Experiencing Sudden WXP Shutdowns Lately

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sleddriver

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This just started yesterday. Unit had been on all day. I'd updated Java & Flash that morning. Had Firefox & T-bird open. Suddenly desktop started closing, one after another. "Windows needs to shut down". Then it was off.

Then it rebooted. Stayed up maybe 4 min. then shut down again. A small window popped up, with a red X in it, with some msg. but it was gone in a split second. Had no time to see what it said. Rebooted, then stayed on for maybe 3 hrs.

Was watching a DVD on it last night, started doing the same thing, about 45 min into the movie. Repeated the sequence about 4 times, each time the 'on' time grew shorter. I finally turned off the PS to keep it from continuously rebooting.

This a.m., I started it up after being off 10 hrs., was watching NASA TV of shuttle lift-off. Shut down again. I looked in My comp > manage > sys tools > event viewer > system and found a Red X error that says "The mrtRate service failed to start due to the following error: The system cannot find the file specified. Not sure if that has anything to do with it or not.

WXP decided it needed to close, for whatever reason. Is there a log somewhere it wrote to describing why? Perhaps Comp Manage. has this capability, but I don't know how to set it up.

Speaking of PS's, I put in a new one about 2 months ago. I turn the machine off each night. CPU & PS fans are running.

One common theme is that shut-downs seems to have occur while watching on-line videos & the movie last night. Perhaps this is heat related? I cleaned the cpu fan & heatsink a few months back.

Casting a wide net for ideas . . . . .
 
Originally Posted By: sleddriver
One common theme is that shut-downs seems to have occur while watching on-line videos & the movie last night. Perhaps this is heat related? I cleaned the cpu fan & heatsink a few months back.


What about the video card heatsink and fan (if equipped)?
 
If you have an identical or similar HW spec machine (chipset/video card), try to take the hard drive out and test it in another computer to see if it is hardware (i.e. motherboard, CPU, power supply, video card, ram) or the software (windows on the HD).
 
Get some temperature monitoring software like Speedfan or HWmonitor and see what your CPU/core temps are. This does sound heat related. Is this a laptop?
 
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What about the video card heatsink and fan (if equipped)?
I do have an external video card. Not sure if it has a fan though. This is a stock Dell Dim. 5150 I've resurrected.

Quote:
what are the HW on your PC? (specifications), and how long/old is your Mobo (what brand, model, type, etc.)?
For a complete HW list, I'll have to shut her down and make a list. The MB is a stock Dell Dim 5150.

Quote:
If you have an identical or similar HW spec machine (chipset/video card), try to take the hard drive out and test it in another computer to see if it is hardware (i.e. motherboard, CPU, power supply, video card, ram) or the software (windows on the HD).
That would be nice. Unfortunately, no joy.

Quote:
Get some temperature monitoring software like Speedfan or HWmonitor and see what your CPU/core temps are. This does sound heat related. Is this a laptop?

Good idea. I'll dwnld and report back the numbers. Not a laptop, a Dell Dim 5150.

Update: It's been on continuously since this a.m. No sudden shut-downs! I've been monitoring the 'system info' window of Process Explorer for anomolies. NASA TV has been on in a FF window. CPU usage 15 - 25%. 10 windows currently open in FF. T-bird, palm desk running in background.

I updated Java and Flash yesterday in an attempt to get a streaming audio player working for an out-of-state radio station. These updates were installed successfully, but no joy on the flash-based audio streaming. I keep flash controls locked down pretty tight. No amount of bit-fiddling/switch setting helped. Of course, the server could have been down, overwhelmed, etc.

Thanks for all the replies. Hail Atlantis!
 
Hah! My Dell "Inspiron" 5150 just died from heat. It was a long 8 year battle keeping that baby cool, but apparently the thermal paste dried up and cracks started in the motherboard. Even down clocked to 800 mghz, it would start getting to 60C under 50% load. Turn it up to 3.2Ghz? It would just about instantly get to 80C and shut off.

Might want to look into redoing the thermal paste on your CPU heatsink IF your problem is overheating.
 
Usually, if it is power or heat related, it would crash at different time / location in each occurrence. If it is software or OS, it would be the same location every time.
 
Originally Posted By: Drew99GT
Might want to look into redoing the thermal paste on your CPU heatsink IF your problem is overheating.
Did that a few months ago when I cleaned the CPU fan.
 
I dwnld'd Speedfan. Doesn't reveal much info on this Dell system. No CPU temps, fan speeds, PS voltages, . It does report one HD at 104F and another at 113F. Didn't realize they ran so warm. SMART data reveals the HD's are well.

Perhaps Dell has a utility I don't know about? I'll see if HWmonitor shows more info.

No more sudden shutdowns, yesterday or today. Weird.
 
104-113F is fine for an HD, they usually run 30-40C and is designed to run up to 55C (although the cooler the better like all electronics).

data monitoring software like yours wouldn't show you spikes or brown out. Unless you plug in a scope and set the trigger, those information doesn't tell much.

I'd still say the cheapest is to swap hardware piece by piece till you find the problem.
 
I noticed Speedfan is able to monitor the PS voltages in some units. Evidently it doesn't play well with the Dell. While it may not indicate quick spikes, it would be helpful to see if a particular rail voltage was low over a period of time. (I do have a Tek 2ch, delay-trigger scope for the quick stuff.)

Currently, I've experienced no other sudden shutdowns. I wonder if WXP rebooted itself in a "last good (stable) configuration mode", ridding itself of the fault? That would be one explanation.

Thanks all for the replies!
 
It's baaaack!

It's happened about 3 times since my last post. More in the evenings, after it's been sitting idle. I come back to use it and it's rebooted.

This AM all I had open was FF & T-bird; no videos playing; just reading. I'm leaning towards something heat related.

While reading about sudden (unexpected) shutdowns on MS's site, I found a new area of XP-pro I hadn't seen before: Group Policy settings http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293814. . Under Comp. Config > Admin Temp > System > Shutdown Event Tracker is a tool that might help. Since the OS has made a command decision to close, I'd like to know why.

It appears this utility is used to catagorize a manually initiated system shut down, like for a server. I don't know if it'll force WXP-pro to document anything further when the OS decides to shutdown on its own.

Lots of things to tweak WXP with in there. Still looking for a reason for this.
 
This is mine, for example.

screencap.png

(CTRL - +) to zoom in
http://i266.photobucket.com/albums/ii279/rudolphna/screencap.png
 
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Thanks. My Dell Dim 5150 must not like being monitored as the only temps shown with HW monitor are for 2 new HD's.

No Volts, no cpu temp, nothing...
 
I shut her down, removed the cpu HS, blew out some minimal dust, and saw another black HS with a stiff wire hold-down. Removed it and discovered this chip used a thermal tape (?) of some type. Very hard & dry. Removed it all, installed new HS paste, put it all back together. We'll see if that was overheating.

Found some Dell diagnostics on their site. Ran a MB check, HD check, Video card stress test (50%cpu for 5 min.) All was OK and no shutdowns.

That's all for now...
 
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