Computer Restarts by itself...

LikuLiku I, am the Somberlain. Join Date: 2003-01-10 Member: 12128Members
in Off-Topic
<div class="IPBDescription">Help?</div>Alright, so here's the low-down:

I bought Bioshock, installed and played for sometime. Around 6 hours straight, I have no life. Anyway, after a while I quit and my computer BSODs while browsing the web and restarts itself.

Upon the restart, XP doesn't boot and I'm left with a message saying "Remove all media; Insert Boot Disc." I go into my BIOS and it turns out that my secondary hard drive has first priority. "A-ha!" I think because I don't have an OS on my second HD just random storage files. I switch priority and bam, XP booted and everything was fine.

Upon loading Bioshock up again I play for another good chunk of time, the computer restarts itself again(Without the BSOD). I check the BIOS and the priority was switched again. I switch it back.

Now Bioshock didn't load, so I reinstalled it (Haven't checked if it works) and about the same amount of time later the computer restarted itself again.

Windows did that error report thing every time I restarted, and told me it's <a href="http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/Response.aspx/10/en-us/5.1.2600.2.00010100.2.0?SGD=91f4a87a-af5f-4afc-86d8-9b30d675714d" target="_blank">Driver Problems</a>. "What drivers?" I though. I recently got an external DVD drive, but I don't think it those drivers caused it. I'm leaning more towards Bioshocks' Securom crap. Because I updated my NVidia drivers after the first restart since I thought it was my older drivers.

PS: Bad-ass forum skin.
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Comments

  • DiscoZombieDiscoZombie Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
    that sucks. and I suck at diagnosing technical issues so just consider this a free bump so hopefully someone else will help <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" /> when my computer used to restart on its own, I believe it turned out to be a power supply issue...
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  • f0_Washuu_Girf0_Washuu_Gir Join Date: 2003-01-20 Member: 12518Members
    That's really odd, Windows is good at making sure tech support is never bored!
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  • DepotDepot The ModFather Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7956Members
    Somewhere in this particular forum I posted similar issues... unexplained restarts, BSODs, etc. I never did get a difinitive answer BUT replacing the IDE cable to my CD drives got rid of a slew of errors. I wound up replacing my hdd and psu, but it was time for an upgrade anyway.

    The next time you see the BSOD write down that long error message, exactly as you see it. Then post it here. Any credible support personel would ask for the same thing (you may or may not have it dumped where the file can be retrieved and analyzed).
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  • toAzrontoAzron Join Date: 2004-02-22 Member: 26786Awaiting Authorization, Constellation
    <!--quoteo(post=1645362:date=Aug 25 2007, 01:33 PM:name=Depot)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Depot @ Aug 25 2007, 01:33 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1645362"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->Somewhere in this particular forum I posted similar issues...<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->

    That was here.
    <a href="http://www.nsmod.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8624" target="_blank">http://www.nsmod.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8624</a>
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  • LikuLiku I, am the Somberlain. Join Date: 2003-01-10 Member: 12128Members
    edited August 2007
    I checked the drive for errors and such, and it seems to have fixed itself... for now at least. I might just format soon.

    New Problem!

    Every type of video file I attempt to play leaves all of my media players just pitch-black. Nothing comes through. I tried reinstalling CCCP to no avail.

    DAMN YOU TECHNOLOGY!

    <edit>A simple restart fixed the video problem, woop!</edit>
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  • GwahirGwahir Join Date: 2002-04-24 Member: 513Members, Constellation
    Yeah I was getting ready to post that steadily worsening issues could be a drive issue (if you continue to have problems I suggest you track down Bart PE and make yourself a bootable CD of it, it's gotten me out of a couple of bad situations before)
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  • XythXyth Avatar Join Date: 2003-11-04 Member: 22312Members
    My guess is that your video-card is overheating, the harddrive changing thing is probably a side-effect of windows crashing from the heat issue. This could also tie in with what you just said about your videos blacking out, do you know the temps of your video-card/processor?
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  • LikuLiku I, am the Somberlain. Join Date: 2003-01-10 Member: 12128Members
    I don't know the temps, and I don't know of a program that does it.

