pc keeps freezing and restarting

zaid786 · July 2, 2006, 1:13am

Hi, my mate was having some problems with her pc, she kept saying to me it keeps slowing down freezing and restarting, and once i got round to look at it i found hundreds of problems ranging from bad drivers, to low memory and a complete clutter of spyware and viruses, so i thought ok im gna format the hard drive and reinstall windows, she at the time had 256MB of ram so i recommended to her to upgrade it to 512MB of ram which we did and that made the pc faster, but after reformatting the restarts were still there and the pc still kept freezing, since that time the pc completely shut down and wouldnt load windows, so i reformatted it again and it was fine but still the random restarts and freezing returned. I’m not too sure what to advise to her now im completely confused, are the freezing and restarting two different problems? or inter-related? new formatted and clean version of windows xp with SP2 and all updates is installed, can this problem me software related? can itunes and java script cause problems? Before formatting her pc she used to get error reports after each restart relating to javascript because she has programs like limewire and other websites which are java based which could have caused restarts but what i dont understand is after formatting these error reports did not appear again and her pc
seemed fine but the random freezing and restarting still continued!! Her pc does also get quite hot when on for just a few hours so i advised her to keep her case open but still it freezes and restarts, does any1 have any idea what could be wrong?

PC Specs are:

AMD Duron 2.0GHZ
ASRock K7VM4 Motherboard
512MB RAM
MAXTOR 80GB HARD DISK DRIVE
GIGABYTE DVD ROM/CD WRITER COMBO DRIVE
64 MB ONBOARD GRAPHICS CARD
WINDOWS XP WITH SP2

Here are the motherboard specifications:

1.2 Specifications

Platform: Micro ATX form factor (9.6" x 8.6", 24.4 x 21.8 cm)

CPU: Supports Socket A (462 pins) for AMD AthlonTM / AthlonTM XP/ DuronTM processor

Chipsets: North Bridge: VIA KM400, FSB@333/266/200 MHz, AGP 8X/4X

South Bridge: VIA VT8235CE, supports USB 2.0, ATA 133

VGA: VIA UniChrome Graphics, Max. 64MB VRAM

Memory: 2 DDR DIMM slots: DDR1 and DDR2
PC2700 (DDR333) / PC2100 (DDR266) / PC1600 (DDR200),
Max. 2GB (see CAUTION 1)

IDE: IDE1: ATA 133 / Ultra DMA Mode 6;

IDE2: ATA 133 / Ultra DMA Mode 6;
Can connect up to 4 IDE devices

Floppy Port: Supports 2 floppy disk drives

Audio: 5.1 channels AC’97 Audio

LAN: Speed: 802.3u (10/100 Ethernet), supports Wake-On-LAN

Hardware Monitor: CPU temperature sensing;
Chassis temperature sensing;
CPU overheat shutdown to protect CPU life
(ASRock U-COP)(see CAUTION 2);
Voltage monitoring: +12V, +5V, +3V, Vcore;
CPU fan tachometer; Chassis fan tachometer

PCI slots: 3 slots with PCI Specification 2.2

AGP slot: 1 AGP slot, supports 1.5V, 8X/4X AGP card (see CAUTION 3)

AMR slot: 1 slot, supports ASRock MR card (optional)

USB 2.0: 4 default USB 2.0 ports and 1 extra set of header for two
additional USB 2.0 ports upgrade (see CAUTION 4)

ASRock I/OTM: PS/2: 1 keyboard port / 1 mouse port;
1 RJ 45 port; 4 rear default USB 2.0 ports;
1 VGA port; 1 parallel port: ECP/EPP support;

Audio Jack: Line Out / Line In / Microphone + Game port

BIOS: AMI legal BIOS; Supports “Plug and Play”;
ACPI 1.1 compliance wake up events;
SMBIOS 2.3.1 support;
CPU frequency stepless control
(only for advanced users’ reference, see CAUTION 5)

OS: Microsoft® Windows® 98 SE / ME / 2000 / XP compliant

[COLOR=“Red”]UPDATE 27/08/2006: (AFTER A LONG TIME I KNOW LOL): new ram now with it passing memtest 86, brand new power supply 450W, applied new thermal paste, cleaned out all dust so its completely clean, all temps are perfectly fine, reinstalled windows, and when installing SP2 or other windows updates the pc restarts by itself or gives a blue screen! the support on microsoft support is soo confusing and does not help! event viewer says this:

Error code 0000000a, parameter1 00000000, parameter2 00000002, parameter3 00000001, parameter4 804ed882.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at Microsoft Support .

When i click on the link i get this:

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.

I have no idea what this is or what it could be? im thinking a bad device driver but which one? how can i find out from those details?

I also get this error:

The performance counter name string value in the registry is incorrectly formatted. The bogus string is 1848, the bogus index value is the first DWORD in Data section while the last valid index values are the second and third DWORD in Data section.

For more information, see Help and Support Center at Microsoft Support .

Details
Product: Windows Operating System
Event ID: 3001
Source: LoadPerf
Version: 5.2
Symbolic Name: LDPRFMSG_REGISTRY_COUNTER_STRINGS_CORRUPT
Message: The performance counter name string value in the registry is incorrectly formatted. The bogus string is %1!s!, the bogus index value is the first DWORD in Data section while the last valid index values are the second and third DWORD in Data section.

