PC Restarts on its own ??? 2

[kwunder]

I have just had a new PC. Its an AMD 1800XP with 512mb ram. I have captured some video footager through my firewire card (6 separate mini videos to be precise) I captured in MGI Videowave 3, and then built text effects etc onto the timeline and tried to build the complete movie. After a minute or so the PC just restarts without any warning !
I tried another video editing program incase it was MGI. I tried Assymetrix Digital Video Producer. It did the same thing and restarted after a minute or so. What's the problem ?

Urgent help required on this as the PC is only 3 days old and I want to wrap it round the sellers neck as quickly as possible if necesary.

Thanks in advance
kwunder

 

[Vansplatter]

What is the Operating System?

 

[kwunder]

Windows Milennium Edition

kwunder

 

[topscribe]

This smacks of a conflict problem. Go into Device Manager and see if there are any obvious conflicts; they would show up with a yellow exclamation mark (!). Also, this has been known to happen when a sound card tries to claim IRQ9 when the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) is there, too. If you see that, see what you can do to get the card to go onto a free IRQ (the typical location for a sound card is IRQ5).

A buggy or conflicting driver or TSR may also be the culprit. If you go into Safe Mode and you don't have that problem there, run MSCONFIG (Start > Run, then type "msconfig&quot and uncheck all programs in the Startup tab except for the Systray. Reboot into normal mode and see if it runs okay. Then go back into MSCONFIG and check one (1) program and reboot. Keep doing that, adding one appication at a time and rebooting, until the computer does its funny stuff again. If a program is at fault, you can isolate which one it is this way.

I don't know whether I've led you down the right path, but this is where I would start.

 

[kwunder]

Topscribe
OK. There are no conflicts or yellow exclamation marks anywhere in device manager. Secondly, I can't run MGI Videowave in safe mode as it requires minimum 800 x 600 16 bit colour depth.
Before I upgraded the mobo & processor, everything worked OK. Any idea what to try next. I had thought of formatting and reverting to W98 to see if it made a difference. What do you think ?

Thanks
kwunder

 

[topscribe]

Did you do the MSCONFIG thing? Do you know how to get into there?

 

[kwunder]

Topscribe.
Also just tried the selective startup method, with nothing but systray loaded. Still crashed.
What do you think?

kwunder

 

[topscribe]

In my opinion, Windows ME is a mess, anyway. I'm still with Win98 myself. I'm not implying that ME is at the root of this, but, at this point, you might just do the format & reinstall thing. As you can see, I have this marked for email notification, so let me know one way or another, or you can get to me directly at strong_medicine@msn.com.

Oh yes, when you install back the drivers and applications, make sure NOTHING is in your Systray at the time (exceptt the little horn for the sound card, of course), and reboot after each install, even if it doesn't require you to, before you insall another. If you have Norton SystemWorks, also run WinDoctor after each install. Also, defrag your disk between installs of the large programs.

Also--I don't know how big your HD is--but you may do well to fdisk it into 2-gig-sized partitions. The first, the active one, of course, would be the C: drive and have nothing but Windows, the browser, and those applications that give you no choice as to where to put them when you install. You would begin to install your apps to D: drive and progress through partitions from there, filling none of them beyond 75%. Put a permanent swap file on the last partition; make it about 2/12 times the size of your RAM. This way, if you ever have to reinstall Windows, you don't have to wipe out all your apps, etc., in the process, and Scandisk and Defrag will take less time because the only partitions you will have to do it to are the ones you had active at the time. Just a few pointers.

I'm here if you need me.

Butch

 

[kwunder]

Cheers Butch,
I have just finished installing W98 and all drivers for my hardware. I did reboot after each individual installation, and I'l now loading in MGI Videowave again to try.

BTW,
AMD Athlon XP1800
Jetway 663AS Ultra Motherboard
Western Digital High Performance caviar 7200rpm 40GB HDD
512MB ram
It's not partitioned. The thought alone frightens me to death, as I've never done it before, and wouldn't know how to reverse the precedure if I went wrong.

I'll post back as soon as I've tried MGI again
(10-15 minutes)

Thanks mate
Bryn

 

[kwunder]

Damn it!

I tried again, 1st with all the normal things running in the system tray. It crashed about 1 minute into compiling. I then ran the selective startup with nothing but systray running and it crashed again !!!!! just a little further into compiling the video. W98 however was more generous with it's explanation as to what had happened.
Here is what it reported :-

VIDEOWAV caused an invalid page fault in
module LSXMPXP3.DLL at 015f:0555510f.
Registers:
EAX=0d2faa90 CS=015f EIP=0555510f EFLGS=00210246
EBX=f45ec85d SS=0167 ESP=00a9e404 EBP=00a9e524
ECX=00000000 DS=0167 ESI=00000140 FS=294f
EDX=00000000 ES=0167 EDI=00000370 GS=0000
Bytes at CS:EIP:
0f 6f 03 03 de 0f 7f 00 03 c6 0f 18 44 19 20 0f
Stack dump:
00000370 00001ed0 00000092 05545feb 0cd422b0 0d2faa90 00000140 ffd57fda ffd8ffd6 00000000 00000000 0d48ac80 00000000 000002fd 00000001 0ccf5140

I'm out of my depth here
Hope you can help.
Bryn

 

[rjkrash]

Just to throw my 2cents in:

Video drivers? Are they the latest for the card?

That "LSXMPXP3.DLL" from the error sounds like a part of the software for the Videowave product. Are there any updates fixes available? Also this could be just a bad file that needs repair or is sitting on a bad disk sector.

BIOS? You say you just UGed the MOBO. Is the BIOS up to date?

