Random Restarts

[Maxis]

SoarPics first me to it ... Memory problems usually give a Cold boot especially in a memory intensive program like fs9 .. itf it really gets bad you may get a windows protection error on bootup from one of those cold boots eventually... If your memtest gives a fatal error after only 7 mins i would test the memory modules individually and get rid of the bad one.. Hurry ... I made the mistake of buying cheap ram and paid for it with one of those Windows general protection faults @ bootup .. very hard to recover from and usually means reformat/reinstall time.. Also a wildly fluctuating rail on a power supply going bad is also known to cause a reboot.. and damaged hardware... Hope this helps ... although Soar put you on the right path already.Cheers

[Deaf Pilot]

Hmm... I'm thinking about getting a new memory stick anyway. I've had this one about a year... I'll look into the possibility of having it replaced... it doesnt seem likely though. :(

[Bluescaster]

Hi Todd, I just read your post - I see you've already got some hard hitting help; however, I had similar problems over a 6-8 week period (not necessarily early on in a session - but instant reboots for no apparent reason) As it was I was looking to add a separate hard drive just for my FS9 Sim. program.To cut a long story short - I did that, making the new drive the C: or main drive which required re-installing Windows. At that time I heard from friends that their company were instructing workers NOT to install the XP SP2 as it had caused some problems, in particular crashing out of programs without warning:-( I had recently installed the SP2 pack on my system prior to the reboot fault occuring - which I didn't connect at the time:-)In any event - when I re-installed XP I updated everything EXCEPT the SP2. No problems since.Just a thought - may not be connected but worth thinking about before you spend a lot of money.Regards Blue

[Deaf Pilot]

It just so happens that I am thinking about a new hard drive as well. I'm looking at the WD 74GB Raptor 10000RPM. $180... not cheap but I've heard its devilishly fast. I have a drive that is at least 3 years old... I have very slow startup times, and I think the drive is the reason behind that. The memory will probably come the month after that. If it really is the memory, I'll get a replacement stick for the one I have in here right now. Thanks for all your help... I think that with a fresh set of memory and a new hard drive, this problem should be solved.

[Guest Staggerwing]

>I think that with a fresh set of memory and a new hard drive, this problem should be solved.Not if that's not what the problem is... sounds like you MIGHT want to do the memory replacement first BUT...do all the tests and see if it proves out to be bad. What did your various PSU voltages read out at ? See what I mean ? Test more... spend less (maybe)

[Deaf Pilot]

well... I need a new hard drive as it is... I do understand what youre saying though. My voltages seemed fine... as far as I can tell anyway. I dont know much of anything about how voltages work and how it affects the computer... so I just used the MBM5 dashboard... all the gauges were in the green... screenshot attached. http://forums.avsim.net/user_files/103192.jpg

[Guest Staggerwing]

Yeah, but that's where you need something that records over a period of time so you can duplicate the crash and then see what the voltages did just before... etc. :-)You think you need a new HD just because it's 3 years old ? Don't forget, slow boot up can be other things as well..Not saying you don't... just have not heard anything that says you do yet.Trying to save you money and still get it working my friend :-) If possible..

[Deaf Pilot]

The voltages dont seem to be doing anything wrong... they're rock steady... Here's the last log entry just before another random restart:Total number of readouts: 84 CPU Speed: 2086 MHz Running from: 1/11/2005 8:59:54 PM until: 1/11/2005 9:06:59 PM Sensor Current Low High Average Case 28

[Deaf Pilot]

It's getting even worse now... It happens much more often and its down to restarting when I'm just browsing the internet and listening to music. Something is seriously off here. When I turned off the Auto Restart... on just one of the restarts, I did get a blue screen with a Driver IRQL Not Less Or Equal error... but all the other restarts were just cold restarts. I really can't even do anything anymore, as often as they are occuring. :(

[Guest Steve Eisenberg]

Todd,I had exactly the same problem. I thought it was SP2 so I reformatted my drive, reloaded windows without SP2 and reloaded FS9 but the same thing kept randomly happening but seemed to be worsening over time. I followed this thread and, at least in my case, it does appear to be the overheating problem. Speedfan was showing temps of 60+ degrees centigrade even though the Motherboard program was showing things in the green. I opened up the case and put a fan on it and the temps (except for one of my hard drive temps) dropped into the low 40's and the problem has disappeared. No more "magic" reboots.I am running a 2800+ AMD Athlon processor with an FIC motherboard, 784 Meg RAM, 256 Meg NVidia FX5600, and 200 gig of HD. FS9 is running through two 18" NEC LCD's and hooked to a Real Cockpit's 172 panel with all the instruments and PFC's Cirrus II ATD with the avionics suite.I would go back and take another look at the heat issue and consider investing in a bigger or second fan before changing out HD's and Memory. The other thing that I did was to physically move the box away from a heating duct that probably was aggravating the situation.By the way, another nice utility to see what you have in your box and whether everything is working is a freebie called CPU-Z.Good luck,Steve (n4208t)

[Bluescaster]

Steve, "CPU-Z" where did you find it please, could be useful in the future:-) Regards Blue

[Guest Steve Eisenberg]

The URL for CPU-Z is http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php.Steve (n4208t)

[Gavin]

Um, how do I test my CPU temp?Blush.http://online.vatsimindicators.net/916312/3.png

[Bluescaster]

Steve, Many thanks..... Blue

[Guest Paul_W]

>This is so maddening! Almost every time I load up FS2004, a>little while into it, my computer just restarts out of>nowhere, as if someone pushed the restart button. No warning>messages, nothing.Greetings. I just read through this thread, and so I wanted to mention my experience just in case it has any relevance here. I had a similar problem on my last system (AMD 1700XP), but it was much less frequent, occurring only about once every 2-3 months. For this reason I expect it's not the same problem that you're having; on the other hand I would probably never have focused on the real cause of the problem had my kitchen lights not blinked off for a split second early one morning--I would definitely have thought there was some complex problem in the computer itself. But apparently the electrical power in the section of the residence where my computer was set up at the time had been "blinking" periodically--and that instantaneous on-and-off business appears to be what ruined the board on that last system. I've since upgraded and I'm set up in a different room now, but I'll be adding another computer in that old location soon along with an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) instead of a surge protector that should handle any jolts or interruptions in the supply of electricity. So if you come up with nothing on all your other tests, at least consider the possibility that the supply of power to the computer might be an issue.