Why is my pc reseting at random?

Gadge

Gadge

Gadge

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I have a new laptop and now and then it will just crash and reset. Why is it doing this?
Also it wont let me defrag the drive. Is there any third party software available that lets you defrag? In case this is causing the reseting?
 
I don't see how a defrag would help the situation, it does nothing that would prevent your laptop from crashing.

Have you memtested the ram? Are bsods turned on? Overheating a possibility?
 
|Ric| said:
I don't see how a defrag would help the situation, it does nothing that would prevent your laptop from crashing.

Have you memtested the ram? Are bsods turned on? Overheating a possibility?
Click to expand...

i dont see it being over heating. but for the other two options whats the best way to test the ram and "bsods"?
 
Right click on My Computer
Advanced tab
Startup and recovery -> settings
Untick "Automatically restart"

When it resets again it might stop on a blue screen (of death - BSOD :))
This will give some indication of what might be wrong
 
|Ric| said:
Right click on My Computer
Advanced tab
Startup and recovery -> settings
Untick "Automatically restart"

When it resets again it might stop on a blue screen (of death - BSOD :))
This will give some indication of what might be wrong
Click to expand...

great thanks. thats what i get, a blue screen then it reboots.
 
|Ric| said:
If you tell us the error that it says there's a chance we can work out what's going.
Click to expand...

will do. just have to wait till it happens again now!
Any ideas why i cant defrag?
 
Any error when you try and do it?

try right clicking on My Computer
Manage
Storage -> Disk Defragmenter
Defragment

This is just be an alternative way of getting to it (unless this is how you access it) so might give a more useful error.

n.b. Manage might only be present on XP Pro so if you can't find it don't look too hard :p
 
Possibly a faulty hard drive. Have you checked the event Log and done a check disk 9scan) on the hard drive. What errors are you getting when trying to defrag the drive?
 
well i got a blue screen again.

IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL dunno what that mean?

as for defrag it says there are inconsistencies in the hard drive and to run checkdisk and scan disk.
 
To fix the defrag problem,
Start -> run -> cmd
Now type in "chkdsk /f" (without quotes)

It will probably say that it can't be checked right now do you want to do it when you next reboot, hit Y
If it does run then let it do its job :)
If it wants a reboot, reboot and it should start scanning before the login screen

As for the blue screen error, unfortunately that is quite generic. Can you trace it back to starting after you added some new hardware or updated drivers?
 
|Ric| said:
To fix the defrag problem,
Start -> run -> cmd
Now type in "chkdsk /f" (without quotes)

It will probably say that it can't be checked right now do you want to do it when you next reboot, hit Y
If it does run then let it do its job :)
If it wants a reboot, reboot and it should start scanning before the login screen

As for the blue screen error, unfortunately that is quite generic. Can you trace it back to starting after you added some new hardware or updated drivers?
Click to expand...

I have installed another 512mb of ram but im sure it was playing up for that. I've a fair few apps on too. Im waiting for vista, suppose im best doing a clean install when i get that.
 
Yeh I think that's the easiest option, all the blue screens I've ever had have always been nvidia driver related and it is a more useful error than the IRQ_LESS_THAN.

You could just try memtest as linked to above, that would rule out the memory, then its just going to be something screwed up in software.
 
the chkdsk worked anyway :) defragging as i type.

I will try the memtest later. I never booted from the cd before. I'll have to change the bios first.
 
blue screened whilst defragging, this time:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

and at the bottom it mentioned ipnat.sys ?

any ideas?
 
Gadge said:
blue screened whilst defragging, this time:

DRIVER_IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL

and at the bottom it mentioned ipnat.sys ?

any ideas?
Click to expand...

Looks like a driver issue, installed any new ones recently?

Burnsy
 
My money is on the RAM


Had this many a times which always turned out to be faulty memory, some which showed in memtest, some which didnt
 
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