Random shut downs, Some info included.

[Lionheart_0]

K, this is my computer:

 

 

 

Windows XP home edition (5.1)

 

AMD Athlon 64 processor 3200+, 2.0ghz

 

1024 MB of ram

 

NVIDIA GeForce 6500, with 512 intergrated ram

 

 

 

Ok my problem is that for the past few months the computer has been shutting down randomly.

 

 

 

This happened starting back in Mid January. My Dad thought the computer was running slow, so he downloaded some antivirsus software (Avast). After doing such the computer went weird. By this I ment that the computer restarted randomly (This is my main problem and ill get to it later), and that a little thing came up in the corner saying "You have a virus, bla bla bla" And it looked official from microsoft. The thing was this icon in the system tray kept making pop ups every 2 minutes or so saying this, and if the pop up was clicked, it brought us to a site that tried to tell us to pay and download this other antiviruses stuff. Obviously this wasn't a real problem from microsoft.

 

 

 

This has gone on since January. The Pop up was always there, but the restarts started to die down in around april, and they weren't really a problem, happening maybe 1 time a week. Recently though, I downloaded a adware program called Ad-aware, and used that. It got rid of the problem for me, and i have no more pop up on my system tray.

 

 

 

The problem though, is about a week before I did that, the restarts started coming back Alot more frequently (Its up to about 15 times a day now!).

 

 

 

So basically I could be doing anything, Going on msn, browsing the web, playing WoW or other games, and this happens. The computer just shuts down randomly, and a BSOD error comes up, then flashes away and it restarts itself. I now know how to stop it from going past the BSOD error so i could read it. It said something along these lines.

 

 

 

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_MORE

 

 

 

 

 

Then it goes on to say stuff if this was the first time, just restart, if you see this again check drivers and go get tech support.

 

 

 

Then it says these codes.

 

 

 

Stop:0x000000D1 (0x00080025, 0x00000007, 0x00000000, 0xF09F01b6)

 

 

 

NVTCP.Sys-Address F09F01B6 base at F09E000, Datestamp 4253685B

 

 

 

So this happens randomly, and has become sparatic. I even tried running and leaving on a virus scan this morning, and that was cut off because of the error.

 

 

 

I still have Avast antiviruse on my computer btw.

 

 

 

Please help, thank you.

[ClareJonsson]

The first thing I would do if I was you is un-install all software you don't need. Remove all anti-virus software and anything that may be masquerading as anti-spyware software.

 

 

 

Next install:

 

 

 

Avast antivirus home - it's free. When it asks if you want to schedule a scan next boot, say yes and reboot.

 

Install Ad-Aware - It's free, make sure you do a full scan.

 

Install Windows Defender - it's free and you will get real time active protection against most spyware.

 

 

 

If all the above fails, are you able to go back to an old restore point, preferably one of the ones before all this happened?

[blade995]

^^^^^

 

 

 

Well if he said it's been happening since January I doubt he will want to do a system restore because he probably has installed many things since then.

 

 

 

My suggestion is pretty much going with the above. Un-install any programs that look like a virus scanner or anti-spyware scanner that you have no idea what they are.

 

 

 

Install Ad-aware 2007 (you said you did this but make sure it's the new 2007 version), install Spybot, and then install a virus scan such as avast or AVG.

 

 

 

After installing all of those, update the definitions. Boot into safe mode and scan with all these scanners there.

 

 

 

To get into safe mode repeatedly press f8 while booting the computer.

[Lionheart_0]

Ok guys, I have Ad-aware, Spy bot, and Avast already. I havent tried Spy bot in awhile so im running that now.

 

 

 

I tried running Avast earlier today, but when i came back to check on it, the BSOD message was up. I also try defragmentation, but the BSOD message came up.

 

 

 

I have a question. Is it possible to reformat the computer and reinstall windows xp? Because I have absolutely no problem with doing that. So would it be possible to do it? and how.

[weezcake]

A hijackthis log would also be helpful. http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/programs.php

 

 

 

Scan, save the log, and copy paste it here. It'll help us look for bad files, hopefully.

 

 

 

Is it possible to reformat the computer and reinstall windows xp?

 

 

 

Of course it is. Would recommend fixing first, though. :)

 

 

 

Easy to read guide: http://helpdesk.its.uiowa.edu/windows/i ... format.htm

 

 

 

If you have a computer from a big company (like Dell, HP, etc), you may have to use your recovery CDs or whatnot. But if you have the original XP cd, then you should be able to do reformat and reinstall with that guide.

[r2d2]

have you tried restoring the system to before january? [start>programs>accessories>system tools>system restore]

[zonda]

Whenever I see the word "random" and "restarts" the first thing that comes to my mind is overheating.

 

 

 

It could be very possible that the malware he had is not related to the computer restarting... actually, very possible considering he got rid of whatever it was - if he already ran a virus scanner and adware / spybot then telling him to do so again isn't going to help.

 

 

 

This has been happening for 8 months, I doubt it would be any malware on the computer.

 

 

 

First thing I would do is - next time your computer shuts down, go into your BIOS and go down to the PC Health Status - check what temperature your CPU and system are at. There are also some nice programs that do this for you (pc wizard I think has a feature that monitors CPU temperature, as does motherboard monitor) If it seems hot, take off the side case and put a fan near your computer.

 

 

 

IF it stops restarting, you know that its a simple overheatting issue and that youll just have to toss in an extra case fan for $10. Or it could be as simple as clearing out all the dust inside your case / moving around a few IDE cables and some wireing.

 

 

 

If it continues to restart chances are it is some conflicting drivers - I know that my mouse drivers (razer copperhead) will cause my computer to crash "randomly" if certain scenarios are presented... but first things first, check your CPU's temp, its just a process of elimination.

[Lionheart_0]

:ohnoes: So many things happend today, im not sure if I can make any of it make sense.

 

 

 

The summed up version is, I think i killed my computer, then stomped of leaving it, then let my dad have a crack at it, he brought it back to life using techno CPR, and now it seems to be alive, and basically working fine.

 

 

 

Ive had it like this since about 7:00 pm, and it is now 11:00 pm, and i have not had a single BSOD (plz dont jinx me....). We did a system restore, so it brought back a bunch of [cabbage], even the pop up problem we had before, but i tackled that quick with ad-aware. Everything seems to run smothly now, except for a few little mysterys....

 

 

 

 

 

Before the restore, i tried going through and deleting a bunch of games i have cluttering up the joint. that all worked.

 

 

 

Now After the restore, those programs seem to be back... but not really. When i go into the add/remove thing for windows, and try to take them off, i get errors saying crap is missing, and when i try to play them, says it cant cause crap is missing. Everything is still in my C drive though....

 

 

 

Anyways besides that, WoW wasnt working, saying it was missing a file or two, and recommended i re install, so now ive spent the past 2 hours reinstalling and updating, hoping this works. thanks for your help everyone.

 

 

 

(sorry about grammar, I'm as giddy as a school girl)

[Lionheart_0]

sorry just an update... had to post and not edit....

 

 

 

Error is still occuring, I'm gonna reformat this weekend.

 

 

 

It's a software problem, we can tell. I had the computer off for about 30 minutes, then we went to tinker with it more, and it went off after like 1 minute of doing stuff, so it cant be over heating, plus we played around with the ram, and the errors continued.

 

 

 

Must be a problem with something in windows.....

[Xorpa]

Try an bios reset, your irq's are f**king up :)