Vista: multiple crashes every day - getting pretty annoying

In the last few weeks, my Vista pc has been crashing an average of 3-5 times
a day. No apparent cause - it just up and reboots. It doesn't matter what
software I am using at the time, or even if the computer is in standby mode.
It just restarts itself with increasing frequency. Is there a way to figure
out what the heck is causing the crash? I have updated every driver I know
of, and keep Vista updated (yes, I have installed SP1 - maybe that's the
problem).

By way of additional information, I have had this pc for a little over a
year. It worked fine for most of that time, with only the usual intermittent
windows crash. But over the last few weeks (maybe a month or so), it has
just started crashing like crazy. I'm at a loss of what to do other than
scrap Vista and go back to XP, or try one of the linux variants. I would
rather get Vista working, since I paid for the piece of junk. But I am about
ready to try something else - it couldn't possibly be any worse.

On Mon, 26 May 2008 14:55:00 -0700, Crashed in the Carolinas <Crashed
in the > wrote:

>In the last few weeks, my Vista pc has been crashing an average of 3-5 times
>a day. No apparent cause - it just up and reboots. It doesn't matter what
>software I am using at the time, or even if the computer is in standby mode.
>It just restarts itself with increasing frequency. Is there a way to figure
>out what the heck is causing the crash? I have updated every driver I know
>of, and keep Vista updated (yes, I have installed SP1 - maybe that's the
>problem).
>
>By way of additional information, I have had this pc for a little over a
>year. It worked fine for most of that time, with only the usual intermittent
>windows crash. But over the last few weeks (maybe a month or so), it has
>just started crashing like crazy. I'm at a loss of what to do other than
>scrap Vista and go back to XP, or try one of the linux variants. I would
>rather get Vista working, since I paid for the piece of junk. But I am about
>ready to try something else - it couldn't possibly be any worse.

Overheating CPU can do that.

Open the computer and make sure the CPU fan is working. Same goes for
the other fans inside the case.

Since it crashes in standby mode, you can pretty well bet it is a hardware
problem. Overheating due to a bad connection at the CPU-Fan heat sink
contact point is a common restart cause. Other problems like no cooling fan,
or bad ram, or even a bad power supply, or cables. If you are not an 'inside
the case' kind of person you should have the hardware looked at.
If it were not hardware related, you would find recurring messages in the
Event Viewer.
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Mark L. Ferguson

"Crashed in the Carolinas" <Crashed in the
> wrote in message
news:79AB4D72-8E01-4DF6-B66E-...
> In the last few weeks, my Vista pc has been crashing an average of 3-5
> times
> a day. No apparent cause - it just up and reboots. It doesn't matter
> what
> software I am using at the time, or even if the computer is in standby
> mode.
> It just restarts itself with increasing frequency. Is there a way to
> figure
> out what the heck is causing the crash? I have updated every driver I
> know
> of, and keep Vista updated (yes, I have installed SP1 - maybe that's the
> problem).
>
> By way of additional information, I have had this pc for a little over a
> year. It worked fine for most of that time, with only the usual
> intermittent
> windows crash. But over the last few weeks (maybe a month or so), it has
> just started crashing like crazy. I'm at a loss of what to do other than
> scrap Vista and go back to XP, or try one of the linux variants. I would
> rather get Vista working, since I paid for the piece of junk. But I am
> about
> ready to try something else - it couldn't possibly be any worse.

"Nonny" <> wrote in message
news:...
> On Mon, 26 May 2008 14:55:00 -0700, Crashed in the Carolinas <Crashed
> in the > wrote:
>
>>In the last few weeks, my Vista pc has been crashing an average of 3-5
>>times
>>a day. No apparent cause - it just up and reboots. It doesn't matter
>>what
>>software I am using at the time, or even if the computer is in standby
>>mode.
>>It just restarts itself with increasing frequency. Is there a way to
>>figure
>>out what the heck is causing the crash? I have updated every driver I
>>know
>>of, and keep Vista updated (yes, I have installed SP1 - maybe that's the
>>problem).
>>
>>By way of additional information, I have had this pc for a little over a
>>year. It worked fine for most of that time, with only the usual
>>intermittent
>>windows crash. But over the last few weeks (maybe a month or so), it has
>>just started crashing like crazy. I'm at a loss of what to do other than
>>scrap Vista and go back to XP, or try one of the linux variants. I would
>>rather get Vista working, since I paid for the piece of junk. But I am
>>about
>>ready to try something else - it couldn't possibly be any worse.
>
> Overheating CPU can do that.
>
> Open the computer and make sure the CPU fan is working. Same goes for
> the other fans inside the case.

