Why does my Windows 2000 machine reboot randomly?

[Neonsigns]

I installed Windows 2000 SP2 on my PC recently. I am having a strange problem. My computer just reboots randomly. Anyone else having the same problem or maybe know any solutions. Any kind of help is greatly appreciated

My PC:

Windows 2000 Pro SP2
Soyo SY-6VBA133
Intel PIII 550 @ 733
256MB Kingston PC133 SDRAM
Western Digital 205BA 20GB ATA/66 HDD
Toshiba DVD-ROM Drive
Philips CD-RW Drive
Sohoware 10/100 Fast NIC (DSL)
SMC Etherpower II NIC (LOCAL)
Diamond MX400 Sound Card

Motherboard Monitor 5 Temps
Idle: 89 F
Peak: 107 F (when compressing MPEG2 DVD video to DivX using NanDub)

 

[Abzstrak]

We need more info... is it stable under another OS like linux? have you tried clocking it back to normal?

etc, etc... please tell us everything you can and what you've tried

 

[igiveup]

Well, my first thought is that you are getting a fatal error of some sort (I know, I know, how on earth did I know that?) and you have the Reboot Automatically box checked. To find out whats going on Right click on My Computer and then select properties. Select the Advanced tab on the far right and then click the Startup and Recovery button at the bottom. That will bring up a window with some options. Drop down to the bottom and uncheck the box that says "Automatically reboot". From there you will be able to actually see what is causing the problem and we will try and fix it.

 

[sadb0i]

power supply?
you may need a better power supply like a 400

 

[bevancoleman]

get a memmory checking app, you could have a bad stick

 

[smp]

Sadboi is right.. that is a common symptom (apparently) of a power supply that isn't cutting it anymore.

 

[Kadesh]

By default, whenever it's about to BSOD, Win2k will reboot instead© You can change this in System->Performance->SomewhereIForgot

So that opens a whole new range of possibilities© Aside from the overclocking, I don't see anything obvious that would cause a crash© You could try turning down your CPU to something less stressful and update your drivers©

 

[ProviaFan]

I think they need to make this a part of the official Anandtech FAQ, since this comes up so very often. Anyway, you do need to implement what igiveup and Kadesh said; then tell us what the string of capitol letters in the BSOD say, and what DLL or program the error is in.

 

[Psychoholic]

Once you get the blue screen, this will help you make sense of it.

 

[TonyRic]

You are OC'ing, but didn't mention the Cooler you are using nor the voltage you have your core at...

This is a symptom of insufficient core voltage, try clocking that CPU back a bit and see if it stabilizes and if it does, re-up the speed and inch up the core voltage until it stabilizes...

While this is a symptom of a PSU going bad, that is possibly not the case as the components you are running would be fine with a 235W PSU and assuming you are running a 300W unit, this shouldn't be a problem...

I would try working on the CPU BEFORE you replace the PSU...

 

[Olias]

Mine does the same thing and I too have a P3-550E @ 733MHz. It could be a P3-550E bug. You failed to mention what video card you are using. I would think this is important.

My Specs

- Intel P3 733MHz
- Asus P3V4X Motherboard
- 128MB Micron PC133 SDRAM
- 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 AGP
- Maxtor 15GB IDE Hard Drive
- Toshiba SD-M1212 DVD CD-ROM
- Sound Blaster Live Sound Card
- D-Link DFE-530TX 10/100 Adapter
- AOpen HX45A w/fan case mod
- Antec PP303X 300W PS (rated #1 for stability by AnandTech)
- Golden Orb SECC2 HSF

Acording to WCPUID
- 2x AGP
- fast writes - disabled
- side band addressing - enabled

OS: Windows 2000 Pro (SP2)
Windows 2000 Compatibility update (March 2001 - release 6)
VIA 4in1 Service Pack 4.29
3Dfx 1.03 WHQL Windows 2000 Display Drivers
Sound Blaster Live! Drivers update (00-07-11) SBLW-2KDRV-W1-US
DirectX 8.0a for Windows 2000
Windows 2000 High Encryption Pack to get 128-bit security

 

[Neonsigns]

My video card is ATI Rage Fury 32MB

I unchecked the 'reboot' option yesterday. I got the blue screen instead of a reboot. This is the error I got "KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED"

My CPU cooler is a Vantec P3-D5030. And I have one 80mm fan sucking air in and one 60mm blowing it out. I have a 230W power supply. Is there any way of calculating how much power each component draws? Maybe 230W is not enough for my system. How can I be sure if it the PSU?

Thank u very much for all the help

 

[Neonsigns]

Core voltage is at 1.65

 

[ProviaFan]

So was it rebooting all along, or did this just start when you installed SP2? Have you tried underclocking it back to where it should be? If that doesn't work, you might want to try a different video card (sometimes that error can be associated with the video card).

 

[Neonsigns]

This is the full error message

STOP

KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED

Address A00163D4 base at A0000000 Datestamp 3aa010b4 - win32k.sys

 

[smp]

KMODE_EXCEPTION_NOT_HANDLED
An incorrectly configured device driver usually causes this type of error. As I'll explain later, you can use another section of the blue screen to figure out which driver is causing the problem.

This is gotten from psychoholic's link (good job pyschoholic) way up above. I guess you didn't check it. Take a look at it again and read up.

 

[Nevo]

Neonsigns: a STOP 1E in win32k.sys can have several causes.

Are you running PC Anywhere? That's the most likely cause of this particular crash.