How Often Does Your System Crash/Reboot?
 

Man I am getting sick of XP crashing, took 30 minutes of writing some good sales pitch, one of those ones where the creative juices are flowing and you don't need to think what you're writing, it comes nice and natural.

'click' of the relay switch on my system indicating yet another fucking reboot. WTF? I've had about 6 systems in the last 5 years or so, every last one of them reboots for fun except when I had Windows Me installed.

Worse, I've installed/upgraded friends' to XP, XP Pro and the like, and they tell me how much better everything runs for them.

My cordless mouse gave up 3 days ago, and I'm using a spare PS2 mouse, which works straight off the bat, stamdard plug'n'play blah blah blah.

Every reboot (around 7 last coupla days) it tells me XP has found new hardware, would you like to install. First time I said yes and went through the motions thinking that would stop the message appearing. Installation has failed. Click here to finish.

Upon that, the hardware wizard tells me it's found a new device, would you like to - No, I fucking wouldn't.

Now I press no, close the box that tells me my new hardware may not work, close the next popup box asking me if I want to install the new device, click no, click finish installation, and finally close the last box that tells me the device may not function properly.

I've lost 3 or 4 hard drives through crashes, and installed XP Pro on a brand new hard drive that was totally clean out the box. I've never had so much aggro.

Breakpoint error, runtime errors, dll errors, chkdsk errors, checksum errors, the list goes on. Flash wont work on this system, so I can't utilise a host of things I'd like to (ICQ, sponsors that only allow you to signup via a flash entrance with no text alternative, etc). Java runtime plugin doesn't work, so I cant enter java chatrooms here or at ANS.

Hell I installed Firefox and that fucker kept crashing too, as for netscape it wouldn't even install.

Reinstalling XP Pro clears none of this up, and I'm fucked if I'm going to format yet another drive to have the same shit happen. I've no idea why it's such a sumbitch, I have a firewall, AV software, I do a disk cleanup and degfragment weekly, and try to keep up good maintenance practice.

This is just another persons rant, and I should have just gone back to writing the ad again, but in the great tradition of those who have just been thoroughly pissed off (again lol) I'd just like to virtually look to the sky and say 'Why Fucking Me?????????'

My next purchase, without a shadow of a doubt, is a Mac |thumb

Damn, you seem to have some bad luck with your computers :(

The notebook with XP on has crashed maybe 1-2 times during the year I've had it. But it was my own fault. I filled up the harddrive, so there were no room for temp stuff.
The computer before that (had it for 2 years) was pretty solid too. Only Windows that I've had real luck with is XP, Win2k crashed a little more than XP.

I've been running XP for almost 2 years now and it hasn't crashed once. I reboot from time to time when installing new software or removing old software. Do you think it might be your hardware?

I've been running XP Pro since it popped out of Bill Gates' womb. It always ran super-duper until XP2 came along. Now the system locks up at least twice a day. It almost always freezed during my morning virus scan and it reboots almost every time I run Xenu. If I have a lot of fonts open in while running Adobe PS it gets pissed too. Damn thing can't multi-task any better than I can.

Computer never crashes.

I never shut it down.

Only time I reboot if I install something that requires it after installing.

I do seem to remember that a few years ago it wouldn't wake up one morning and I had to do a force reboot but that was over two years ago or so.

haha, many times - especially when I have so many aplications running at the same time

possible cpu going bad maybe or mb drivers wrong, try alt - control - delete and look at the cpu useage and see if any programs are eating up the cpu or what are your spces. XP will run barely on the min. requirements I've found, better have atleast 256 of ram and 600 cpu..

I agree with plateman. When my system is crunching xp will crash... when I have lots of space and free memory runs without a problem... good luck man!

Since all I use is a laptop with xp, I shut my down everynight so the laptop can rest a bit. But it really has not crashed or needed to be rebooted in a long time if ever.

A long time ago, Bill Gates said that the thing that caused the most problems with Win98 & WinXP were devices that had poorly written device drivers. WinXP (and Win98) running in VMWare under linux has never ever crashed for me. I set the memory pretty tight, but, vmware uses some pretty generic microsoft supplied drivers for video, etc. It has always seemed that the more bleeding-edge the hardware, the more problems I have seen.

