Note: I have read as many of the existing posts of this similar title as I could before my brain imploded. Nothing seemed to fit my scenario and I have already been troubleshooting these for a while on my own. My apologies if I have missed an identical existing solution.
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Scenario - We have 15 computers built identically about 3 years ago I think. One had mysterious rebooting issues at the get-go and our hardware people at the time replaced memory and the Power Supply and ultimately gave up and gave us a whole new machine.
Within the last couple of months, two more of these machines have started having Random Rebooting issues. We swapped our last two functioning unused versions of the boxes and they have been fine since. I have the two "broken " pcs for troubleshooting.
No BSOD, no error log entry or memory dump data provided. The daily demand on these machines is very minimal. Probably one Netscape browser session open and a 5250 emulator program with printer session. No email.
Reboots would happen when no activity was happening, or during activity.
No apparent connection of time of day. Sometimes it would happen 2 or 3 times a week, sometimes it would happen 3 times a day.
No new hardware or software installations for about a year.
No devices with drivers flagged in the Device Manager.
I have trying to troubleshoot this on my own in hopes of not having to buy all new PCs. Im trying to document these steps in chronological order, but there is a lot of information, so it might not be exact.
^^^ I downloaded Hot CPU Tester Pro (unregistered version) to push processing for extended periods of time and see if rebooting occurs. Ran for a period of hours usually after each major change(tried to mark with ***).. Sometimes I could run for 2 6 hour periods without issue and the third run would cause a reboot. Sometimes I changed the routine to run for longer period generally overnight and that would be rebooted by morning at different hours each time. ^^^
Intel Pentium 4 1.6GHZ
Operating System - Windows XP Service Pack 2 5.1.2600
Memory - [% gathered using Everest Software]
Physical Memory - 128mb util - 76% [yes I know this is small]
Swap Space - 306 mb utilizing - 53%
Virtual Memory - 433mb utilizing - 60%
Antivirus- Norton Antivirus Coporate Edition v. 9.0
Chipsets: VIA 82C3128 rev 1
Northbridge: VT8753/A/E Apollo P4X266/A/E
Southbridge: VT8233C
Initial General System Troubleshooting:
Turned off System Restore Setting
Turned off Autoreboot on Error setting
Ran Checkdisk - no errors or bad sectors found
Defragmented the Harddrive, though analysis didnt indicate it was needed.
Full System Virus Scan - nothing found
Scanned for Viruses - Nothing found
Installed Spybot Search & Destroy - Nothing found
Installed Trojan Remover (Demo) - Nothing found
***
Changed Virtual Memory - Page File to be 200mb-2000mb [initially something like 192-306? Didnt write these numbers down]
***
Added 2nd stick of 128mb to computer taken from identical working machine once it was available to 'steal'
At this point, Memory was reported at:
Physical Memory - 255mb utilizing 33%
Swap Space 616mb utilizing 28%
Virtual Memory - 872mb utilizing 30%
***
No errors in the error log at the times of rebooting but 2 suspicious repeating messages over time:
The following boot-start or system-start driver(s) failed to load: Evian.
Researched this to find it is a Promise Filter Driver and that version was incompatible with XP. I disabled the PtiTech Device/Evian driver.
Which led to downloading Driver Detective to find out of date driver versions.
Updated Realtek Audio, VIA Bus Master IDE Control, Realtek PCI Fast Ethernet,
Program keeps indicated NVIDIA and USB drivers need to be updated, but all downloadable options from NVIDIA say no compatible hardware detected and end the setup. The USB program looks like it runs, but doesnt seem to change anything. ??
[2nd message was a Warning.. ignored until later on.. addressed further down]
***
Downloaded MemTest86, ran for many hours with no errors. Ran Test 9 twice, no errors
***
AwardBIOS was dated back to 2001. Bought update from eSupport to handle Windows XP better [according to eSupport Tech]. Updated to a version dated 2005.
***
According to Everest -
Motherboard = 90 F/32C CPU 64F/18C
I cleaned out as much dust as possible from the fans and case etc.
Post cleaning motherboard started 6 degrees cooler but after on for 10 minutes back to 90F. CPU showed no change.
***
Obtained a Power Supply Tester - everything came up fine. Though I know it means only at that moment.. if there is a momentary glitch in power, I wouldnt know how to test for that
***
Second suspicious repeating warning message (appears over the last year and half a few times a month) is :
Event Type: Warning
Event Source: W32Time
Event Category: None
Event ID: 36
Date: 10/20/2005
Time: 9:18:38 PM
User: N/A
Computer: CSK
Description:
The time service has not been able to synchronize the system time for 49152 seconds because none of the time providers has been able to provide a usable time stamp. The system clock is unsynchronized.
The computer is not setup to autosynchronize the clock. We are behind a firewall [if that matters] and nothing on these computers requires exact synchronization. The date and time look fine [not off by months/years or anything like that].
====Todays oddness 5/17/07 ====
CPU box left opening and running from Tuesday night through this morning. Hooked up to new APC with monitoring software. I wanted to see what the temperatures would be and if the APC registered anything.
PC rebooted once. APC registered 5 seconds of electrical noise.
Computer was only identifying 128mb of ram, despite two sticks.
After checking that both sticks worked in slot one and testing resetting both sticks. Put the good second stick into slot 3 and PC now recognizes 256mb of RAM again.
Operating with box open, checked after memory back up and running
- Motherboard = 84F/29C CPU= 57F/14C
I have closed the case again and am just leaving the machine on at the moment.
Where I stand right now with troubleshooting ideas....
1) I could buy a new Power supply and see if that works.
2) I could buy a new memory chip [probably 512mb if I do] and see if that works.
3) Replacing the motherboard I suppose would be another option cheaper than a new PC, but Id have to research that quite a bit more.
After all this I dont know what else to try.
Do you have any other suggestions or ideas for what else could be causing the reboots?
Ideally, I would like to salvage these two [possibly 3 as Im writing this] computers. And have a plan of attack of cleaning up/updating the current PCs [memory/BIOS/drivers/dust removal etc.] to keep them all up and running for a few more years, rather than go buy 15 completely new PCs.
Anything insight would be hugely appreciated.
Thank you!
Elizabeth
