Spontaneous Restarts

  • Thread starter Thread starter Bill
  • Start date Start date
B

Bill

Hello,

I am working on a computer with an Asus K8S-LA board w/ SIS 760
graphics and Windows XP SP2. During a Norton IS 2005 virus scan or a
Windows Defender scan the computer always spontaneously restarts
itself in the middle before the scan is complete.

On restart Windows says it has recovered from a serious error with
Technical Information
Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078)

MS Error Reporting says the problem is with a video device driver and
suggests 2 options:

1. Install the most current device driver for your video card

2. Manually decrease Hardware Acceleration for your video adapter

I have done both options with no improvement. Also, I have installed
a new AGP video card with the same results. System tests on memory,
hard drive, video show no errors.

What next? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bill
 
Bill said:
Hello,

I am working on a computer with an Asus K8S-LA board w/ SIS 760
graphics and Windows XP SP2. During a Norton IS 2005 virus scan or a
Windows Defender scan the computer always spontaneously restarts
itself in the middle before the scan is complete.

On restart Windows says it has recovered from a serious error with
Technical Information
Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078)

MS Error Reporting says the problem is with a video device driver and
suggests 2 options:

1. Install the most current device driver for your video card

2. Manually decrease Hardware Acceleration for your video adapter

I have done both options with no improvement. Also, I have installed
a new AGP video card with the same results. System tests on memory,
hard drive, video show no errors.

What next? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bill
Click to expand...

have you tried the Workaround

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/293078
 
Bill said:
Hello,

I am working on a computer with an Asus K8S-LA board w/ SIS 760
graphics and Windows XP SP2. During a Norton IS 2005 virus scan or a
Windows Defender scan the computer always spontaneously restarts
itself in the middle before the scan is complete.

On restart Windows says it has recovered from a serious error with
Technical Information
Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078)

MS Error Reporting says the problem is with a video device driver and
suggests 2 options:

1. Install the most current device driver for your video card

2. Manually decrease Hardware Acceleration for your video adapter

I have done both options with no improvement. Also, I have installed
a new AGP video card with the same results. System tests on memory,
hard drive, video show no errors.

What next? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bill
Click to expand...

That error could be caused by many things including bad RAM, defective
mainboard or even weak power supply. The actual error message points to a
bad video card (hardware problem). But as you've already changed the video
card, that suggests the problem is probably in other hardware that supports
the video card. I wouldn't be surprised if you eventually discover that the
mainboard is bad. But I'd suggest you try the following:
1) boot memtest86+ off of CD-Rom and let that run for about 24 hours. If
no errors:
2) Try replacing power supply. Borrow one from a good working system.
3) If neither one or two seems to point to a likely suspect, start thinking
about a new mainboard. -Dave
 
have you tried the Workaround
Yes, Option 2 was the workaround.
Click to expand...

Which means you have a hardware problem, for which you need a workaround.
Good luck tracking it down. Don't bother trying to update BIOS, change
drivers, reinstall OS or software, etc. Think hardware. -Dave
 
Bill said:
Hello,

I am working on a computer with an Asus K8S-LA board w/ SIS 760
graphics and Windows XP SP2. During a Norton IS 2005 virus scan or a
Windows Defender scan the computer always spontaneously restarts
itself in the middle before the scan is complete.

On restart Windows says it has recovered from a serious error with
Technical Information
Error Message: STOP 0x000000EA THREAD_STUCK_IN_DEVICE_DRIVER (Q293078)

MS Error Reporting says the problem is with a video device driver and
suggests 2 options:

1. Install the most current device driver for your video card

2. Manually decrease Hardware Acceleration for your video adapter

I have done both options with no improvement. Also, I have installed
a new AGP video card with the same results. System tests on memory,
hard drive, video show no errors.

What next? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

Bill
Click to expand...

Have you tried another virus scanner besides Norton? Reboots are almost
(not always though) a hardware issue. Norton uses a lot of resources,
therefore your cpu heats a lot during the scan. Easiest path Is use another
CPU intensive app. Sisoft, Prime95 etc. If that doesn't yield any results,
cooling and powersupply In that order.
 
