Bizarre Computer Restarts

[dcloud]

Lately my computer will shut down and restart itself. It will do this at anytime so it doesn't appear to be related to any one task I'm doing. Every time it happens the screen will go black and the computer restarts and once I'm back on the desktop I always get the same error message:

Windows cannot find 'http://oca.microsoft.com/reredir.as...4910be9b&LCID=1033&OS=5.1.2600.2.00010300.2.0.' Make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again. To search for a file, click the Start button, and then click Search.

I haven't a clue what any of this means, except the name "cmaudio" has me thinking my soundcard (C-Media CMI8738/C3DX PCI card) may be the culprit. The error message also says to make sure I typed the name correctly, but I wasn't typing anything when these errors occured.

I have a Windows XP Home system, P4P800 mobo, Intel P4 2.4GHz CPU, 2 G of Kingston PC3200 RAM. I run Chkdsk and defrag often. I also keep my virus program up to date and scan frequently, along with my two spam programs, Spybot and Ad-aware. I have Everest Ultimte Edition running in the background so I can always keep an eye on my PC temps and the highest any of my devices ever run is thirty-two degrees.

I'm posting here to get some feedback on what could be causing this. I'm thinking I should get a new sound card because of the "cmaudio" in the error message. That card is ancient anyway. I'm going to check the RAM and possibly the HDs for bad sectors, but I'm pretty sure it's neither of those (both the RAM and the HDs are brand new). Any tips or suggestions you have to contribute would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[muckshifter]

You are quite correct in your assumption ... I too suspect your sound card is at fault


The "link" that you are having trouble deciphering, is directed to a Crash Analysis reporting page ... http://oca.microsoft.com/en/welcome.aspx

Simply put, your system crashed & generated a report to send to MS, however, they don't know how to fix it either.

I would suggest looking for updated drivers to your C-Media CMI8738/C3DX PCI card.

First, try going to Windows Update Site, click the Custom button, wait, and see if there are any drivers available.

Failing that, check C-Media's website ... http://www.cmedia.com.tw/?q=en/driver ... or ... http://www.cmedia.com.tw/?q=en/getdriver.php

It does look to be an old driver, not been updated since 2002, that means to me they have basically stopped supporting that particular card ... maybe a good excuse to get something a little better for your PC.

 

[dcloud]

You are quite correct in your assumption ... It does look to be an old driver, not been updated since 2002, that means to me they have basically stopped supporting that particular card ... maybe a good excuse to get something a little better for your PC.

He he, that is just what I plan on doing. I guess great minds think alike, eh?

I finally decided to just reformat the computer. Before I did I removed the C-Media sound card and now I'm just using the onboard SoundMAX audio. Payday is tomorrow and I'm going to invest in a new sound card which should have more current drivers. I'm looking at a Turtle Beach Montego on Newegg for $60. I'm also thinking of getting some new RAM.

Now that I have reformatted everything is running great.