Help, Computer Shutsdown

[BlarnieO]

My computer shutsdown at the most inopportune times. Does not seem to be related to email, word processing, playing games or anything specific. It is an equal opportunity pain in the tuckis.

I get this message. IRQL_Not_Less_OR_ Equal_To

Then it does a countdown

Have tried relaoding drivers. Have Spybot and Norton Antivirus plus Zonealarm loaded.

[Catweazle]

Have you got more than one RAM module installed? Are they different brands/types?

If this is the case, try removing the most recently added module to dee if the problems persist or disappear. That error message often accompanies memory incompativilities.

[industry2m]

Catweazle is right. It sounds like there is either something wrong with the memory or the settings of the memory in the BIOS - it could also be the video card memory causing this problem.

Get a program to test the memory:

http://www.memtest86.com

or get burn in test pro http://www.passmark.com/download/index.htm

- let us know the results of the test

[YoungCoder]

My computer shutsdown at the most inopportune times. Does not seem to be related to email, word processing, playing games or anything specific. It is an equal opportunity pain in the tuckis.

I get this message. IRQL_Not_Less_OR_ Equal_To

Then it does a countdown

Have tried relaoding drivers. Have Spybot and Norton Antivirus plus Zonealarm loaded.

This most probably will not help in the longrun, however when you get to the countdown go start menu > run and type in "shutdown.exe -a" this will close the timer.

Hope this helps,

YoungCoder

[BlarnieO]

Thanks for the info. I tried the burn in test pro, my results were

PassMark BurnInTest Log file - http://www.passmark.com
========================================================

Logging detail level: Normal

*** Unlicensed Shareware Version ***

******************
SYSTEM INFORMATION
******************
Network Name: DOWNSTAIRS-OFFI

Date: 08/15/04
Time: 13:44:28
Operating system: Windows XP
Number of CPUs: 1
CPU manufacturer: AuthenticAMD
CPU type: AMD Athlon(TM) XP 2000+
CPU features: MMX 3DNow! SSE
CPU Serial #: Not available or disabled
CPU1 speed: 1258.8 MHz
CPU Level 2 Cache: 256KB
RAM: 267943936 Bytes
Video card: NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
Video resolution: 800x600x16

**************
RESULT SUMMARY
**************
Test Start time: -
Test Stop time: Sun Aug 15 13:44:28 2004
Test Duration: -

Test Name Cycles Operations Result Errors Last Error
CPU - Maths 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
CPU - MMX / SSE 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
Memory (RAM) 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
2D Graphics 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
Disk (A: ) 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
Disk (C: ) 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
Network 1 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
CD/DVD (D:) 0 0 PASS 0 No errors
Sound 0 0 PASS 0 No errors

******************
DETAILED ERROR LOG
******************
2004-08-15 13:43:13, Status, PassMark BurnInTest V4.0 Std 1014
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Not sure if this is good or bad. What should the next step be? Thanks, BlarnieO

Catweazle is right. It sounds like there is either something wrong with the memory or the settings of the memory in the BIOS - it could also be the video card memory causing this problem.

Get a program to test the memory:

http://www.memtest86.com

or get burn in test pro http://www.passmark.com/download/index.htm

- let us know the results of the test

[BlarnieO]

Catweazle, Don't think I have more than one RAM module... heck how would I check?
BlarnieO

Have you got more than one RAM module installed? Are they different brands/types?

If this is the case, try removing the most recently added module to dee if the problems persist or disappear. That error message often accompanies memory incompativilities.

[Catweazle]

If that's a 'brand name' PC I'd be guessing it's only got one module, with 256Mb installed, but open up the system case and have a look.

RAM modules look like this:

[img]http://interact.uoregon.edu/pttt/ram/ram.jpg[/img]

If you've had the system from new, and have recently had more 'memory' added, then that would explain it, and my suggestion woul mean to try removing the module in slot 2. But your RAM passed the test you run, so it might not be the problem.

Alternatively, it could be a faulty driver. You said you reinstalled the drivers. Are you sure you loaded them all?

[BlarnieO]

Carweazle,

I booted up with the memtest86 disk that I had made and there were a host of errors. Unfortunately I was not savvy enough to capture them. The system had been running for 9 hours. I will rerun again... how do you capture the log so I can look at it and if necessary post?

I'll open up to check the RAM module later today. I am the original owner of this computer store custom built computer. I don't recall purchasing any aditional RAM.
BlarnieO

If that's a 'brand name' PC I'd be guessing it's only got one module, with 256Mb installed, but open up the system case and have a look.

RAM modules look like this:

[img]http://interact.uoregon.edu/pttt/ram/ram.jpg[/img]

If you've had the system from new, and have recently had more 'memory' added, then that would explain it, and my suggestion woul mean to try removing the module in slot 2. But your RAM passed the test you run, so it might not be the problem.

Alternatively, it could be a faulty driver. You said you reinstalled the drivers. Are you sure you loaded them all?

[Catweazle]

If you get lots of errors when you run it again, then I'd consider replacing the RAM. If you have Windows XP, then 512Mb of RAM would be best anyway.

Purchase a 512 Mb module of 'name brand' RAM if this is your situation. The budget priced lines of companies such as Kingston, Geil, corsair or perhaps even Kingmax should be perfectly OK. Just don't buy unbranded rAM from a local shop ;)

[BlarnieO]

How do I capture the errors from memtest86 so I can review them?
BlarnieO