Random reboots, even after formatting

[imported_KuJaX]

I helped a friend last night reformat his computer because he said that it would constantly reboot out of no where (not like a soft reboot, but hard.... working, black screen, then POST).

After we installed all of the drivers, I got off the phone with him and he shot me an e-mail the next morning saying that it keeps doing the exact same thing. One of the errors made it sound like it was a memory issue, so I walked him through running memtest86. The results were 36 passes with 0 failures with memtest86.

Here is an e-mail he sent to me this morning about error messages he has received:

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Save Dump
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 12/4/2006
Time: 9:28:11 PM
User: N/A
Computer: BKE-DD31FA16098
Description:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x1000000a (0x00000957, 0x00000002, 0x00000000, 0x804ebda9)

Event Type: Error
Event Source: System Error
Event Category: (102)
Event ID: 1003
Date: 12/5/2006
Time: 10:35:16 AM
User: N/A
Computer: BKE-DD31FA16098
Description:
Error code 1000008e, parameter1 c0000005, parameter2 bf8c7c5d, parameter3 aff81514, parameter4 00000000.

So ultimately what would you say the diagnostics is? Anything you recommend I have him try to pin point the problem(s)?

 

[bjp999]

Unfortunately random reboots are difficult to diagnose. Here are a few things to check:

1. Is the thing overclocked? If it is, first set everything back to default.

2. Is the CPU getting hot? There are several temperature monitoring utilities that you can dl for free. THe BIOS often has a way to see temps also. Every processor is different in terms of what is normal for temps, but high temps can cause instability and reboots. If the CPU is getting hot, check the HSF is working properly, and consider applying arctic silver 5.

3. Does he have a spare power supply that he could swap in and try? If the voltages go outside a narrow band can cause problems.

4. The MB could be bad. Its a pain to diagnose a bad MB, but they do sometimes fail with age and need to be replaced.

If a few quick tests don't diagnose the problem, I'd take it to a mom and pop computer shop and let them test it out for you. There are 2 near where I live and they fix weird problems all the time. I spent a whole evening trying to help my neighbor with a dead hard disk with zero luck. Tried the freezer thing and everything. He took it to one of them and they managed to recover all his data and get his system back up and running for about $50 (+ the cost of a new hard disk).

Good luck!

 

[imported_KuJaX]

It isn't overclocked and this has been happening out of no where (do i don't believe it is a temperature thing, although I will have him run a few things.) Is there a utility to check the power supply?

He just sent me another e-mail with another error:

Details
Product: Windows Operating System
Event ID: 1003
Source: System Error
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: ER_KRNLCRASH_LOG
Message: Error code %1, parameter1 %2, parameter2 %3, parameter3 %4, parameter4 %5.

Explanation

A blue screen (Stop error) was reported. The message contains details about the error. A matching event with Event ID 1001 might also appear in the event log. This matching event displays information about the specific error that occurred.

User Action

No user action is required.

 

[bjp999]

Could be a bad driver or something. Have you tried dling the latest and greatest video and chipset drivers?

But to me if you have a computer that is running fine and then suddenly you start getting weird BSODs and reboots, either Windows has gotten screwed up, or you've got a hardware problem. If you've reinstalled Windows, that rules that out.

Disconnect all non-critical hardware (scanners, extra hard disks, printers, etc.), and swap out the PS. If that doesn't eliminate the problem, you can try getting a new MB and reinstalling Windows again. Unless you really know what you are doing, and you are willing to waste at least several hours mucking with it, take it to a repair place. They deal with this crap all day long.

I had similar symptoms and systematically replaced every component in the system using spare parts and new purchases. The only thing left the same at the end was the CPU, which I sent back to Intel under warranty. That fixed me up. (CPU failure is very very rare, this was just a fluke. Normally in replacing components you'd find the bad part - normally PSU or MB).