Computer resets all the time...HELP!

KiriAKiriA Albuquerque, NM
edited September 2004 in Hardware
My computer has been resetting itself for a while now...and it's starting to become quite annoying. I'll be working in Photoshop, or just surfing the internet...and BAM! Down it goes...

I always send the report to Microsoft...but that doesn't ever bring back useful information... It told me once it was caused by my Video Driver...so I re-installed my video card. Thought that fixed it...then it went down again.

It keeps telling me it's caused by a "device driver." That's the most vague thing to read when there's a problem...so I'm kinda stuck.

**EDIT**
I've reformatted my computer already. It still happens.

If anybody has anything they can do to possibly help me...I'll be grateful forever!

Comments

  • KwitkoKwitko Sheriff of Banning (Retired) By the thing near the stuff Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    Sounds like a hardware issue. Start with Memtest.
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    Start there, then if RAM checks good, check the HD with the old OS instance still on it. I'd look for two things-- a real full HD, and if that's so, it is possibly true that you might only be able to Photoshop OR surf at any one time. Photoshop can grab, quite blithely, 4-6 X the size of the file you are working on for itself alone. It has its own memory manager and can grab huge chunks of RAM. If you let it build up a huge undo record, and are doing complex editing, that RAM use by Photoshop can go to 10-16X the size of the file. A GIG of RAM is what I recommend for folks that do large complex file edtting with Photoshop. AND a relatively big HD, at least an 80 for the boot drive if you stick most of your memory on the HD, and a larger and very fast or large buffer (like a WD special edition if you stick with IDE) data drive.

    I'll give you an example:

    I have a 4 MP digital camera-- at high res, each pic is about 12 MB stored size on teh Camera media at highest res. Photoshop would start, grab up to 32 MB for program itself, then grab another 36-48 MB for work space (up to 72 MB), THEN show the file. Windows then had to make room by suspending things running to HD virtual work area, or fit it into RAM along with space for other things. IF I made a color correction on the whole photo with Undo on, I could get it grabbing ANOTHER 10-12 MB (84 MB max now, in use, by Photoshop). Let's say I want a 20 step undo, for big changes to my 12 Mb file-- thats about 200 more MB in use in RAM for photo editting. So, I use programs that save data to HD more for my editting, and still have a GIG of RAM in the box I use for digital photo editting. Windows XP likes 256-512 MB above and beyond our Photoshop grabbing of RAM to run other things stably and NOT suspended with a fancy desktop and icons while broadband surfing.

    Question becomes, how big a file are you editting when box warm boots\self-restarts?? And then, do you have enough RAM that Windows does not give up and decide it has not enough room on HD for pending things or has to suspend critical things to satisfy what you are asking Photoshop to do due to limited RAM in the box??? IF THAT happens, then XP and 2000 will happily warm boot every time that happens. If you have 512 MB or less in box, only photo edit if you have a 4MP camera and save pics at high res. If you have a smaller Hd and surf a lot and do not do a disk cleanup often, problem gets even worse even faster--- XP can grab 12% of HD for pagefile it uses for virtual RAM. So, you need HD to stay about 80% or LESS full compared to what Windows says (max) for Windows to be really happy about how much HD space is free also-- if you really need Photoshop. I use Photoshop Elements 2.0, Paint Shop Pro 8.1, and Corel Graphics Suite 12 instead, almost never have to run more than one of those at any one time. And I still get XP using up to a GIG of pagefile when I have photo editting work going, the box folding, and any surfing happening on that box.

    I'm THINKING about sticking another GIG in my XP box, of RAM. And my pagefile.sys is physically on another HD than the boot HD already, simply to let the box write to two HDs rather than one when it has to swap stuff and load services, programs, etc, from a different HD at same time or at as close to the same times as is possible. This is a 3+ GHz P4 box I'm using here. Fast, and can eat huge amounts of RAM REAL fast.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited August 2004
    KiriA wrote:
    My computer has been resetting itself for a while now...and it's starting to become quite annoying. I'll be working in Photoshop, or just surfing the internet...and BAM! Down it goes...

    I always send the report to Microsoft...but that doesn't ever bring back useful information... It told me once it was caused by my Video Driver...so I re-installed my video card. Thought that fixed it...then it went down again.

    It keeps telling me it's caused by a "device driver." That's the most vague thing to read when there's a problem...so I'm kinda stuck.

    **EDIT**
    I've reformatted my computer already. It still happens.

    If anybody has anything they can do to possibly help me...I'll be grateful forever!

    Can you start by listing your hardware and driver versions? That would help. Download a copy of x-setup. Its a great XP tweaking program and one of its options allowd you to actually get the device name displayed on a BSOD. Also go into system and under advanced there is a section for startup and recovery and make sure you uncheck the option to have XP automaticaly restart. We need to see the error message. Have you checked the event log? That would probably give you clues also.

