Windows XP randomly restarts - Graphics driver problem?

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 17th, 2004, 6:13 am

Hey, I'm having a bit of trouble figuring this one out...

I just finished putting together my new system, and it works fine except for one annoying problem. The computer will restart at seemingly random times (though it does seem to happen more often just when I am ending a game). When windows restarts I get an error message that asks me to end an error report to microsoft. When I send it I get one of these two messages:

Error Caused by Graphics Device Driver

Thank you for submitting an error report. Unfortunately, we cannot provide you with specific information about how to resolve this problem at this time. The information that you and other users submit will be used to investigate this problem.

Analysis

A device driver installed on your system caused the problem, but we cannot determine the precise cause.

Getting Help

Depending on which situation is applicable to you, do one of the following:

If you are running Windows Server 2003 you may experience crashes if you have adjusted the Hardware Acceleration setting. Microsoft recommends that the Hardware Acceleration setting be set to None for server systems. To check your Hardware Acceleration setting, go to the advanced section of the display properties dialog box.
If you know the manufacturer of the device, contact the manufacturer's product support service for assistance.
If you don't know the driver's manufacturer and need help diagnosing and resolving this problem, contact your computer manufacturer's product support service.
Updated drivers might be available on the Microsoft Windows Update Web site. At Windows Update, you can have your computer scanned and, if there are updated drivers available, Windows Update will offer a selection of drivers that you might be able to use. To learn more about updated drivers that might be available, visit Microsoft Windows Update.
For information about Microsoft support options, visit Microsoft Product Support Services.

or the more specific:

Analysis Information

Thank you for submitting an error report. An error occurred in:

ATI Graphics Driver

ATI Graphics Driver was created by ATIÃ‚Â® Technologies, Inc.. Please contact ATIÃ‚Â® Technologies, Inc. for assistance and troubleshooting information or, to find out if a solution is available. For more information, see the ATIÃ‚Â® Technologies, Inc. Web site.

I have updated my drivers, yet the problem persists. Can anyone help me out here?

Here are my computer's specs:

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 3200+, MMX, 3DNow, ~2.2GHz
Mobo: Asus A7N8X-E
Memory: 1024MB of Kingston HyperX Dual Channel DDR RAM
Video Card: Asus Radeon 9600XT AGP (Main Driver: ati2dvag.dll version 6.14.0010.6458)
OS: Windows XP Pro SP1
DirextX version: 9.0b (4.09.0000.0902)

Thanks for reading.

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » July 17th, 2004, 8:42 am

Sounds to me like a tweaked BIOS settings, I have the same motherboard and I went and double checked my settings, they are as follows:

Advanced Chipset Features
AGP spead spectrum: Disabled
AGP Frequency: Auto (or 66Mhz, standard setting)
Video Ram Cacheable: Disabled
AGP Fast Write: Enabled
AGP VDDQ(voltage): 1.5v (non-overclocked, standard setting)

Advanced Settings
Primary VGA adapter: AGP VGA Card
PCI/VGA Palette Snoop: Disabled

If all of your settings are set like mine are, and you still get the error message, try installing an old video card (or borrow a friends) and see if that makes any difference. If not, completely uninstall the card, and the ATI folder from within windows (so it doesn't install the same driver again), and try to reinstall it.

If none of the above works there is a good chance you have a defective part, be it the motherboard/AGP slot or the video card itself.

Good luck, keep us posted.

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 17th, 2004, 5:00 pm

Thanks, I'll try that out and get back to you.

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 17th, 2004, 7:17 pm

I checked out my BIOS settings and they are exactly the same as yours. I also uninstalled my ATI drivers etc. and deleted the registry keys for ATI; and reinstalled everything. Just as I was finishing up, it restarted again. I don't have another video card available to me now but when I get a chance I will try that too.

I changed the automatic restart settings so now when I restart I get a blue screen with a message on it. It says:

A problem has been detected and windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer.

If this is the first time you have seen this error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, follow these steps:

Check to be sure you have adequate disk space. If a drive is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing the video adapter.

Check your hardware for any BIOS updates, disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.....

Technical information
***STOP:0x0000008E

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » July 17th, 2004, 9:03 pm

Do a google search for the error code it gave ya

Technical information
***STOP:0x0000008E

and see what info you can find from that.

You might need to reformat, Windows doesn't always install properly and could have an internal error.

If the problems persist, you might think about getting a replacement motherboard and/or video card

When you start your computer, how many beeps do you hear?

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 17th, 2004, 9:19 pm

I did a google of the stop thing and it turned up several different problems in XP, but none related to mine. This worries me...

This is probably a stupid question, but what do you mean by reformat?

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 17th, 2004, 9:27 pm

I restarted just now and there's one beep when I start up.
I really hope this doesn't come to replacing my video card or motherboard; neither is more than a month old.

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » July 17th, 2004, 10:19 pm

By reformat, I mean reinstall windows.

You ATI Video card "might" be the problem. I just went to Asus.com and looked at the specs for our motherboard. It supports AGP 3.0 cards, your card might not be 3.0, it could be an earlier model. (and I'm not 100% positive is is backwards compliant)

It's a good thing that your motherboard is only a month old. Hopefully you bought it from somewhere that won't give ya too many problems returning it.. if it's defective.

You said you bought the motherboard a month ago.. has the computer been working for that month, and just started with the problems.. or did you just build it, and found the trouble?

I would insert the WinXP disk and reinstall windows. It could fix the problem or do nothing, but at this point ya have nothing to lose

(edit).. what brand is your ATI card? Sapphire, MSI etc..

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 17th, 2004, 11:52 pm

My Card is an Asus, and I got the motherboard about a month ago but just got everything running a couple of days ago. I geuss I will try to re-install windows then...

Tebow2000 · Post by **Tebow2000** » July 18th, 2004, 4:31 am

When you get a new motherboard, you have to reinstall windws

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 19th, 2004, 12:27 am

When I put together my new computer I formatted my old hard drive and started fresh (everything but my hard drive and moniter is new). I'm pretty much at a loss here now. I tried installing windows again and as it was installing, the stupid computer reboots right in the middle. Now I can't finish the install or go back to the old installation of windows. All my computer does when I start it now is restart again. I think I need some professional help now.

monte84 · Post by **monte84** » July 20th, 2004, 5:51 am

Your not using a cheap power supply now are you?

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 22nd, 2004, 12:13 am

The power supply I have is a 420W Thermaltake Purepower, I just bought it a little over a week ago to replace the defective one that came with my case.

Liquidman · Post by **Liquidman** » July 25th, 2004, 9:57 pm

Hey guys, I think its safe to say that I have fixed the problem. I ended up completely reformatting my hard drive, and when I was re-installing windows I found that it turned out to be a memory problem, so all I had to do was switch the slots I had my memory in and now I think I'm good to go. It still seems odd to me that microsoft kept thinking that it was my video card driver, but as long as my computer stops restarting on me, I'm not going to complain.

Thanks for all your help guys

Sumpin_Wong · Post by **Sumpin_Wong** » July 26th, 2004, 4:21 am

NP, glad ya got it fixed