Computer Reboots

H

Hambone

I don't know where else to ask for help. I've been getting a lot of computer reboots lately and I've been trying to figure out what's causing it. I am fairly sure it has something to do with incompatabilities between my charting software, Ensign and my hardware because I don't believe it has ever rebooted when I didn't have Ensign up.

I was trying to analyze the dump file that gets created when it reboots, but I need a file called

Kdextx86.dll

Dose onyone know where I can get this file? It was not on my W2000 CD in the Support Tools installation and I can't find anything on the web that would indicate I can download it. Here is just the latest example of the dump summary I get when the computer reboots.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Save Dump
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 7/17/2003
Time: 2:21:58 PM
User: N/A
Computer: RHAMXXXXN
Description:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000001e (0xc0000005, 0x80469288, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). Microsoft Windows 2000 [v15.2195]. A dump was saved in: C:\WINNT\MEMORY.DMP.

I have a home made clone with the following hardware.

Shuttle AK35GT2 motherboard
AMD 2.2Ghz Athlon XP processor
512mb DDR ram
Fujitsu M1638TAU 20GB disk drive
Appian Geronimo Pro 4-port PCI display adapter


If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate a response.
 
Hambone,

Try removing Ensign first to see if the computer still reboots.

Make sure you use the latest version of all the software that
may be causing the reboot. Might try re-installing the software
in different order in case one uses an older driver and replaced
a newer driver.

Contact customer support for the software(S) to see if anyone
else as reported any hardware/software conflicts.

I remember IB TWS use to cause my computer to reboot
when I used a generic network card. I bought an Intel
network card and it works fine since then.

Good Luck!
 
Quote from Hambone:

I don't know where else to ask for help. I've been getting a lot of computer reboots lately and I've been trying to figure out what's causing it. I am fairly sure it has something to do with incompatabilities between my charting software, Ensign and my hardware because I don't believe it has ever rebooted when I didn't have Ensign up.

I was trying to analyze the dump file that gets created when it reboots, but I need a file called

Kdextx86.dll

Dose onyone know where I can get this file? It was not on my W2000 CD in the Support Tools installation and I can't find anything on the web that would indicate I can download it. Here is just the latest example of the dump summary I get when the computer reboots.

Event Type: Information
Event Source: Save Dump
Event Category: None
Event ID: 1001
Date: 7/17/2003
Time: 2:21:58 PM
User: N/A
Computer: RHAMXXXXN
Description:
The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x0000001e (0xc0000005, 0x80469288, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). Microsoft Windows 2000 [v15.2195]. A dump was saved in: C:\WINNT\MEMORY.DMP.

I have a home made clone with the following hardware.

Shuttle AK35GT2 motherboard
AMD 2.2Ghz Athlon XP processor
512mb DDR ram
Fujitsu M1638TAU 20GB disk drive
Appian Geronimo Pro 4-port PCI display adapter


If anyone has any ideas I would appreciate a response.
More...
A wild guess as to whether these two cases are similar--

http://bizforums.itrc.hp.com/cm/QuestionAnswer/1,,0xdf026049dbb6d611abdb0090277a778c,00.html

As you can see, it's pretty tough to resolve. In the above case it was a bad internet connection that caused the problem. You're not running a server like int his example, but maybe eSignal is doing something that cause the computer to reboot when (and if) your machine has an erratic net connection.
 
Hambone,

Basically, unless the software installs some windows drivers, there is nothing that the software can do that would cause a reboot. Thats not to say that you will not get reboots only if you run a particular program. Its just that the bug is not usually in the program but in something like a video, sound or network driver, in an area of the code that handles whatever requests the program makes.

First thing to do - change Win 2000 settings so it will not automatically reboot. That way, you will get a blue screen (the good old BSOD) and you will have to reboot yourself. To do that, right click on MY COMPUTER and select PROPERTIES.
On PROPERTIES, Click on the ADVANCED tab.
On ADVANCED, click on the STARTUP AND RECOVERY button.
On the screen that comes up, UN-Check the box for "Automatically reboot"

Now, next time you get a problem, you will get the blue screen dump. On it, you should see the name of the file that is causing the problem. Usually a DLL file.

The next step is to find what that file is. Search your computer for that file name. Once found, right click on it and select PROPERTIES. In most cases, the screen that comes up should have a tab called VERSION. Click on it. It will have information about the file, the company that made it, version info, and the product that it is associated with. Once you have that, you should have a good idea where to go for an update or troubleshooting.

If you get that far and still don't know what to do from there, post the name of the file in question and the info displayed on the version tab for it.
 
