Sudden restart

Power Supply is new 500W and running really cool. Virus scanned periodically with AVG Antivirus, also Full Service Scan at Windows Life Center. Also have Ad-Aware Pro+ Ad-Watch. Battery backup 700W.
It looks to me "bad instruction to the CPU" might be the issue and, since I'm far away to be an expert, a list of possible troubleshooting will be a biiiggg help.

Next stop is the EVENT VIEWER. I won't write how to use it since it's in Help and Support as well as google.com

Since it might be some instruction or other driver issue, clues from the event viewer may help narrow what it was.

HOWEVER since it only occured once, even a cosmic ray can change RAM contents to cause the bad instruction. Not much we can do about that.

Case closed since you didn't tell how often. I read your post again and see only one occurance. Please write back with frequency if more than one time.

As to a full list, I can't do that. It's much too long for this small space. You can use google.com for the full lists. But if this is more than once then you and I can narrow it down to the usuals I run into.

Bob

up to 4 times per day. Yesterday even happen just 2 minutes after been turned on.

The 2 minutes could be yet abother clue.

-> There is a hardware issue that the symptom of boots while the machine was just powered on and then gets better as it warms up. This one requires a simple visual inspection.

But first this discussion is a bit too one sided. I noted the event viewer and then not a word what was found.

Type BAD CAPS MOTHERBOARD into google.com for pictures. Now check yours.

Also, the EVENT VIEWER is best shared. It's information that could have us fix it...

Bob

I visited http://www.badcaps.net/ident/ and looked inside for my PCB. All the caps are righ standing and none blown etc.
Thw following comment make me wonder:make sure that you have the latest and proper drivers installed for yourhardware!
I runned Radar Sync 2006 hardware scan(www.radarsync.com) and the following have old drivers:
1) Realtek AC'97 Audio for VIA (R) Audio Controller
Existing version:
5.10.0.5890
Update version:
5.10.00.6080
2)VIA Standard Host Bridge
VIA CPU to AGP2.0/AGP3.0 Controller,
VIA Standard PCI to ISA Bridge
Existing version:
5.0.2195.6717
5.0.0.3442
5.0.0.3442
5.0.0.3442
5.1.0.230
5.0.2195.6717

5.1.0.230
5.1.0.230
5.1.0.230
Update version:
5.1.00.0270
5.2.0.3450
5.1.0.3442
5.1.0.3442
5.1.00.0270
Could this be my problem?

I also opened EVENT VIEWER and found the following errors(marked with red cross) at

Application Log:
Type Source
Error Microsoft Office 11
Error Microsoft Internet Explorer
Error MsiInstaller
Error LoadPerf

System Log
Type Source
Error Dhcp
Error Service Control Manager

Not only must the caps not be blown but not bulging.

As to driver versions, good work but why not update them?

And about the EVENT VIEWER. Great clues. But too little information for me to offer much insight. If this was my machine I'd be looking at each failure to see what could be done.

Bob

Yesterday I changed my PC to a dedicate power line with ground(earth) and today I have two sudden restart- What I found on EVENT VIEWER was these ERROR reports:
The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( Microsoft Internet Explorer ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: iexplore.exe, 6.0.2800.1106, mshtml.dll, 6.0.2800.1555, 0017753a.
0000: 41 70 70 6c 69 63 61 74 Applicat
0008: 69 6f 6e 20 46 61 69 6c ion Fail
0010: 75 72 65 20 20 69 65 78 ure iex
0018: 70 6c 6f 72 65 2e 65 78 plore.ex
0020: 65 20 36 2e 30 2e 32 38 e 6.0.28
0028: 30 30 2e 31 31 30 36 20 00.1106
0030: 69 6e 20 6d 73 68 74 6d in mshtm
0038: 6c 2e 64 6c 6c 20 36 2e l.dll 6.
0040: 30 2e 32 38 30 30 2e 31 0.2800.1
0048: 35 35 35 20 61 74 20 6f 555 at o
0050: 66 66 73 65 74 20 30 30 ffset 00
0058: 31 37 37 35 33 61 0d 0a 17753a..

The description for Event ID ( 1001 ) in Source ( Microsoft Internet Explorer ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: 304864514.
0000: 42 75 63 6b 65 74 3a 20 Bucket:
0008: 33 30 34 38 36 34 35 31 30486451
0010: 34 0d 0a

Faulting application winword.exe, version 11.0.6568.0, stamp 42e178a5, faulting module winword.exe, version 11.0.6568.0, stamp 42e178a5, debug? 0, fault address 0x00179e5d.

