Debugging a consistent Windows spontaneous reboot

[Goi]

Hi,

Whenever I connect my Motorola CLIQ cellphone to one of my Win XP boxes via USB, it spontaneously reboots. This happens when the DHCP service is running. If I disable it, it doesn't reboot.

It didn't use to happen. Things were working before on the same system fine but one day I plugged it in after not doing so for a while, the PC just rebooted, and from them on, consistently.

It's probably a Windows or Windows application problem, since when I boot up on Knoppix on the same PC and connect my phone, it doesn't reboot...so it's not a hardware issue. My phone also works on all other PCs that I've tried.

I've tried Windows update to get all the latest updates as well as updating my phone firmware, but still this happens. I've even tried booting up to Safe mode and Safe mode with networking. The former works, but the latter doesn't. That's how I narrowed it down to the DHCP service.

Is there any way I can read any logs anywhere to determine why the phone is causing Windowsto reboot when the DHCP service is running?

Thanks.

 

[daishi5]

Does it display a blue screen and reboot, a normal shutdown sequence and reboot (closes all programs before it reboots), or does it crash and just immediately start booting?

Also, have you checked the event logs?

 

[Goi]

It just spontaneously reboots as if I pressed the Reset button.

Are event logs cleared upon reboots? Where do I check them?

 

[Crusty]

Make sure you go into device manager and disable reboot on a BSOD so you can see if you are getting a BSOD before it reboots.

 

[corkyg]

Additionally, it is possibly a recent security update to XP, and it sees your CLIQ phone as a possible hacker. Try lowering your security level or adding the IP address of that phone to the exception list.

 

[daishi5]

It just spontaneously reboots as if I pressed the Reset button.

Are event logs cleared upon reboots? Where do I check them?

To view your event log, right click on "my computer" and then click on manage. The first item on the list under system tools is event viewer. Check under your system and event log, hopefully there should be a log of an event that caused the restart and events from after the reboot that might help you identify the cause.

Disabling the reboot on Blue screen is also good, right click on my computer, click on properties, go to the "advanced" tab, then click settings under "startup and recovery." Uncheck "automatically restart." Also, check where the dump file is written to when it crashes, if the event log does not help you, you can use that dump to dig into what is happening, but start with the event log.

 

[Goi]

Additionally, it is possibly a recent security update to XP, and it sees your CLIQ phone as a possible hacker. Try lowering your security level or adding the IP address of that phone to the exception list.

Thanks. How do I do that?

 

[Goi]

OK I got the following blue screen:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

Technical Information:
STOP: 0x000000D1 (0x00000006, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0xBA528ABE)
NDIS.sys - Address BA528ABE base at BA506000, DateStamp 48025d03

Also my system logs right after the reboot:





I have the minidump but I have no idea what to do with it.

After the reboot I also have 8 identical errors - WDM Reader driver initialization cannot open reader device: The system cannot find the path specified.

 

[RebateMonger]

There's a pretty complete list of STOP errors on this site:

http://aumha.org/a/stop.htm

Your 0xD1 error is listed about 3/4 of the way down the page. The first suggestions are:
1) Bad device driver
2) Faulty or mismatched RAM
3) Damaged Pagefile

I didn't read the whole page, but I imagine there are instructions for running Microsoft's debugger to see what Windows thinks was the cause of the STOP. That's what the memory dump is used for.

 

[Goi]

OK

1) I've uninstalled the motoconnect software as well as the motorola usb drivers. Didn't work, still hung.

2) I've taken out one half of my RAM sticks, then the other half, also didn't work. Unless both halves are faulty, it shouldn't be faulty RAM.

3) I'm not sure how to fix any pagefile problems?

What's weird is that it crashes only when DHCP service is running...so it doesn't appear to be a hardware problem at least?

 

[Crusty]

That's not a valid test for busted ram, you need to run MEMTEST86+ over a series of passes to ensure your RAM isn't bad.

TBH it sounds like a driver/hardware problem with your networking stack if you say it only happens with DHCP enabled.

You can also try resetting your TCP/IP stack by running 'netsh int ip reset' in a command prompt.

 

[Goi]

Weird thing is, it only seems to happen on Windows. I loaded a Knoppix Live CD and it didn't have a problem with my phone. If it's a memory problem, how can this happen so consistently?

 

[Crusty]

Weird thing is, it only seems to happen on Windows. I loaded a Knoppix Live CD and it didn't have a problem with my phone. If it's a memory problem, how can this happen so consistently?

When your RAM goes bad only certain areas of the memory chips become unsafe to use. Since every operating system will manage memory in a different fashion a problem with RAM might not surface in all cases.

That's why it is necessary to run MEMTEST86+ over several passes to make sure everything is good to go.

I'm still leaning towards a driver problem though, you've updated all your system drivers right? With WinXP you need to make sure you've got chipset drivers and such installed as well.

 

[Goi]

Well system drivers are as updated as can be, since this is a pretty old i915/P4 system. Wonder if a Win XP repair install would work...

 

[Goi]

Well I accidentally installed a separate windows installation on the same hard drive in the same PC(wanted to do a repair installation but made a mistake). The new installation detects my phone and doesn't spontaneously reboot...