My nephew's machine runs a pretty generic setup with a very run-of-the-mill ATI video card and works flawlessly. He plays video games all day long with it, surfs the net, etc. I don't think his machine had any problems until we installed some USB device driver -- which we quickly removed.

Other than that, ram is good. :) If when you are running things you see the drive light blinking a lot when you switch tabs, you might not have enough ram.

try downloading this for java fix

Windows XP Java Download

As for random crashing/resets do you usually geta blue screen with memory dumps coming up on the screen ?.

is it a brand name PC or a custom built unit ?.

I have a few ideas I'd like to run past you that may help.

regards,

Wicked1

:D Now Cleo... I'm not sure it's fair to compare apples and... well, you know... ;->

Seriously, Jel ...it sounds like you're going through hell. I've been a mac user since '84 and it's sometimes it's a little hard to understand why folks seem willing to put themselves through such grief. Yes, we do have pcs running windows and other systems for various reasons, but for all day every day personal use, I like what the mac brings to the game.

And same here, Cleo, multiple macs running full-time with no restarts except when required by an install. We just leave them on overnight (notebooks too) and the underlying Unix system tweaks things as needed like clockwork.

My system is pretty low end, pentium III, and damn, only 128mb of ram, I thought I had my 256 slotted in there - oops lol!

Most I have is 4 IE windows, outlook express, html editor & ftp client, no blinking of lights, nor any real slowness or sound of the hard drive struggling to find whatever, so although the 256 ram will help speed things up a tad, I dont think its that which is causing it, I may be wrong of course.

Breakpoint happened for the 1st time 2 days ago, and yep, blue screen saying memory dump or something similar, so maybe the ram is affecting it, although why it came up with that particular thing a couple days ago I've no idea.

Not sure what the motherboard is, but the pc itself is a non stickered up brand name I got from a friend whose office upgraded to DElls (yeah I saw that thread too lol).

I'll have a go at that java fix, although I'm pretty sure thats the one I tried to no avail. Gotta run out the house right now so forgive me if I go missing for a few hours or even until tomorrow morning.

Thanks for the input guys |thumb

I'm running Windows 2000 Pro (don't like XP), and I reboot maybe once a week. I have a small server across the room running Windows 2000 Advanced Server and it goes weeks at a time between reboots.

XP Pro SP2 on my workstation and it never ever crashes. It's probably a hardware failure. Frequent reboots may be cause by the power supply going bad. Now my laptop, thats a different story but I have a new Dell on its way to replace this dinosaur.

Hi Jel your reboots can be caused by many many issues. But it's been my experience that 99% of the time it comes from two issues. Either your chipset drivers are either not installed, not fully installed or they are the wrong ones. the 2nd being the most common would be your memory. XP is known for memory leaks and believe it or not sometime the best $$$$ sticks wont run well in XP. Keep in mind MS designed XP for the AVERAGE home user. Which means they dont want to spend more money on the computer then they have to. Which means they will by that nice 19 inch monitor before they by new memory.
I used to run a shit load of games. In fact I built my systems for them. Lots of hi end shit. $ 3 and 4K boxes. Anyway most of the games would crash sometime during play or start up. Then it leaked to my browser. Well the ram was corsair extream (at the time about $250 a 512 stick and I had 1 1/2 gigs) well every place I read told me memory leaks. I went to compusa bought some OK mid range ram 1 gig $250 total. problems have been solved.

I only run Crucial memory in my computers.

Crucial is the best.

I also only use Crucial memory. Last thing I want to do is suffer a week of troubleshooting because I saved a couple of bucks on memory.

My bet is that it's a hardware issue.
Here is how I would attack the problem:

1) First thing to do is make sure you're using the proper settings in the bios for memory timings, clock speed, etc. Some bios menus come with a few default settings that you can choose, try the most conservative bios settings first.

2) If that doesn't solve your problems the next thing I would do is open the box and make sure everything is seated properly and that all the fans work. While you're at it get a flashlight and inspect the capacitors for signs of leakage around the top. There was another thread here recently where someone narrowed down their problems to a bad capacitor.

