise. There has been no humming noise present since my computer had that part replaced. This note, occured before the restart happened just now. It should be noted that prior to the random restart I was trying to run three large memory programs. The programs had been having problems with "not responding", so I was killing off each process individually through the windows task manager. It had been after I restarted up two of the three programs again, that it abruptly restarted. I'm on the Speedfan site right now. What am I suppossed to do to check the heating of the computer? /edit: in addition, I have cleaned the fans as of 3 weeks ago. I cleaned all 3 fans that are present in my HP Media Center PC m7680n model. This post has been edited by TTC: Apr 28 2008, 07:29 PM |
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Apr 28 2008, 07:36 PM
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#4
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Bleepin' Cynic Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,213 Joined: 11-November 06 Member No.: 94,959 |
Did you get a "Blue Screen of Death" error message when the computer restarted?
With SpeedFan, you download and install SpeedFan 4.34 from the website. This post has been edited by Budapest: Apr 28 2008, 07:41 PM -------------------- Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
—Albert Camus |
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Apr 28 2008, 07:42 PM
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#5
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Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291 |
Nope. It just blanked out for a moment, went to the normal start up screen, and after loading brought me to the desktop. Nothing seemed altered or changed, and everything has been running just as fine as it usually is.
I figured it had to do with what I had found in the System part of the event viewer. Here is a full version of what it said under the description: 4/28/2008: Save Dump - The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x1000008e (0xc0000005, 0xbfb08ae9, 0x95aea67c, 0x00000000) A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini042808-01.dmp. For more information, see help and support center at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp. EDIT: I have installed speedfan. What do I do now? This post has been edited by TTC: Apr 28 2008, 07:44 PM |
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Apr 28 2008, 07:51 PM
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#6
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Bleepin' Cynic Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,213 Joined: 11-November 06 Member No.: 94,959 |
You can analyse the dump file, which may give you a better idea of the cause of the crash.
Windows xp: How to analyze dump file With SpeedFan, just run it and it will give you the system temperatures. -------------------- Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
—Albert Camus |
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Apr 28 2008, 07:51 PM
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#7
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Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291 |
I figured out how to use the Speedfan program. This is what I saw with it:
 Is everything alright? This post has been edited by TTC: Apr 28 2008, 07:55 PM |
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Apr 28 2008, 08:01 PM
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#8
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Bleepin' Cynic Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,213 Joined: 11-November 06 Member No.: 94,959 |
What CPU does your computer have?
-------------------- Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
—Albert Camus |
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Apr 28 2008, 08:02 PM
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#9
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Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291 |
QUOTE(Budapest @ Apr 28 2008, 09:01 PM)  What CPU does your computer have? Um, what exactly do you mean? Do you mean its computer specs? |
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Apr 28 2008, 08:09 PM
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#10
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Bleepin' Cynic Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,213 Joined: 11-November 06 Member No.: 94,959 |
For example: Intel Celeron 1.7GHz
-------------------- Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
—Albert Camus |
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Apr 28 2008, 08:12 PM
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#11
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Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291 |
I believe its this:
Dual-core 2.13 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 processor Hardware Platform: PC Processor: 2.13 GHz Intel Core Duo Number of Processors: 2 RAM: 2000 MB RAM Type: DDR2 SDRAM (I found this out through a description of the computer on Amazon. I did not get my PC from amazon though... My computer is an HP Media Center m7680n. I purchased it through CompUSA. This is all else I know for certain regarding the model: 1. It came with a 300W PSU. 2. It's original graphics card was : Nvidia GeForce 7300 LE video card (256 MB shared) It has been replaced with the following graphics card: VGA ASUS N EN7300GT SILENT/HTD/256M. The card is kinna big than the other one, and I heard it can sometimes run a little hot. 3. It originally ran on the Windows Media XP Center OS, but was downgraded to Windows XP Pro. /edit: As a final note, I was reminded that a long time ago prior to the computer getting the replaced part that it restarted randomly once in the middle of the night. This was during a time I used to keep it on for days at a time. (I am a MMO player. I often have to keep one to two of the game client program open at a time) The recent restart happened after I had kept it on two days in a row with this heavy-memory program active. Coincidence, or is there a correlation? This post has been edited by TTC: Apr 28 2008, 08:22 PM |
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Apr 28 2008, 08:30 PM
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#12
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Bleepin' Cynic Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,213 Joined: 11-November 06 Member No.: 94,959 |
Core temps of 39 and 40C don't sound too bad. You CPU should be good up to about 60C. That temp reading of 74C doesn't look too good, but unfortunately it's hard to know what it's referring to. But you said that you'd had all the fans replaced recently so I would think it's probably not a temp issue. Still, it's worth a look inside the case to see if there's a dust problem.
Did you try the dump file analysis? -------------------- Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
—Albert Camus |
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Apr 28 2008, 08:36 PM
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#13
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Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291 |
QUOTE(Budapest @ Apr 28 2008, 09:30 PM) Core temps of 39 and 40C don't sound too bad. You CPU should be good up to about 60C. That temp reading of 74C doesn't look too good, but unfortunately it's hard to know what it's referring to. But you said that you'd had all the fans replaced recently so I would think it's probably not a temp issue. Still, it's worth a look inside the case to see if there's a dust problem. Did you try the dump file analysis? Well, its good to hear everything else in it is going ok at around 60 C at most...but...Hmm. It's confusing. I cleaned the fan towards the back, and I cleaned the fan up at top. Maybe its the center fan that needs cleaning? I'm trying to figure out what I'm supposed to install from that site. @_@ There's a lot of different links as to what's available. What specifically on that site am I supposed to download? /edit: Oh btw, I switched the Speedfan to chart mode. It seems to be going a steady 74 C that occasionally drops to 73 C. Could it be possible that that's just the normal temperature for the computer? This post has been edited by TTC: Apr 28 2008, 08:39 PM |
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Apr 28 2008, 09:05 PM
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#14
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Member Group: Members Posts: 67 Joined: 23-August 07 Member No.: 152,291 |
As an update, I just got in contact with HP's tech support regarding the computer temperatures.
They said around 60-70C is perfectly normal. :thumbsup: I'm in the process now of asking whether a little bit above that is alright. Asides from that, things are looking ok.... |
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Apr 28 2008, 09:11 PM
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#15
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Bleepin' Cynic Group: BC Advisor Posts: 4,213 Joined: 11-November 06 Member No.: 94,959 |
I think you want the Windows 32 Bit one.
As for the fans, I think the ones to concentrate on are those that sit directly on the CPU and GPU. They look like this. -------------------- Stupidity has a knack of getting its way.
—Albert Camus |
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