0000: 41 00 70 00 70 00 6c 00 A.p.p.l.
0008: 69 00 63 00 61 00 74 00 i.c.a.t.
0010: 69 00 6f 00 6e 00 20 00 i.o.n. .
0018: 46 00 61 00 69 00 6c 00 F.a.i.l.
0020: 75 00 72 00 65 00 20 00 u.r.e. .
0028: 20 00 77 00 69 00 6e 00 .w.i.n.
0030: 77 00 6f 00 72 00 64 00 w.o.r.d.
0038: 2e 00 65 00 78 00 65 00 ..e.x.e.
0040: 20 00 31 00 31 00 2e 00 .1.1...
0048: 30 00 2e 00 36 00 35 00 0...6.5.
0050: 36 00 38 00 2e 00 30 00 6.8...0.
0058: 20 00 34 00 32 00 65 00 .4.2.e.
0060: 31 00 37 00 38 00 61 00 1.7.8.a.
0068: 35 00 20 00 69 00 6e 00 5. .i.n.
0070: 20 00 77 00 69 00 6e 00 .w.i.n.
0078: 77 00 6f 00 72 00 64 00 w.o.r.d.
0080: 2e 00 65 00 78 00 65 00 ..e.x.e.
0088: 20 00 31 00 31 00 2e 00 .1.1...
0090: 30 00 2e 00 36 00 35 00 0...6.5.
0098: 36 00 38 00 2e 00 30 00 6.8...0.
00a0: 20 00 34 00 32 00 65 00 .4.2.e.
00a8: 31 00 37 00 38 00 61 00 1.7.8.a.
00b0: 35 00 20 00 66 00 44 00 5. .f.D.
00b8: 65 00 62 00 75 00 67 00 e.b.u.g.

They are alien's language for me (!)

Your posts didn't reveal what was running at the time of the reboot. Now we find Internet Explorer and Winword.

1. Internet Explorer is a pest magnet so a scan with EWIDO is best then use BHODEMON and delete all BHOs you find. Greek? Type the words in capital letters into google.com to find the 2 programs I noted.

No BHOs are required for Internet Explorer to function. When I find it crashing I remove them all.

2. WORD.

In this case I head straight for a very common Word cure. Delete the file NORMAL.DOT. If you have the file extenstions hidden, unhide them. Yes, the file is there because you use Word. Word will make a nice clean one on the next run. Also, if you use Norton, an addin is known to cause trouble.

NO! I don't have a cure for Norton. I am currently uninstalling that addin.

3. More about Event ID 1000
http://www.eventid.net/display.asp?eventid=1000&eventno=1439&source=Microsoft%20Internet%20Explorer&phase=1

You have to read it but what I look for are mention of software you may be using. Your posts are not all telling so I can't narrow it down. However you are getting better.

If I was armed with a HIJACKTHIS log, I might be able to narrow those items in the last link down.

Since you got Events, this points to software, driver or memory issues. Still a wide area but if we take care of the few items above and wait for the next reboot...


In closing, some random reboots are heat related even when temperatures seem fine. I sniff these out by leaving the case cover off.

Bob

They said: the CPU Fan was "wrongly installed". We ran several applications the spedds up temperature and it didn't re-start. I ahve just installed it and will try it for the res of the day. Tomorrow I will install W2k and the rest of my programs, starting form cero. I'll let you know if anything goes wrong.

I looked at the Event Viewer and while the PC was at the repair shop the following errors happened:
APPLICATION LOG
Windows cannot unload your registry file. If you have a roaming profile, your settings are not replicated. Contact your administrator.

DETAIL - Access is denied. , Build number ((2195)).
Once on July and 8

Overheating CPUs produce a wide variety of errors. The only distraction so far is that a lot was running at the time of the crash so nothing pointed to a do-this solution.

I never read if you tried the cover off test, but want to repeat that since it's been one of my better diagnostic tools.

Bob

Yes, I did it (Jl 05) but it kept on restarting duting that day and the next one.
I beleive I told you that it did restart today twice, just coming from the repair shop. I was using Firefox at that moment, then I changed to IE and, until this moment no re-start; covers are on. IE crash once without PC re-starting.
Event Viewer reported:
1)The description for Event ID ( 1001 ) in Source ( Microsoft Internet Explorer ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: 306691894.
2)The description for Event ID ( 1000 ) in Source ( Microsoft Internet Explorer ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. The following information is part of the event: iexplore.exe, 6.0.2800.1106, gdi32.dll, 5.0.2195.7073, 00006693.