random restartation

[sir_inferno]

lo guys.

previous motherboard and psu frazzled out so got new ones.

got an asus mobo, amd cpu, and generic (hooray!) psu

when i boot into xp, it works fine for 5-15 minutes before a restart. i decided to set the "show me the errors" thing, and indeed i got the bsod, with some random IRQ_not_EQUAL or some rubbish...

tried chkdsk'ing a million times, did one of those "repair" installs on windows, did a defrag just for fun, nothing helped.

now, the crazy thing is, if i go into safe mode, it works fine...doesn't crash....works absolutely fine...

it's not a hardware fault (trust me)

so i'm just wondering...is it a directly windows related problem, or is it a file allocation table weirdness problem?

(it's probably worth mentioning that earlier i had a file on C: that said "size: 8gigs size on drive: 20mb"...got rid of that...)

cheers guys

[motorollin]

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL is normally indicative of a driver issue.

--
moto

[sir_inferno]

which would make sense since it works in safe mode...k...cheers, will go about updating drivers and what not

[X-ray]

It can also be hardware.
Just two weeks ago I was getting the BSOD with that error message and I spent a long time messing around with virus checkers and eventually reinstalling Windows. This system had been running stable for more than 6 months prior to that.
Anyway, the result was that nothing worked. In the end it turned out to be a bad DIMM (found by process of elimination, since I had 4 identical 1gb DIMMS). To compound matters, that bad DIMM caused a strange error message when I attempted a repair install of Windows. I got the message 'NTOSkernel.exe' is missing. Please replace the file' or something similar. I attempted to copy the file manually from the command prompt and the copy failed, saying source file not found, even though I could see it when listing the contents of that DIR on the CD.
Ditched that DIMM and the problem was solved.
Put the DIMM back for giggles, and the problem came back. Moved the DIMM to a different slot and the problem only came back after loading several large files in Photoshop.
Just for reference sake, these are the error messages I got with a known bad DIMM:

1) IRQ_LESS_THAN_OR_NOT_EQUAL
2) MACHINE CHECK EXEPTION
3) PAGE FAULT IN NON-PAGED AREA
4) NTOSKernel.exe file missing, please replace (on reinstall)

Quite frankly, I haven't found these error messages to be all that helpful. On my old machine I got number (3) often, and for various reasons, but not because of RAM.

[X-ray]

I should add also that on a new system like that, you can get that resetting problem if you do not do the install procedure in the right order (depending on hardwware config).

1) Windows
2) Mobo drivers
3) Graphics card

You should also get the latest BIOS update for your mobo.

[Piru]

memtest86+ is quite handy tool as it can be booted off the CD-ROM in seconds and doesn't require reinstall or anything. Whenever you have problems, first run memtest to see if it's memory related.

[sir_inferno]

Piru wrote:
memtest86+ is quite handy tool as it can be booted off the CD-ROM in seconds and doesn't require reinstall or anything. Whenever you have problems, first run memtest to see if it's memory related.

on sending one of those funny error messages to microsoft, they actually provided me with a memory checking tool...

that didn't find any errors...regardless, just ran memtest for about an hour, 5 passes no errors...seems like crucial is still good  :-)

[sir_inferno]

X-ray wrote:
It can also be hardware.

yep...but tbh it's not too likely...(i hope so anyway)

psu is new so it should be buggered, motherboard is also new so it should be fine, windows doesn't crash when using cpu burn-in so i assume the processor is fine, hard drive via SMART says it's fine, and donno about graphics card...

meh...i think it's time to format the c: partition and reinstall...thanks neway guys

[amiga_3k]

You could try fiddling about in the BIOS turning off all kinds of Plug and Pray settings and assign IRQ adresses manually. Or, maybe easier, try and override any Windows automatic IRQ settings and give unique adresses your self. We all know how unpredictable Windows can be!

To find the hardware causing the IRQ clash have a good look on what devices are running in normal-mode that are not running in Safe-Mode.

Oh, and as someone pointed out... make sure to have the latest available BIOS installed.

[Homer]

Also worth looking at "SpeedFan". This is primarily a program for monitoring fans, but it has a nice tab for checking the SMART codes out at a much deeper level, and it can send them back to their web site for even more helpful info. You can find it at:

http://www.almico.com

Now for a :pint:

[Piru]

@Homer

SMART is HDD only.

[EDIT]removed some useless stuff already mentioned[/EDIT]

[Homer]

@Piru,

Yes indeed, but since Sir Inferno has already checked the SMART codes as part of his earlier fault finding (substitution & elimination), I think it will be better to actually get some detailed feedback from SMART instead of just 'OK' !! Anyway, have a :pint: with me :-)

[Piru]

Ah you're speaking about SMART attributes (and their values).

There's also HDD Health (http://www.panterasoft.com/).

[sir_inferno]

cheers guys...will try updating the bios and subsequently fiddling around with it...

Homer wrote:
I think it will be better to actually get some detailed feedback from SMART instead of just 'OK' !!

indeed i already use speedfan  :-) everything bar one thing on good and one on normal is "very good". 90% fitness/performance weirdness...i also ran "spinrite" (grc.com) and it didn't correct anything (it also has some nice smart analysis...just note pretty colour bars like speedfan  :-) )

well i was hoping to get away with only formatting the c: partition with windows on it...but the errors are coming back...albeit much less frequently...i'll try the other stuff first...but probably best to bung in a puppy linux cd and backup some stuff first lol

[Boot_WB]

sir_inferno wrote:
when i boot into xp, it works fine for 5-15 minutes before a restart. i decided to set the "show me the errors" thing, and indeed i got the bsod, with some random IRQ_not_EQUAL or some rubbish...

This error will list the driver which is causing the BSOD.  Try googling under the filename listed to find out what program/hardware is using it.

Incidentally this happens every time when trying to connect to XP using Samba from an amiga if Network Associates (Mcafee) Virusscan 8.xx is installed due to the mini firewall device driver.  Wish they'd fix it, the only way I can network my miggy and pc is by disabling the virus protection on the PC before connecting.

Regards



Rich