Memory, is some of it new too? If so is it the same kind as the other in the machine?

These are all places to look. If you need howto help let us know...
The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[kwunder]

rjkrash,
All the drivers I'm using worked fine on the older machine, including the MGI software. It's just now that I've upgraded that the problem has occured.
I have noticed that the EAX register mentioned in the above error, I think refers to my Soundblaster Live card (EAX being Environmental Audio). But the error still occurs even without anything running in the systray. Is it worthwhile moving my soundcard to another vacant port. It's PCI for the record and my video adapter is a Voodoo 3 3500TV AGP card.
Re the bios of the mobo, how do I tell what version I have now? I think that this may hold the key to the problem, as, like I said. Everything in the PC is the same except the MB, HDD & Ram. The ram modules are Toshiba I think. Sounds reputable !!)

kwunder

 

[kwunder]

All,
Just been to the Jetway site (motherboard) There appear to be a few new updates for the mobo, but which ones should I try, and how the hell do I install them. Is it dangerous?

Here is a link to the updates. My mobo is a 663AS Ultra

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/bios/index-1.htm#kt133

Thanks Guys

 

[rjkrash]

You can find out your BIOS version by booting up and going into setup (hold F10 while booting?). they have a Howto at thier site:

http://www.jetway.com.tw/evisn/download/update.htm

It looks like this is a Tiwan based company and the instructions are of the broken english kind in MHO.

As you can tell I was just up on the jetway site

http://www.jetway.com.tw

and there is are whole slew of Drivers and updates including BIOS on their pages.

I would suggest however that before venturing into that morass (look but hesitate to touch/download ) that you touch base with the "sellers neck" and have them make sure everything is up to date. You need to be very careful when doing BIOS updates etc. and for those who might be "faint of heart" it is a job best left to professionals. Or at least to the someone who gets paid and from which one can withhold payment if things aren't right!

Now that you have the box crashing on a regular basis a competent tech should be able to carefully try fixes one at a time and see what works.

I stress CAREFULLY and ONE AT A TIME because one wrong move can really screw things up!

Also, I looked at the MGI site and there are updates to your software too. You can see them here:

http://www.mgisoft.com/products/videowave5/download_info.html

These are not as "dangerous". If you know your version (Help > About when running the program) you should be able to UG by following the instruction MGI provides. The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[kwunder]

rjkrash,Topscribe

Well
Well
Well.

I sit here, in my third set of underwear, as I have just took the bull by the horns and had a go at updating the BIOS. Oh my God!!!!! This is the best medical I have ever had as my heart rate couldn't have been high in an F1 car going through Eau Rouge. I downloaded file 663AUA02.bin from Jetway and used their AWDFLASH.EXE prog from within DOS.
It went through the motions and installed, then rebooted. After the first boot screen I was presented with a Press F1 to continue or DEL to enter setup choice. I was unsure, but pressed F1 all the same then I was greeted with a real sight for sore eyes.
UPDATE SUCCESFULL
Windows continued to load and then it was down to the second test.

I started MGI (Videowave 3 SE incidentally) and placed the clips on the timeline as before, then clicked the options to compile them. My heart rate hit new highs as I sat there watching the frame count go up from 0 to 2000.
IT WORKED !!!!!

I can't believe it. Fantastic !

Now I could do with formatting and going back to Milennium Edition. I can't see any problems there can you ?

Oh, Incidentally, as stated, I have an AMD XP1800. A benchmark test shows the clock speed as being 1534mhz. Is this correct ? as I was expecting 1800.

Thanks All for all your guidance. Couldn't have done it without ya !

All the best for the new year
Bryn (kwunder)
;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-) ;-)

 

[rjkrash]

kwunder,

GOOD FOR YOU!

You might note my handle is rjKRASH. I have NEVER hesitated to try this kind of thing in my 22+ years of computing. It's just a machine! What harm can I do? LOL

Post your movie somewhere we can see it.

BTW if you found our posts helpful vote for them. It is a small reward for knowing we helped. Everyone likes a Gold Star (actually here it is a Fuchsia star) now and then.

You have a happy new year! *<|

The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[rjkrash]

I'd stay on 98. Even tho I am known as Krash I have a motto I sometimes live by, &quot;Don't fix what ain't broke!&quot;

Seriously, there is nothing great about ME worth going there for. In fact, after your heart rate returns to normal you might consider WinXP.

Now THAT is an OS worth going to. Make sure you have compatible equipment, it kinda sounds like you do BTW, check at MS.

And, there is a good forum here for when you get into trouble! LOL The two rules for success are:
1. Never tell them everything you know.

 

[topscribe]

Bryn,

Sorry if it seemed I deserted you. I was up all night trying to solve a computer problem of my own--not a cost-effect way of doing things, but it is educational, and only a holiday.

I am really glad you got some of your own computer problems straightened out. Now you can have the good holiday that I am wishing you.

Butch ;-)

 

[CyberVenom]

BTW, you mentioned the &quot;EAX&quot; register earlier as possibly being involved with the &quot;EAX&quot; audio product. It is not in any way. The EAX register is the enhanced accumulator register first introduced in the Intel 80386 processor as a 32 bit extention of the older 8086 &quot;AX&quot; accumulator. Essentially, it is a part of the CPU that keeps track of one of the numbers involved in an elementary calculation like one of the addends in an addition problem. The register dump just shows the software developers what exactly the CPU was trying to do when the problem was detected, and they can hopefully trace it back from there. (But very seldom actually bother.)

 

[kwunder]

Hi all,

Damn it....again

It's back at the sellers this morning as it has crashed every time since the initial success.

I'll post the eventual result here later for interested people

kwunder