    But start by listing your hardware here for us. And have you updated all your drivers with the latest ones off the web? The ones that came with your system were probably out of date when you bought it. I throw them in the trash along with all the AOL cd's. Not worth messing with.

    Tex
  • NomadNomad A Small Piece of Hell Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    Could it also be a heat issue?

    It'd be helpful if you posted your computer specs.
  • DexterDexter Vancouver, BC Canada
    edited August 2004
    Tex wrote:
    Also go into system and under advanced there is a section for startup and recovery and make sure you uncheck the option to have XP automaticaly restart. We need to see the error message.


    If you do not know how to do that, right click on your My Computer Icon, and choose Properties. Then click the Advanced Tab. Then click the bottom Settings button, in the Startup and Recovery section. In the next window that opens, look to the bottom in the System Failure section, and uncheck the option to Automatically Restart in the event of a failure. See the images below for guidance.

    Next time you have the problem, you will get a blue screen (BSOD) with a bunch of info on the error. Write that down, and post it in here, and someone will be able to give you more guidance.

    Dexter...
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited August 2004
    I had this problem once on an old computer of mine. Turned out to be the powersupply.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited August 2004
    Could also be a faulty power supply.......i had an old gateway pIII with the "phantom reboot" issue that was fixed by replacing the psu.
  • rykoryko new york
    edited August 2004
    damn, you beat me to it....
  • KiriAKiriA Albuquerque, NM
    edited August 2004
    I got a BSOD after turning off the auto-shutdown.

    *** STOP: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBF84B759, 0xEE753B1C, 0x00000000)

    *** win32k.sys - Address BF84B759 base at Bf800000, DateStamp 3f73195d

    Beginning dump of physical memory
    Physical memory dump complete.

    That's the exact "Technical information" part. Does that help?
  • nopcodenopcode
    edited August 2004
    check this out

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=834450

    and stop scrolling menus with the cursor keys :) mice are so much more fun
  • KiriAKiriA Albuquerque, NM
    edited August 2004
    nopcode wrote:
    check this out

    http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=834450

    and stop scrolling menus with the cursor keys :) mice are so much more fun

    I don't use the keyboard to scroll though... :(

    I've searched the Microsoft help database...and there are quite a few "fixes" to the STOP 0x0000008E problem...but none of them seem to be causing this...

    I'll be playing a game, or listening to music...or just sitting idle...and the computer resets itself. :grr: I keep searching for a fix...but I haven't found anything yet... :bawling:
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited August 2004
    run memtest, post the specs of the system :)
  • muddocktormuddocktor
    edited August 2004
    Geeky1 wrote:
    run memtest, post the specs of the system :)


    I agree with Geeky. I've had spontaneous reboots from faulty memory or by overclocking memory too far.
  • MIKEYK255MIKEYK255
    edited September 2004
    I dont think overheating is the problem, you would notice a significant speed decrease before the system were to go down, also heat generally cause's crashing not rebooting.
    I agree with the memory solution, if youve run memtest and it comes back ok, i would suggest going to ur bios and changing ur memory timings as i had this exact same problem and error message after setting the timings to high for the ram i have in my machine. Give that a try, i think youll have more luck then. Failing that, if you have a motherboard with a built on gpu, you may want to remove ur agp card and see if the problem still occurs whilst using the onboard graphics.
    You really need to put the specs on these messages. Could be any number of things.

    Mike (uk)
  • Eyeball-PaulEyeball-Paul
    edited September 2004
    i am having the exactly same problem... my computer is turning off and saying something about win32k.sys causing the problem, then restarting itself...really getting annoying..anyone know a solution.. my PC has 512 Ram,1.6ghz processor 60GB hard drive and is running WinXP with SP2...
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited September 2004
    your best bet is to run memtest as well. There are only a few things that can cause instability, and bad RAM is one of the primary ones.

    http://www.memtest86.com/#download1
    If you have a CD burner and a program such as Nero or Alcohol that can create CDs from .iso files, download this:
    Download - Memtest86 v3.1a ISO image (zip)[/quote]

    If you don't have a CD burner, or a program that'll deal with .iso files, use this to create a floppy:
    Download - Pre-Compiled Memtest86 v3.1a installable from Windows and DOS

    Either way, once you've created the disc, leave it in the computer and reboot. Let it boot off the CD or floppy (you may have to change your BIOS's boot order. If you do, and you're not sure how to do it, post here and someone will help you out). Run memtest for about an hour, or until it starts showing a lot of errors (whichever comes first). If it shows no errors after an hour, the memory is probably fine. If it shows more than one or two errors, some or all of the memory in your system is bad and is going to have to be replaced.
  • GargGarg Purveyor of Lincoln Nightmares Icrontian
    edited September 2004
    pseudonym wrote:
    I had this problem once on an old computer of mine. Turned out to be the powersupply.

    Another vote for power supply. If you've got a spare, swap it out and see if it makes a difference.
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