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Anandtech web page causing computers to reboot today

E

EODetroit

Member
Ok this is weird, I'm wondering what's going on.

Today at work, visiting Anandtech has caused many computers at work to spontaneously reboot themselves. The only thing they seem to have in common is Windows XP Pro, Intel CPU, and an old technology ATI Video Card.

One is a P3-500 with a Rage 128 and DFI P2XBL Rev D2, one is a P4-2.666 with a Radeon 7000 (this one: http://www.newegg.com/app/View...14-131-407&depa=0) and an Albatron PX865PE Pro II, and another is a P4-2.4C with the same Radeon 7000 and Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe. That's all that I've tried it in so far.

The video card driver version doesn't seem to matter. I tried the newest, ones from June, and the ones that come with XP.

Also the hardware acceleration level and write combining settings don't seem to matter, on one of the systems I tried every notch to no avail, it still happened.

Finally, it doesn't matter if I'm logged on as a restricted user or the administrator.

What happens is I go to www.anandtech.com, and the computer resets itself.

Can anyone reproduce this? My instinct is that its a problem with the video card drivers and one of the flash ads that Anandtech is using. Also I can't get it to happen on any computer with a Nvidia display adapter. This is worrysome because in theory someone could send and email that will reboot a lot of business computers out there, not to mention that I can't browse Anandtech.

Thanks,

Mark G.
 
Originally posted by: EODetroit
Ok this is weird, I'm wondering what's going on.

Today at work, visiting Anandtech has caused many computers at work to spontaneously reboot themselves. The only thing they seem to have in common is Windows XP Pro, Intel CPU, and an old technology ATI Video Card.

One is a P3-500 with a Rage 128 and DFI P2XBL Rev D2, one is a P4-2.666 with a Radeon 7000 (this one: http://www.newegg.com/app/View...14-131-407&depa=0) and an Albatron PX865PE Pro II, and another is a P4-2.4C with the same Radeon 7000 and Asus P4S800D-E Deluxe. That's all that I've tried it in so far.

The video card driver version doesn't seem to matter. I tried the newest, ones from June, and the ones that come with XP.

Also the hardware acceleration level and write combining settings don't seem to matter, on one of the systems I tried every notch to no avail, it still happened.

Finally, it doesn't matter if I'm logged on as a restricted user or the administrator.

What happens is I go to www.anandtech.com, and the computer resets itself.

Can anyone reproduce this? My instinct is that its a problem with the video card drivers and one of the flash ads that Anandtech is using. Also I can't get it to happen on any computer with a Nvidia display adapter. This is worrysome because in theory someone could send and email that will reboot a lot of business computers out there, not to mention that I can't browse Anandtech.

Thanks,

Mark G.
Click to expand...

When you say "reboot" do you mean a BSOD occurs, which causes the machine to reboot, or do you mean something else happens?
 
No BSD, I should say the computer resets itself... reboot indicates some gracefulness to the process that just isn't there, so its more like "reset" I guess.

Its as if you hit the reset button. And it happens just from going to www.anandtech.com.
 
It just happened on a Gateway 450 laptop here at work when I asked one of the users to (save her files and then) type in www.anandtech.com into IE.

One difference this time was that there was a BSOD screen quickly before it went to the bios/bootup routine. I didn't get a chance to see what it said, yet.
 
Originally posted by: EODetroit
It just happened on a Gateway 450 laptop here at work when I asked one of the users to (save her files and then) type in www.anandtech.com into IE.

One difference this time was that there was a BSOD screen quickly before it went to the bios/bootup routine. I didn't get a chance to see what it said, yet.
Click to expand...

OK, so we have a BSOD scenario. I can help if you'd like - update all (ALL) the drivers/BIOS/Windows things/etc. on the box, and then get it to crash again, and then run MPS Reports, and then send me the MPS Reports .cab file and the most recent dumps from AFTER the driver/etc. updates. Full details are in my .sig's URL......

 
dclive: You have mail. I performed the steps in your sig and sent you the results. Unfortunately the problem is still happening just from browsing Anandtech.

Does anyone reading this have a Radeon 7000 or Rage Pro/128 lying around that can attempt to duplicate this?

We use these old tech video cards at work because they are cheap and we frankly don't want people running games anyways, and they work perfectly for business apps.

Until now anyways.

Thanks again,

Mark G.
 
Originally posted by: EODetroit
dclive: You have mail. I performed the steps in your sig and sent you the results. Unfortunately the problem is still happening just from browsing Anandtech.

Does anyone reading this have a Radeon 7000 or Rage Pro/128 lying around that can attempt to duplicate this?

We use these old tech video cards at work because they are cheap and we frankly don't want people running games anyways, and they work perfectly for business apps.

Until now anyways.

Thanks again,

Mark G.
Click to expand...


Uninstall NAV and I suspect the issue will go away. Let's give that a shot, and report back on what happens.
 
Uninstall NAV and I suspect the issue will go away. Let's give that a shot, and report back on what happens.
Click to expand...

I had a similar experience on a client's work computer. This was back in the windows 98 days and the computer in question was a compaq loaded with its proprietary software. In this case the AV software was McAfee and the error message involved a McAfee related .dll. Microsoft had no work around and recommended uninstalling McAfee. I couldn't convince my client that his virus scanner was crashing his system. Therefore, I basically wasn't allowed by him to fix his problem. However, I suspect that if he had allowed me to, I would have fixed his problem. Conflicts with AV software isn't all that uncommon and I recommend following dclive's advice. Having not seen the reports, I cannot confirm his diagnosis. I can say this though .... he's certainly NOT out to lunch! I suspect on the basis of what I've read, his advice will fix your problem. Please report back like he's asked.
 
This appears to be a problem for newer systems as well, e.g. Precision P4 with Radeon 8500.
The blue-screen page-fault is described as navap.sys, which is Norton AV. Can't wait to see the resolution for this....
 
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