Random System Restarts: Here's one for you experts!

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10-24-2003, 06:38 PM
zackbass

Random System Restarts: Here's one for you experts!

My new computer (in sig) had been running fine for several weeks until last Wednesday. The system started randomly restarting every couple hours. Then when I went to turn it on on Friday, I got a message that a hard disk had falled out of my RAID 0 array.

I ran a few HDD utilities and decided that the RAID 0 stripe could not be saved so I deleted the array and created a new to reinstall Windows on. The drives AFIAK are perfectly okay and the bad RAID array was a RAID controller problem.

The windows setup goes perfectly fine until after it restarts into the GUI installer. At that point the system restarts somewhere between 5 seconds - 20 minutes into the install. The frequency of the restarts doesn't seem to correlate with anything at all.

After 30-40 tries at this with just about every BIOS setting and hardware config possible I got Windows to finally install. (Yes, I DID spend an entire Saturday and part of Sunday trying to fix this) I guess I just got lucky that time as the system restarted just after the install finished. There restarts still occur at random (but shorter) intervals.

Here's the weird part: The system DOES NOT restart until a Windows GUI starts running. It is ROCK SOLID in DOS and runs MemTest86 for hours without an error. As soon as Windows starts (like in the Windows install GUI portion) the restarts start.

Every piece of hardware except the mobo and processor (yes, the PSU too) has been swapped out with known good parts without affecting the problem. The CPU stays at a few degrees Celcius above ambient at all times.

Please help. I have tried just about everything that I can think of.
10-24-2003, 07:41 PM
OS-Wiz

My guess -- either bad controller or HD(s). Whichever SATA controller you using, try the other and move just one of the HDs to a different SATA controller channel, then the other. This will isolate the HDs if there's a problem and the controller.
10-24-2003, 07:47 PM
zackbass

There are two RAID controllers integrated into the board. I have tried both with no change in the restarting problem. I have also tried a known good PATA drive which also had no effect on the problem.
10-24-2003, 08:09 PM
OS-Wiz

Quote:

Originally posted by zackbass
There are two RAID controllers integrated into the board. I have tried both with no change in the restarting problem. I have also tried a known good PATA drive which also had no effect on the problem.

Have you ran scandisk on each HD?
10-24-2003, 10:08 PM
zackbass

Scandisk runs without a problem on each of drives.

From all the part swapping I've done so far I would have have determined that it's a matherboard problem that I can't fix, but the thing that's throwing me off is that it runs perfectly fine up until it tries to load Windows. As soon as Windows starts loading I get the random restarts.

I can understand that Windows might try to access a part of the board that DOS (any anything I run in DOS) doesn't access, but that still won't explain why it happens at random intervals.
10-24-2003, 10:30 PM
zackbass

I forgot another important detail: Windows doesn't throw any STOP errors when the system restarts. The power to the system is just cut off completely. It's not a "soft" restart, power is shut off to everything in the system like in a shutdown.
10-25-2003, 09:36 AM
richardginn

I say skip using RAID.
10-25-2003, 09:17 PM
zackbass

Quote:

Originally posted by richardginn
I say skip using RAID.

Tried it with each of the three drives. No difference.
10-25-2003, 11:02 PM
Mechanic

You have a lot of high draw hardware, have you switched out the PSU?
10-25-2003, 11:56 PM
thebove

weird.....i've had PSU issues like this with several builds before, you mentioned you already swapped out the PSU, but have the other ones you've tested been a different model/brand, or the same model?

aside from that the only thing i can think of at the time is the installation CD is loading something corrupt during the DOS part of setup, but that to me would make it hang at the same point each time....
10-26-2003, 08:57 AM
zackbass

The PSU that is in the system is a Vantec Stealth 520W, but the system has been tested with my Antec 300-something watt PSU.

I tried installing XP from a different CD a couple times but it didn't seem to help. The CD I had been using was in near-perfect condition and was used just a couple of weeks ago though. I'll have to grab a known-good CD off a friend and try it.
10-26-2003, 09:11 AM
gkline

Did you do the install with that 2.4 overclocked????
10-26-2003, 09:34 AM
zackbass

Quote:

Originally posted by gkline
Did you do the install with that 2.4 overclocked????

