About every second day, the computer will reboot when we are in the middle of doing anything. Doesn't matter where we are, or what we are doing- it simply shuts down.
I have gotten the message after logging back on something to the effect that "the system has recovered from a serious error".
I have Windows XP Professional, and run either google chrome, i.e., or safari for browsers, depending on what I'm doing.
Anyone have any ideas? We'd had some serious worms/viruses to the extent the system had to be rebuilt a bit less than a year ago, but this has cropped up only in the last two to three months.
Thanks in advance.
Hi sinnead,
This is the default behavior when Windows XP encounters a system failure.
To see what the error was right click on “My Computer” in the Start menu and choose “Properties”. Go to the “Advanced” Tab and under “Startup and Recovery” press the “Settings” button.
Under the “System Failure” box there will be a checkbox saying “Automatically Restart”. Untick this box and click Ok.
Next time the system suddenly reboots it will show the Windows error blue screen known as BSOD (Blue Screen of Death) and it will have an error code, write this code down.
Cheers,
Lee
First off, back-up all personal data including email addresses, passwords and any serial numbers etc. Back this up to removable storage such as disks or a USB external drive. Do that now before anything else.
Did you just install new hardware or make a change to some hardware or a hardware driver? If so, there's a very good chance that the change you made caused the STOP 0x0000008E error.
If it was a software change, use system restore to roll back to a date before software install.
If it was a driver change, roll back any device drivers you've installed to versions prior to your update.
Let me know if you need any instructions to do either.
Another possibility.
Verify that the system memory is properly installed.
If memory is properly installed, lets test it for faults with "memtest"
I'll have to pick up a new USB drive to do that first.
As for the rest, I do install new programs from time to time, especially with the iphone. This includes driver updates. My husband thinks it started when we installed google chrome, but not sure myself.
Not certain how to roll it back, or even how far to!
And by the memory installed correctly, you mean the physical memory in the processor?
Have you got a CD-DVD ROM drive? If so you can save personal data to disk.
Add and Remove programs does not do a proper uninstall job on large complex programs such as Google Chrome, so please download and install Revo Uninstaller. Make sure you download the free version, not the paid for version.
Open RevoUninstaller (Interface is pretty straight forward).
1) Right click on the program you want to get rid of and select Uninstall. Click Yes when asked.
2) Select Advanced and click on Next.
3) Click OK if asked are you sure you want to remove it.
4) The normal uninstaller will run if there is one, click Next when it completes, otherwise Click Next.
5) Revo will then scan for leftover information in the Registry and on the hard drive, click Next.
6) If there are leftover registry entries, review them. Get rid all of the Bold entries only, Tick them and click the Delete button. When done, click Next.
7) Any left over files on the hard drive will be listed. Click on Select All then Delete to get rid of them. If any can not be deleted, you will have to reboot once Revo ends, then they will be deleted.
8) Click the Finish button.
I was talking about physical memory modules. You should have 2 sticks of either 2X512Mb or 2X1024Mb
Lets wait to see if uninstalling Google Chrome fixes the problem first before testing that or "rolling back" any drivers or doing a System Restore.
Ok, thanks I'll pick up some more discs today after work, and get started on that. I used to use firefox, but it kept corrupting on me. After uninstalling, reinstalling for the 7th time, I got rid of it, and installed Chrome.
Minor glitch. Tried backing up the contacts from Office Outlook, but windows can't open them on the desktop to make sure everything is there. Will this cause a problem?
Also, I may be missing it entirely, but I honestly can't see where to download memtest from that page!
Unfortunately, Microsoft Office Outlook and Outlook Express don't have the same options. I tried following those steps, but there is no "maintenance" tab, nor a "store folder"
Obviously I'm being particularly stupid today! Do I need to burn it to a cd before I can use memtest?
Yes, I am being stupid, lol. Just went back and read the page again.
Ok, for some reason I couldn't burn the memtest to a disc. It kept showing an error at 57%, so I ran windows memory diagnostic instead. That showed nothing.
I've used the uninstall feature for google(and a couple other programs I no longer use). I'm going to install opera, and I'll let you know in a couple of days if it's worked!
Thanks
One more quick question- how on earth do I import the google bookmarks I saved to my desktop??? I've just tried clicking "bookmarks–>manage bookmarks–>
And then it doesn't give me an option to import google bookmarks! Only firefox, opera, IE, and konqueror. I tried "open" to see if I could grab them from my desktop, and can't see them in the options. I did save them to a flash drive. Will they show up when I plug it back in again?
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I'll pick up some more discs today after work, and get started on that. I used to use firefox, but it kept corrupting on me. After uninstalling, reinstalling for the 7th time, I got rid of it, and installed Chrome.