3) If you have two or more pieces of ram remove one piece at a time and see if the problem can be isolated to single part, or borrow a good stick of ram from a friend and test.

4) If the ram seems okay, start looking at the power - make sure you have a good ground and clean power, if the power is okay then try swapping in a known-good power supply.

5) If you get this far you could try swapping a new cpu, and if you're still screwed go buy a new, shiny mac!

I'm not a big tekkie by any stretch.

I have XP on my system running on a P-IV processor with quickheal as my antivirus package and adaware se system checks in the morning and evening. Haven't had a problem in months. |thumb

I have Win XP....2 years, no crashes, and I leave my comp up 24/7...I only reboot it once every two weeks or if I install software and it needs to reboot.

when i use win98 it froozed about 8 times a day and believe me i kept on working with win98, oke now with xp i crashed ones and 1 time use shit but i manage to fix it with th help of this board, that my puter crashed or frooze wasnt to blame of my puter, it was the programs i used not save enough, me happy camper now, oke one in awhile i have shit but now i use firefox for reviewing and it helps alot ad ofcourse i have 100s of bougt programs to protect me........hey i have to do something... :D btw my oldie puter which crashed with win 98 is no totally upgraded and have xp and xp2 on it, that one i will take with me to my summerhome..gonna test how that works with xp2 or whatever it was it needed because i dont have that on my new puter where i work on now, if good i am gonna upgrade again.

A little ounce of protection goes a long way. I have two programs that I always leave on, Avast Anti-virus and Microsoft Spyware remover...I use firefox to surf...and I'm a little careful with my email. I set all the updates, scans, etc, for when I'm sleeping and I never notice it.

Good advice Mr Blue |thumb

I run XP Pro 2.8ghz P4 1gig of Kingston Extreme RAM. Built this machine with my own two grubby paws just over 2 years ago. Have had one bsod in that time. A few days ago...had about 15 applications opened at the time...was unzipping some content files...and boink...bsod. Rebooted and it's been fine since.

Sure sounds hardware related from what you describe. Overall, XP Pro is very stable...usually...

Sounds to me like you really need a hardware upgrade Jel. C'mon c'mon, time to dig deeper under the matress.

128 megs is hardly enough for XP even 256 is barely enough. I would try running Linux.
it has almost all the same tools as windoze.


|peace|

"Windows XP SP2 users: if you encounter an error, look at the top of this page for a yellow bar that reads "This site might require the following ActiveX control: 'Java Plug-in 1.5.0_02' from 'Sun Microsystems, Inc.'. Click here to install..." Click the yellow bar and choose "Install ActiveX Control..." to allow installation to proceed.

We encountered an issue while trying to automatically install Java™ software onto your machine. As a result, Java software was not installed properly."

So I go to manual installation, 'error, incorrect patch fix, this program was not installed'

Haven't put my higher memory in yet, but I've got an 850 Mhz cpu.

With 3 ie windows, outlook express, my html editor and ftp client open I show 22 - 40% cpu usage

PF usage is 236MB - what exactly is that?

Totals
Handles 8263
Threads 374
Processes 34

Physical memory (K)
Total 130544
Available 24208
System Cache 41012

Commit Charge (K)
Total 241924
Limit 314640
Peak 244360

Kernel Memory (K)
Total 24396
Paged 20428
Nonpaged 3968

Processes:

iexplore.exe username
msimn.exe username
coreftp.exe username
iexplore.exe username
zclientm.exe username
svchost.exe system
lexpps.exe system (printer)
spoolsv.exe system printer I think?
lexbces.exe system (printer)
explorer.exe username
beauty.exe username (html editor)
taskmgr.exe username
svchost.exe local service
wscntfy.exe username
svchost.exe netork service
svchost.exe system
lxbvbmon.exe username
registryrepairpro username
msmsgs.exe username
svchost.exe network service
svchost.exe system
ctfmon.exe username
lsass.exe system
services.exe system
winlogon.exe system
csrss.exe system
smss.exe system
lxbvbmgr.exe username
qttask.exe username
motivesb.exe username
cfd.exe username
alg.exe local service
system system
system idle process system