No, everything was done correctly to the best of my knowlege, but thanks for taking the time to ask! :)
10-26-2003, 09:52 AM
I4one

Quote:

The windows setup goes perfectly fine until after it restarts into the GUI installer. At that point the system restarts somewhere between 5 seconds - 20 minutes into the install. The frequency of the restarts doesn't seem to correlate with anything at all.

[/I]

By default, XP executes an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. Therefore, more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot.

The setting that controls this can be changed:
Control Panel/System/Advanced/Settings (Startup & Recovery)/System Failure/Uncheck-Automatically Restart.

To view the event log: Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or Start/Run/eventvwr.

If when you start your computer, the Microsoft Windows XP start up screen appears, and then the computer restarts, the Windows XP logon screen does not appear.

This error can occur if the Kernel32.dll file is missing or damaged.
Re-install it through Recovery Console
10-26-2003, 10:10 AM
zackbass

Quote:

By default, XP executes an automatic restart in the event of a system failure. Therefore, more or less anything compromising the operating system during the shutdown process could force this reboot.

I think you are refering to the system restarting in the event of a BSOD or STOP error. The way the restarts are occuring, the power to everything in the system is immeidetely cut off.

Quote:

The setting that controls this can be changed:
Control Panel/System/Advanced/Settings (Startup & Recovery)/System Failure/Uncheck-Automatically Restart. To view the event log: Administrative Tools/Event Viewer or Start/Run/eventvwr.

Can I change this setting during the Windows setup process since I obviously go and change the setting in Control Panel without Windows installed? Can I view the event log through the recovery console?

Quote:

If when you start your computer, the Microsoft Windows XP start up screen appears, and then the computer restarts, the Windows XP logon screen does not appear.

This error can occur if the Kernel32.dll file is missing or damaged.
Re-install it through Recovery Console

Is it possible that every single time I have tried to install Windows it has put a bad kernel32.dll on the hard disk?

I just got a known a known good XP CD and I'm going to try to install it and see if anything goes differently.
10-26-2003, 10:52 AM
Dimitris

I have had that problem a few times. It took me about a month to solve it. I found out that I had a virus in the memory, which wouldn't be cleared even with a full install. After deleting that virus, I have never had that reboot problem. So get avast antivirus and check ur memory etc.
10-26-2003, 10:58 AM
OS-Wiz

Quote:

Originally posted by Dimitris
I have had that problem a few times. It took me about a month to solve it. I found out that I had a virus in the memory, which wouldn't be cleared even with a full install. After deleting that virus, I have never had that reboot problem. So get avast antivirus and check ur memory etc.

Unless you're using some kind of system that ALWAYS keeps power on to memory, a virus can't be retained in memory if you power off and on. You might be talking about a possible virus that planted itself in the BIOS chip's EEPROM. More likely, the virus planted itself on your MBR.
10-26-2003, 11:22 AM
zackbass

There is no way a virus could have stayed resident on my MBR or memory after all they have been through so far. The HDDs have been wiped countless times, and the memory has been powered off and removed a few times too.

From the "the plot thickens" dept:
I tried installing Win98 on the computer and it installs fine. It doesn't work, I'm guessing driver issues, but it doesn't randomly restart.
10-26-2003, 01:07 PM
OS-Wiz

Quote:

Originally posted by zackbass
There is no way a virus could have stayed resident on my MBR or memory after all they have been through so far. The HDDs have been wiped countless times, and the memory has been powered off and removed a few times too.

From the "the plot thickens" dept:
I tried installing Win98 on the computer and it installs fine. It doesn't work, I'm guessing driver issues, but it doesn't randomly restart.

Have you tried a non-Raid install of WinXP on a PATA channel, with all SATA controllers turned off in BIOS? Latest BIOS flash? Latest mobo drivers installed?