Chances are its bugcheck caused by errant hardware or a device driver. Only very special case application software could cause a system bugcheck - and Ensign doesn't fall into that category.

But since it's happening while you're running a charting program, the most likely culprits are the video device or driver, the network device or driver, or possibly a fault in your AMD-based motherboard or BIOS (be sure you've installed all the latest BIOS updates, have seen several for AMD motherboards) or a conflict in that combination (several video devices have reported problems with AMD motherboards unless you install the most recent system BIOS, video BIOS, and drivers).
 
I now know it has nothing to do with Ensign since it finally crashed when all I had up was Outlook Express and 2 Internet Explorer windows. I did change the auto-reboot check box and also set it to do a Kernel Memory Dump. I have never gotten a BSOD. I have a 4 monitor set-up and the primary monitor just goes black and dsplays the 'Stop: oxooooo...' error message while the other 3 monitors just freeze. I have been keeping a text file of all the event logs associated with the 'save dump' and now I am noteing the stop message as well as the file (if it references one). So far it has only referenced 2 files and they are OS related, (win32k.sys and ntoskrnl.exe). I just noted that there are 2 different versions in 4 different directories.
C:\WINNT\system32 and C:\WINNT\Driver Cache\i386 have version 5.0.2195.6159 in them and C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles|i386 and an uninstall directory have version 5.0.2195.5438 in them. (Both are from Microsoft.)
Also there are 4 different version of win32k.sys in 6 different directories, (3 of the directories are uninstall directories).
C:\WINNT\system32 has version 5.0.2195.6097
C:\WINNT\Driver Cache\i386 has version 5.0.2195.6003
C:\WINNT\ServicePackFiles\i386 has version 5.0.2195.5314
It looks as though the latest version of each is in the system32 directory so I assume thats as it should be. For some reason the last 2 crashes didn't save a log in the event viewer file but did do a memory dump. I've attached the .txt file that I've been keep of the dump events in case you see a clue.

I also noticed in the event viewr logs several instances of files that evidently got overwritten and could not be properly restored. Every time I update TWS I get a pop-up indicating that some system files needed to be restored and I put in my system CD, but evidently the restore fails. It is on mfc40.dll and mcf40u.dll. So I ran the System File Check utility today and it indicates well over 200 entries of files with bad or missing signatures and for some reason was unable to restore them. Here is one example entry:
Event Type: Information
Event Source: Windows File Protection
Event Category: None
Event ID: 64021
Date: 7/22/2003
Time: 9:37:27 AM
User: N/A
Computer: RHAMXXXXN
Description:
The system file c:\winnt\system32\drivers\3cwmcru.sys could not be copied into the DLL cache. The specific error code is 0x800b0100 [No signature was present in the subject.
]. This file is necessary to maintain system stability.

If there are that many errant files, it's a wonder the system runs at all.

These reboots have been occurring at least since April 2. I can only go back that far in the event viewer log because I had to replace my motherboard then and had to reload W2000 as a result. I know I was having hardware issues before that with Ensign and Esignal causing reboots, but it was fairly intermittent. I recently upgraded my CPU from a 1.2Ghz Duron to a 2.2Ghz Athlon and the crashes have increased a great deal. I suppose the increased processor speed is stressing my weak link more. Before the upgrade I was getting 1 to 3 re-boots a week. Now I'm getting them 1 to 3 times a day! That's why I have to find a solution!

I have verified there is a later Bios version than mine, (I'm on ver. D and there is a ver. G), but I have not updated it yet. I'm afraid I'll make things worse! The manufactures Bios history only indicates the later version are for allowing newer CPUs to operate, nothing about stability fixes.

I am also emailing the motherboard manufacture to see if they know anything.

Any help would be appreciated
 

Attachments

Quote from TGregg:

Memory? Did you keep the same RAM when you swapped everything around?
More...

No, I had to replace the ram when I replaced the motherboard. The new motherboard took DDR ram, while the old one had sdram.
 
Quote from Hambone:



No, I had to replace the ram when I replaced the motherboard. The new motherboard took DDR ram, while the old one had sdram.
More...

Common problem with hardware incompatibilities: These days most commercial software rarely does things like write directly to the hardware - thus making it the culprit.

A suggestion: If your time is worth anything you are always better off buying commodity hardware which is certified or known to be compatible with your OS and having backup hardware. If there is no obvious solution then just replace it with another certified compatible box component combination - we just plug in a spare pre-configured disk into a spare box..... Much cheaper than losing more time ....
 
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