Have you tried another virus scanner besides Norton? Reboots are almost
(not always though) a hardware issue. Norton uses a lot of resources,
therefore your cpu heats a lot during the scan. Easiest path Is use another
CPU intensive app. Sisoft, Prime95 etc. If that doesn't yield any results,
cooling and powersupply In that order.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Since my last post I've pulled the hard drive...stuck in a totally
different hard drive...installed a fresh copy of WinXP SP2 and all
critical updates.

Ran both a quick and full scan with Windows Defender...no reboots as
before...installed AVG Free 7.5 Antivirus (don't have the Norton IS
2005 CD to reinstall Norton)....ran a complete scan ...no reboots.

Since I've switched hard drives and installed a fresh copy of Windows
at the same time, I do not know which one may be the culprit. Which
sounds more logical--the old hard drive is bad, or there is some
corruption in the OS on the old hard drive?

Bill
 
In
Bill said:
Since my last post I've pulled the hard drive...stuck in a totally
different hard drive...installed a fresh copy of WinXP SP2 and all
critical updates.

Ran both a quick and full scan with Windows Defender...no reboots as
before...installed AVG Free 7.5 Antivirus (don't have the Norton IS
2005 CD to reinstall Norton)....ran a complete scan ...no reboots.

Since I've switched hard drives and installed a fresh copy of Windows
at the same time, I do not know which one may be the culprit. Which
sounds more logical--the old hard drive is bad, or there is some
corruption in the OS on the old hard drive?

Bill
Click to expand...

Or Norton was the problem? You can check the old HD to resolve that as
being the culprit, but you seem to have guessed the cause.
 
InBill <[email protected]> typed:










Or Norton was the problem? You can check the old HD to resolve that as
being the culprit, but you seem to have guessed the cause.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Don't think Norton was the problem on the old hard drive...in an
effort to isolate the problem I had temporarily disabled all Norton
startups and services with MSConfig...the computer still rebooted
itself every time in the middle of a Windows Defender quick scan.
 
Don't think Norton was the problem on the old hard drive...in an
effort to isolate the problem I had temporarily disabled all Norton
startups and services with MSConfig...the computer still rebooted
itself every time in the middle of a Windows Defender quick scan.
Click to expand...

Norton puts so much garbage in the registry that I would not be surprised at
all if that was part of your problem still. I haven't used any Norton
products in years because of all the crap it installs. There used to be a
program called Symclean on the Symantec site but can't seem to find it
anymore. It would remove most of the registry entries Norton installs, but I
still needed another hour or so to manually search through the registry to
get the rest. AVG is a very good AV program and does everything I would
need. CA is also good and free to ATT DSL users.

Ed
 
Bill said:
Don't think Norton was the problem on the old hard drive...in an
effort to isolate the problem I had temporarily disabled all Norton
startups and services with MSConfig...the computer still rebooted
itself every time in the middle of a Windows Defender quick scan.
Click to expand...
No, the installation of Norton could have corrupted the OS, so just
disabling the prog would not fix the registry conflict. Also, a bigger
problem with a lot of programs coming out today is memory leaks. The progs
claim a portion of the memory addresses for it's use and then fails to
release those addresses until all of the memory has "leaked" away. The
symptoms will mimic bad memory problems so it is often misdiagnosed as such.
You have solved your problem. Stay away from the Norton product.
 
Bill said:
Don't think Norton was the problem on the old hard drive...in an
effort to isolate the problem I had temporarily disabled all Norton
startups and services with MSConfig...the computer still rebooted
itself every time in the middle of a Windows Defender quick scan.
Click to expand...

there's a setting in XP that determines how it behaves when there is a
severe problem. One way of behaving is to just spontaneously reboot...
Reinstall XP on the suspect drive.

Ari

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply
Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor and literally save someone's life:
http://www.abmdr.org.au/
http://www.marrow.org/
 
there's a setting in XP that determines how it behaves when there is a
severe problem. One way of behaving is to just spontaneously reboot...
Reinstall XP on the suspect drive.

Ari

--
spammage trappage: remove the underscores to reply
Many people around the world are waiting for a marrow transplant. Please
volunteer to be a marrow donor and literally save someone's life:http://www.abmdr.org.au/http://www.marrow.org/- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -
Click to expand...

Did a non destructive restore using the manufacturer's restore feature
on the backup partition...all seems normal for now.

Thanks for all the suggestions.

Bill
 
Back
Top