Are the current processes. Asise from ie and msimn which I believe is outlook, and my printer, ftp and html editor, I don't really know what any of those other processes relate to.

iexplore.exe - MSIE
msimn.exe - Outlook Express
coreftp.exe - Core FTP
zclientm.exe - Microsoft Gaming Zone
lexpps.exe - Lexmark printer
spoolsv.exe - Windows print spooler
lexbces.exe - Lexmark printer
explorer.exe - Windows Desktop
beauty.exe - HTML editor
taskmgr.exe - Windows Task Manager
wscntfy.exe - Windows Security Center
lxbvbmon.exe - Lexmark printer
registryrepairpro.exe - Registry Repair Pro
msmsgs.exe - MSN Messenger
ctfmon.exe - Microsoft Office component
lsass.exe - Windows security
services.exe - Windows services manager
winlogon.exe - Windows login manager
csrss.exe - Windows graphics manager
smss.exe - Windows session manager
lxbvbmgr.exe - Lexmark printer
qttask.exe - QuickTime Tray Icon
motivesb.exe - AT&T online support utility
cfd.exe - AT&T online support utility
alg.exe - Windows Internet connection sharing and firewall

svchost.exe - Windows application launcher, no easy way to tell what app it has launched.

Thanks Toby,
I can close down the AT & T and quicktime processes then I guess.
Off to buy some RAM now :)

Jel
With an 850 cpu it's still gonna be a bit sluggish, honestly.
Try to upgrade to a min of 1.8 if they still exist and make sure all chipset drivers are up to date (if your mobo can take it).

I reboot very infrequently, maybe only when I install something and my system is very heavily modded.

850 cpu is just not enough for win xp...the min. you should be running is 1.3ghz and even that isn't ideal. If you can't afford an upgrade right now, shut off some services that aren't needed in xp to make it run a little better.

i think the min memory spec for Xp is listed as 256 MB I have a PIII 933 with 192 MB ram running XP Pro and when it boots up there is about 30 mb free after the os is running and nothing else :)

i'm sure your pc is running outta ram and the virtual ram just cannot keep up with system demands

OK thanks guys, that explains the constant crashing then. Any ideas on why java runtime and flash are fucked up? I read that there was a conflict in a very small percentage of cases with flash and WMP, looks like I was just one of the unlucky ones? Although - it worked fine for a while and suddenly every time a flash banner appeared on a page I got an error message telling me flash has caused a problem and IE needs to shut down. Completely out of the blue, no software/hardware installs, no upgrades of WMP (I'm still on WMP 9, it refuses to upgrade lol).

I haven't had a system failure or forced reboot for six or seven years. I never enable active-x, in fact I even removed some of the modules. I'm also still using old computers that I bought from the tip for $10 or less. Why should I buy a faster computer and install XP plus all the stuff to make it safe, together with all the stuff that replaces the functions they removed, when I can get more work done with 98SE. :)

Don't you think it odd that Microsoft had to buy an outside company to install security products when they could have just written an OS that works securely. :)

my xp machine has never crashed in the 3 years ive had it.

Ok jel a 850 cpu will run xp and if you have at least 256 meg of ram you should be ok xp will load with as little as 64 megs of ram.. but will be about worthless and what XP pro do you have ??

if you have the free XP that was hacked you couldnt do the sp 1 and java would work with it at that time I know I have no java on my machine...

Ok all XP users should run there machines with windows set to run on performance if they are lacking cpu and ram - XP in it self uses a lot more resources than any other win OS So to change this go control panel - system - advanced - performance - settings and tick the radio button to set to run on performance and your machine will be faster all around and I run the 3 XP boxes all this way, my main PC is althon 2200 with a gig of DDR and dont miss the heavy XP graghic BS that it has... try it and you will see that it will work better.. |thumb

Mine is an oldie and crashes often... but it works and this is what counts :)

Windows 2000 runs much leaner than xp and has most of the features...On one old box that's what I use and it runs perfectly without crashing. You can strip xp down to a win2k level, but why not just use 2k instead :D (on a slow comp that is)