Random restarts

[windoze victim]

I was sitting at my computer, playing a game that has worked just fine on several computers, except for occasionaly just literaly blinking out of existance. This means the game disapears, and all I see is my desktop. This is normal for the game, but I decided to open up IE. This resulted in an average cpu usage of 50% for about 1 minute. I got one of those "the system has recovered from a catostrophic error," then, I saw the eMachines logo screen, (yes, i know, stop laughing) and then saw the (win xpHome) screen with the statis bar, shutting down, then turning on. Now IE seems to work fine. Just what is up with this. This is not the first time that IE has done this, even when I boot and open IE without anything else.

WHY CAN'T MICROSOFT MAKE ITS OWN PRODUCTS COMPATABLE!

Another time it has done it is when I try to update McAfee.

[the Wookie]

it might be your video card. i remember this used to happen on myold computer, it was because my power supply wasn't big enough, and the 1.5v rail would go under 1.5v and the video card would take a crap.

the system most likely logged the error and what it exactly was..go into "event viewer" under administrative tools in the control panel, and copy and paste the message for the event that matches the time of what happened to you...that should be a good place to start

[RoD]

right click my comp---properties---advanced---startup and recovery--uncheck "auto restart"....life goes on!

[TravisS]

Y'know... that really isn't a wise thing to do. There's a reason the computer restarts, it's pottentially damaging to hardware so it's restarting itself. My current PC does this about once every other day.... but I know why. I have a VooDoo 5 5500 in this computer and Win XP. The XP drivers are terrible, so I have 3rd party drivers (dozer 1.0). They're kinda, well, not stable but I tried unchecking the auto-restart and instead of restarting my entire computer froze!

I highly doubt that it's Internet Explorer that's causing the restart, most of the time this is caused by unstable hardware problems, such as hardware.

[RoD]

dozer drivers are the pits for that card travis. When i had my V5 (i sold it for 75 bucks woot!) on this comp on xp i went by this guide:

Drivers
You should start by downloading the latest drivers for the Voodoo 4/5 you can find the latest Windows 9x\Me driver here <http://www.voodoofiles.com/3203>, the latest Windows 2000 driver here <http://www.voodoofiles.com/2764> & the latest NT4 driver here <http://www.voodoofiles.com/3511>. Should you need drivers for other Operating Systems (Or different versions) then try Voodoo Files <http://www.voodoofiles.com/listall.a...vers&Sort=Name>. Once these are installed you might also want to try the new beta drivers from x3dfx <http://212.250.187.36/drivers4.html>, although you must have a current driver installed before installing these. NOTE - Before you install the x3dfx drivers ensure you backup your current 3dfxvs.dll/3dfxvs.vxd (Depending on which Operating System is installed). Once the x3dfx driver is installed then replace their 3dfxvs.dll (Or 3dfxvs.vxd) with the version you backed up. This is because the x3dfx Direct3D driver is basically messed up.
You also should have DirectX 8 <http://www.microsoft.com/directx/hom...ds/default.asp> or later installed also.
You may also want to try the WickedGL <http://www.wicked3d.com/technology/wickedGL.htm> for OpenGL games, particularly Quake 3 engine games (such as FAKK 2) as it can give better performance & visual quality than the 3dfx OpenGL driver. Those of you playing older Quake 1/2 engine games may find that the 3dfx MiniGL 1.49 <http://www.voodoofiles.com/3582> delivers significantly better performance than the 3dfx OpenGL driver in those games too.

[RoD]

btw i was running Omega xp drivers

[windoze victim]

fyi-
I am talking about a stock emachine, with one more stick ram, and a backup dial-up modem. It has (gulp) an on-board video card. So I doubt the video is causing restarts.

Also, the game blinking out is just something wrong with the game itself. It happens on all sorts of systems. (You just have to save the game frequently).

[TravisS]

Originally posted by RoD
dozer drivers are the pits for that card travis. When i had my V5 (i sold it for 75 bucks woot!) on this comp on xp i went by this guide:

Thanks RoD There's also the armigilan (have no idea on spelling) drivers that are supposed to be pretty sweet but last time I tried them my computer really got messed up. I'll give that guide thingy you posted a try, because I'm not too impressed with these dozer drivers.



windoze victim, I'm really not sure what's going on. This is the replacement computer for your old compaq? I know it's a replacement for something, can't remeber the brand

Anyway... there's about a 99% chance the computer you got is refurbished. That is of course the way the warranty business works, it's too costly for them to give away brand new stuff . It could be anything in the system that has been refurbished. CD-ROM, harddrive, motherboard, just about anything. It's very difficult to pin point something though You have a warranty on this one? You might give that a try. I'll almost guarantee they'll make you run the restore on in, to cover their backs software wise, but it may be worth a try!