Explanation
All performance counter names and explain text are maintained in string tables managed by the performance counter subsystem (Perflib).

The current contents of the performance counter string tables are corrupted and cannot be displayed. To correct the problem, rebuild the string tables.

User Action
To rebuild the string tables, on the computer that displayed the message, at the command prompt, type Lodctr /r
The contents of the string tables are automatically rebuilt.

For more information about the Lodctr command, see Help and Support.

Version: 5.0
Symbolic Name: LDPRFMSG_REGISTRY_COUNTER_STRINGS_CORRUPT
Message: The performance counter name string value in the registry is incorrectly formatted. The bogus string is %1!s!, the bogus index value is the first DWORD in Data section while the last valid index values are the second and third DWORD in Data section.

Explanation
All performance counter names and explain text are maintained in string tables managed by the performance counter subsystem (Perflib).

The current contents of the performance counter string tables are corrupted and cannot be displayed. To correct the problem, rebuild the string tables.

User Action
To rebuild the string tables, on the computer that displayed the message, at the command prompt, type Lodctr /r
The contents of the string tables are automatically rebuilt.

For more information about the Lodctr command, see Help and Support.

Currently there are no Microsoft Knowledge Base articles available for this specific error or event message. For information about other support options you can use to find answers online, see Microsoft Help and Support.

Please if anyone can help it would be much appreciated!!

This just happened now:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you’ve seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in the Stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapters.

Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0X0000008E (0XC0000005, 0X000000BO2, 0XECB254CC, 0X00000000)

Beginning dump of physical memory
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further @ssistance.

and this:

A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you’ve seen this Stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in the Stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapters.

Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe Mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select Advanced startup Options, and then select Safe Mode.

Technical information:

*** STOP: 0X0000008E (0XC0000005, 0X000000BO2, 0XF5C71F14, 0X00000000)

THIS HAPPENS 3 OR 4 TIMES IN A ROW..WHEN I GO TO LAST KNOWN CONFIGURUATION IT STOPS FOR A WHILE THEN STARTS AGAIN..

roy92 · July 2, 2006, 6:10am

do the two rams have the same frequency? (ddr400 - ddr400) or in your case (ddr333-ddr333) you can’t have one of each running together.

zaid786 · July 2, 2006, 9:44am

theres only 1 ram chip, not 2

roy92 · July 2, 2006, 9:55am

try update the bios of your mobo

zaid786 · July 2, 2006, 9:57am

is that directly related to the freezing and restarting? how do i update?

roy92 · July 2, 2006, 10:19am

the bios can fix bugs that can fix a lot of problems, not only freezing and restarting. usually it can be found in the mobo’s website.

Big_B · July 2, 2006, 6:04pm

Try running [google]Memtest[/google]. Let it run for a few hours to beat the RAM over the head. Let it run overnight if possible. You don’t want any errors.

I’d burn the ISO to CD, but that’s just me. It does come in handy for troubleshooting.

zaid786 · July 3, 2006, 1:38pm

thanks ppl i’ll give it all a go and get bk 2 u!!

zaid786 · July 5, 2006, 11:16pm

ok as soon as the pc has loaded, inside bios the CPU temp starts at 46C but almost straight away it goes up to 55C in a matter of minutes, and the motherboard temp stays at around 35/40C, the problem i had was i cleaned out the dust in the heatsink and around the CPU, turned the pc back on and windows failed to launch, i kept getting a blue screen, and when i tried to reinstall windows i got another stop message referring to non paged file area? or somethin like that, the hard drive at this time (only a few mins after turning the pc on) was very hot and the PSU smelled funny, any ideas now? im completely stuck i cnt even reinstall windows The power supply is 300W and the brand name is Macron

system · July 5, 2006, 11:33pm

Make sure all of the cards, the CPU, and the RAM, are properly seated. Remove them and reinsert them to be sure.

Remove all non-essential components and disconnect non-essential cables (including IDE, floppy, etc.). All you should need to reach the initial boot screen (memory count, etc.) are: the motherboard, CPU, RAM, power supply, and graphics card. If it boots, start adding components one at a time, and boot up each time. When the system won’t boot, you’ve found your faulty (or incorrectly installed or incompatible) component.

zaid786 · July 6, 2006, 7:11pm

how does that show that the power supply is not faulty or the cpu is overheating? the system does boot but fails to boot windows, i think there is a difference there.

system · July 6, 2006, 9:20pm

You might have done something while doing
this

the problem i had was i cleaned out the dust in the heatsink and around the CPU, turned the pc back on and windows failed to launch, i kept getting a blue screen,

zaid786 · July 7, 2006, 4:37pm

thanks

zaid786 · July 7, 2006, 8:08pm

memtest indicates atleast 12 “badram” errors and 4 “individual errors” for the new 512MB ram stick, i ran the test for upto 3 mins and then it just froze! i also used powermax to test to maxtor hard drive and it passed all tests.

zaid786 · August 27, 2006, 7:38pm

UPDATE: (AFTER A LONG TIME I KNOW LOL): new ram now with it passing memtest 86, brand new power supply 450W, applied new thermal paste, cleaned out all dust so its completely clean, all temps are perfectly fine, reinstalled windows, and when installing SP2 or other windows updates the pc restarts by itself or gives a blue screen! the support on microsoft support is soo confusing and does not help! event viewer says this: