PC Keeps Rebooting

[Samurai]

Ok, everytime I try to play a game online it keeps rebooting as if the 'reboot button' has been pressed.

Here's some further info:

There are no viruses on this PC. Scanned with both Norton & Nod32.
There is no spyware on this PC. Scanned with SpyBot, Adaware & Spyware Blaster.
This has happened on several occasions now, and with different games, such as Call Of Duty & C&C: Generals.
This happens when I join the game and/or attempt to join a game.
The modem is fine. It's the PC that shuts down.
PC does not overheat. It happens to be very cool at all times.

Any ideas anyone? Please help cause it's driving me crazy.

[Virtualbody1234]

Turn off the automatic restart feature of Windows.

Presss the Windows symbol key and the Pause/Break key together. Now click the Advanced tab>Startup and Recovery - Settings> Remove the checkmark at [ ] Automatically restart and press Ok.

[Samurai]

Cool. Thanks. Hope this works. What is that setting used for anyway?

Edit* I have the Alerter service turned off as well so my PC wont be able to alert me if there is an error. I've turned that off for now, unless you advise otherwise.

I don't want it blowing up in my face :fear:

[Virtualbody1234]

You can leave the "Alerter" off.

Turning off the Automatic restart feature will cause Windows to show you a blue screen with an error message instead of a restart even if that "Alerter" is off.

[Samurai]

thanks. i'm going to see if i can play a game now :) thanks for your help!

[Samurai]

Well I started in my game and I heard the 'click' that comes moments before a reboot, and it just froze a few seconds after it. no blue screen. nothing. had to manually reboot pc. i don't know what's wrong! :no:

[lynx]

I assume this means it froze at the same point that it would have automatially restarted. If so, VB's theory about the Blue screen are correct, but you aren't actually seeing the screen, which suggests you may have a video driver problem. Make sure you've got the latest versions (Catalyst for Ati, Forceware for Nvidia) installed.

Try looking in the Event Viewer (in Control Panel/Administrative Tools) to see if there are any messages for the time in question, if so it may give an idea about what is wrong. Most likely place to look is in the system log, but the Application log has a minor chance of having something too.

[Samurai]

I've just returned from the wonderful tropics of safe mode where there are prizes to be won. It seems every test and diagnostic I threw at it was time wasted. Didn't find a single problem.

As for the graphics drivers, it is a possibility, although it was working for months beforehand and I never had any trouble. Could this still be likely?

I can't seem to find my system log as well...

Damn, I feel like burning everything to DVD and reformatting. I normally do this once a year anyway to spring clean. Only problem is, it takes a few hours.

[Samurai]

These events came up, around the same time as the system crashes:


Event Type: Error
Event Source: Perflib
Event Category: None
Event ID: 2002
Date: 19/12/2004
Time: 19:39:14
User: N/A
Computer: ECLIPSE
Description:
The open procedure for service "WmiApRpl" in DLL "C:\WINDOWS\System32\wbem\wmiaprpl.dll" has taken longer than the established wait time to complete. There may be a problem with this extensible counter or the service it is collecting data from or the system may have been very busy when this call was attempted.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.


Event Type: Error
Event Source: PerfNet
Event Category: None
Event ID: 2004
Date: 19/12/2004
Time: 19:39:04
User: N/A
Computer: ECLIPSE
Description:
Unable to open the Server service. Server performance data will not be returned. Error code returned is in data DWORD 0.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/events.asp.
Data:
0000: 34 00 00 c0 4..À

[AcID ZeR0]

Was the click sound internal or did it come via. your speakers?

[lynx]

Was the click sound internal or did it come via. your speakers?Good point.

If it is internal it may well be the HD powering down, in which case it won't be able to write to the Event Log, and may not be able to get enough info to generate a BSOD.

Regards those error logs, they are simply reports about performance monitoring software so they are nothing to do with the cause of your reboot problem, although they may be symptoms of the same thing.

Is your pc overclocked? If so, maybe you are on the limit of stability, increasing Vcore or reducing the overclock may help.

[Samurai]

sound was internal, like i had just pushed my reset button in.

pc is not overclocked.

right now i'm burning everything onto dvd, incase it's a reformat job.

[AcID ZeR0]

It could be a number of things but most probably what lynx said that it's the hard drive.

My old Seagate done that, It started at first doing it once every so often then after a while it started to do it almost 24/7 with a really horrible grinding noise straight after the click noise; I'm certain if it wasn't a slave drive the computer would have locked up every time. Needless to say I got it replaced and the problem went away.

Also, What PSU are you running? Because from what you say every time the pc freezes it's during load i.e games, There could be a possibility it's the PSU you could try to remove CD-Drives, Floppies, Extra fans etc. and try to load a game.

But from my own past experience I'd bet your hard drives on it's way out, Backup whilst you can mate.

[Samurai]

I've just finished backing up everything on my PC and I'm due to do a reformat in the next few minutes. i'm almost certain it's not the hard drive, although i'm not discounting it as a possibility, but i've only had it 3 months and it's as cool as a cucumber. never overheats and it's extremely fast.

after running a search on google it seems that it's down to a reg error, although the instructions it gives were rubbish as some reg keys they suggested going to did not exist, therefore unable to fix.

hopefully the reformat will do the trick.

thanks for all your help, i'll probably see you all in a few hours :)

[AcID ZeR0]

K goodluck, let us know how it goes!

[Samurai]

I'm back :) I'm using 1% of my HDD :lol: I still have a huge amount to put back onto my PC, such as my music and apps etc... but I was more concerned with getting my fw and av up and running before i did that.

I won't know if my problem will be gone until i install my games and try again.

See ya later :)

[Samurai]

anyone know why, after a reboot, a directory is loaded at startup as well.

the directory is one in my c:\program files related to my ati drivers

there's nothing in startup / msconfig to do with this. how do i stop it?

[tesco]

Well I started in my game and I heard the 'click' that comes moments before a reboot, and it just froze a few seconds after it. no blue screen. nothing. had to manually reboot pc. i don't know what's wrong! :no:
mine does same thing but not just in games...
at random times.
it's been doing it for months and i've been too lazy to fix it.

i'm making a thread with my wierd findings. :huh:

[Samurai]

Yea Rossco, the main reason I have this PC is for my gaming. I can't live without it. Hopefully this reformat will do the trick. It's already fixed a couple of things that I had problems with. All of a sudden, it has recognised my second HDD so now I have a total of 360GB :01: woohoo

Anyway, do you reckon you could help me with this? Let me knoe if you need a ss.

Samurai


anyone know why, after a reboot, a directory is loaded at startup as well.

the directory is one in my c:\program files related to my ati drivers

there's nothing in startup / msconfig to do with this. how do i stop it?

[tesco]

Goto:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Winlogon

The 'Userinit' string should read:

C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe,

(including the comma at the end)
If "C:\WINDOWS\system32\userinit.exe," appears twice in a row, delete the repetition.


from annoyances.org may work, if you have a repetition. ;)

[Samurai]

no repetition. is it safe to delete the only one i have?

[tesco]

no repetition. is it safe to delete the only one i have?
no, don't do that.


Just search google, there are a lot of pages with this problem, i just pasted the one i thought was most likely your problem. ;)

[Samurai]

Managed to find a fix for it on another forum. Funnily enough it was the exact same folder that was popping up.

http://www.techimo.com/forum/printthread.php?t=108920

It seems that it's a common problem so I've posted the link if anyone's having similar problems. Hope this helps anyone.