It does sound like a hardware problem. It wouldn't hurt to clean everything
inside with a little 3M Dust Remover or similar product.

Lots of motherboards have a BIOS hardware monitor installed. Next time it
reboots get into BIOS setup and look for the hardware monitor. Then write
down the CPU temperature. You could maybe turn off the rebooting behavior
but I don't recommend it.

Earle

You also might want to have your memory chips tested. I had the same issue and
it turned out to be a bad memory chip... this was in a brand new machine even.

Just a thought.

Crashed in the Carolinas <Crashed in the >
wrote:
>In the last few weeks, my Vista pc has been crashing an average of 3-5 times
>a day. No apparent cause - it just up and reboots. It doesn't matter what
>software I am using at the time, or even if the computer is in standby mode.
>It just restarts itself with increasing frequency. Is there a way to figure
>out what the heck is causing the crash? I have updated every driver I know
>of, and keep Vista updated (yes, I have installed SP1 - maybe that's the
>problem).
>
>By way of additional information, I have had this pc for a little over a
>year. It worked fine for most of that time, with only the usual intermittent
>windows crash. But over the last few weeks (maybe a month or so), it has
>just started crashing like crazy. I'm at a loss of what to do other than
>scrap Vista and go back to XP, or try one of the linux variants. I would
>rather get Vista working, since I paid for the piece of junk. But I am about
>ready to try something else - it couldn't possibly be any worse.

Cynyster wrote:
> You also might want to have your memory chips tested. I had the same issue and
> it turned out to be a bad memory chip... this was in a brand new machine even.
>
> Just a thought.
>
> Crashed in the Carolinas <Crashed in the >
> wrote:
>> In the last few weeks, my Vista pc has been crashing an average of 3-5 times
>> a day. No apparent cause - it just up and reboots. It doesn't matter what
>> software I am using at the time, or even if the computer is in standby mode.
>> It just restarts itself with increasing frequency. Is there a way to figure
>> out what the heck is causing the crash? I have updated every driver I know
>> of, and keep Vista updated (yes, I have installed SP1 - maybe that's the
>> problem).
>>
>> By way of additional information, I have had this pc for a little over a
>> year. It worked fine for most of that time, with only the usual intermittent
>> windows crash. But over the last few weeks (maybe a month or so), it has
>> just started crashing like crazy. I'm at a loss of what to do other than
>> scrap Vista and go back to XP, or try one of the linux variants. I would
>> rather get Vista working, since I paid for the piece of junk. But I am about
>> ready to try something else - it couldn't possibly be any worse.
>

Yes, I notice that the more recent distributions of Ubuntu Linux (The
run from CD without installing variety) come with a memory test program
as an option as if to suggest that memory problems are more prevalent
the we expect.

Although this machine I am using was all brand new parts when built, it
showed up as having problems running the test, problems that seem to
have been cured simply be removing and reseating the memory.

XP, Vista and Ubuntu all slowed to a crawl and crashed after apparently
installing properly, and the boot memory test always came out good, but
since reseating the memory all seem to work fine.

Might look here to create a disk.

http://www.memtest.org/#screen

I'd agree with everybody else here that a reboot is a symbol of a hardware
failure. You might be able to mask it by tinkering with *software*, but
software itself is pretty unlikely to be the net source here. =\

--
Speaking for myself only.
See http://zachd.com/pss/pss.html for some helpful WMP info.
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
--
"Crashed in the Carolinas" <Crashed in the
> wrote in message
news:79AB4D72-8E01-4DF6-B66E-...
> In the last few weeks, my Vista pc has been crashing an average of 3-5
> times
> a day. No apparent cause - it just up and reboots. It doesn't matter
> what
> software I am using at the time, or even if the computer is in standby
> mode.
> It just restarts itself with increasing frequency. Is there a way to
> figure
> out what the heck is causing the crash? I have updated every driver I
> know
> of, and keep Vista updated (yes, I have installed SP1 - maybe that's the
> problem).
>
> By way of additional information, I have had this pc for a little over a
> year. It worked fine for most of that time, with only the usual
> intermittent
> windows crash. But over the last few weeks (maybe a month or so), it has
> just started crashing like crazy. I'm at a loss of what to do other than
> scrap Vista and go back to XP, or try one of the linux variants. I would
> rather get Vista working, since I paid for the piece of junk. But I am
> about
> ready to try something else - it couldn't possibly be any worse.