    Can a Windows crash mess with the BIOS somehow?
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  • BlackMageBlackMage [citation needed] Join Date: 2003-06-18 Member: 17474Members, Constellation
    It shouldn't. Ideally, most BIOS settings would be immune to changes by software.
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  • MaxMax Technical Director, Unknown Worlds Entertainment Join Date: 2002-03-15 Member: 318Super Administrators, Retired Developer, NS1 Playtester, Forum Moderators, NS2 Developer, Constellation, Subnautica Developer, Pistachionauts, Future Perfect Developer
    If you're ambitious, one thing you can do to help identify the cause of a BSOD is to examing the minidump file generated during the crash. Provided the option is enabled in Windows (Control Panel\System\Advanced\Startup and Recovery), these files will be output in C:\Windows\minidump.

    Those dmp files can be loaded using a kernel mode debugger to get some information about where things went wrong (typically which driver crashed). You don't really need to be a programmer or anything like that to work the debugger, it's quite simple. Just download the <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/devtools/debugging/default.mspx" target="_blank">Microsoft debugging tools</a>, run WinDbg and load up the latest dmp file. You'll see a line that says "probably caused by..." or something like that, or type "!analyze -v" and look for the image name. Then just type that file name into Google to find out what it is.
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  • LikuLiku I, am the Somberlain. Join Date: 2003-01-10 Member: 12128Members
    While I don't understand any of this, I installed the Debugger and ran the dump file(latest one anyway).

    I got this from the "!analyze -v" command:
    <div class='codetop'>CODE</div><div class='codemain' style='height:200px;white-space:pre;overflow:auto'>
    *******************************************************************************
    * *
    * Bugcheck Analysis *
    * *
    *******************************************************************************

    DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL (d1)
    An attempt was made to access a pageable (or completely invalid) address at an
    interrupt request level (IRQL) that is too high. This is usually
    caused by drivers using improper addresses.
    If kernel debugger is available get stack backtrace.
    Arguments:
    Arg1: 00000004, memory referenced
    Arg2: 00000002, IRQL
    Arg3: 00000000, value 0 = read operation, 1 = write operation
    Arg4: ba6345fb, address which referenced memory</div>

    The file is "nvata.sys," an NVidia driver. I can't seem to find any real solution outside of updating my Mobo-drivers, and that just seem like a precaution.

    Thanks for the help by the way guys.
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  • DepotDepot The ModFather Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7956Members
    Not sure how you got "The file is "nvata.sys," an NVidia driver." from the excerpt you posted, but why not update or re-install your video drivers?

    Good advice from Max, but let me add that Googling BSOD STOP messages can / will result in major headaches. I spent countless hours researching mine, and unless you're very knowledgeable (which the average PC use isn't) about this stuff, prepare to be perplexed.


    The PSU is often overlooked when a PC is having restart / BSOD issues, but more than likely it will be a driver issue.
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  • DepotDepot The ModFather Join Date: 2002-11-09 Member: 7956Members
    <!--quoteo(post=1645365:date=Aug 25 2007, 01:41 PM:name=toAzron)--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(toAzron @ Aug 25 2007, 01:41 PM) <a href="index.php?act=findpost&pid=1645365"><{POST_SNAPBACK}></a></div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->That was here.
    <a href="http://www.nsmod.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8624" target="_blank">http://www.nsmod.org/forums/index.php?showtopic=8624</a><!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    Thanks for the plug, but it was on these forums <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?&showtopic=101071" target="_blank">here</a> - Liku may or may not find info here to help.
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  • ConfusedConfused Wait. What? Join Date: 2003-01-28 Member: 12904Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester
    nvidia also makes main boards.

    nvata.sys sounds like the nvidia hdd controller driver.

    not a after a brief Google search it reveals that you are likely using a nforce main board. that numerous users have reported teh issue and that it appears to be a result of bad drivers for the board. additionally using the windows driver appears to result in choppy performance and ultimately shut downs.

    Some users report that uninstalling the driver works.

    I would check to see if there is a newer version of your main board drivers out and update if possible, if not try the windows driver.
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  • LikuLiku I, am the Somberlain. Join Date: 2003-01-10 Member: 12128Members
    I'm not sure what to download and install on the ASUS site, there's quite a few things for the board (A8N-SLI) and most say to update the chipset driver. And I don't really know what that is.

    Performance has been a tad choppy, how would I go about uninstalling the windows drivers?
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  • schkorpioschkorpio I can mspaint Join Date: 2003-05-23 Member: 16635Members
    sounds like your powersupply can't cope or your mobo is overheating / shortcircuiting
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  • ConfusedConfused Wait. What? Join Date: 2003-01-28 Member: 12904Members, Constellation, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue, Subnautica Playtester
    I vaguely recall that some nvidia drivers install to add remove programs. you can try that.
    other wise the old uninstall from the device manager might be worth a try.

    whee
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