Win 2000 Server randomly reboots ?!?!?!

[shawnfv]

I have a server that is also the DC of a small domain. For the past few weeks, it has been randomly rebooting. Sometimes it will get stuck on the loading splash screen. Other times it will reboot right to the logon screen. I only know about the times it boots to the logon screen becuase the event logs. The only error in the system event log is this very unhelpful one: "The previous system shutdown at xx:xx was unexpected". It has rebooted in the following situations - Logging in, using ctrl-alt-del to unlock it, and sometimes when it is just sitting there at the logon screen. Does anyone have any ideas about what it might be. Sorry about the lack of information, but thats all it's given me. Thanks for any help.

Shawn

 

[vijmat]

Try this

Right Click "My Computer" and goto "Properties"
Then Click "Advanced"/"Startup and Recovery"
and uncheck "Automatically reboot" if it is checked.

Hope this solves your problem. Good luck for reaching this stage. If nothing works, try reaching it in safe mode.

 

[PeteH2]

Assuming that you've made no major changes to the OS or hardware since this started happening, I would suggest this is a hardware issue. If it was software, you would be more likely to get an error in Event Viewer, however useless it would be. But from what the OS is (not) telling us is that it is as if the fairies have come along and pressed the 'Reset' button.

So the simple things first, CPU fan, correctly seated network card, etc etc. Lastly, dont forget, a SMPSU on it's way out can create some crazy spikes, unseen by most things.

HTH

Pete...

 

[BobSheridan]

I've been experiencing the same problem myself, but over several different servers on different nights. However, i also noticed in the Event Viewer that each reboot was proceeded by an automatic windows update, that would then force a reboot.

I haven't had a chance to look at whether this is something i am able to disable or not, but this is the angle that i will be approaching this problem from.

I don't know if this helps or not, and if anybody finds out how to do this before me, then i would appreciate the feedback.

 

[rrsub]

If it has UPS monitoring software that tells it to shut down at a certain battery level, that may be the cause. I had a rack of servers do the same thing and the cause was the UPS telling it to shut down. Since then, I've never loaded any SNMP software that has the power to shut a server down.

 

[jpederson]

What kind of hardware is it (make and model)? We had similar problems with IBM Netfinity x232 series servers.

 

[shawnfv]

Thanks everyone,

Disabled the automatic rebooting, and as I was shutting it down it rebooted in the middle of the shutdown. Then did it a couple of times after the change was made and verified, so no go with that. And no I don't have automatic updating setup on the server, and I don't recommend it. It can cause bad things. It is not the UPS as I have that disabled, I had a problem when I first installed the UPS, and forgot to enable it once it was taken care of. However, I just got a memory reference error so I am playing with the memory by removing one stick at a time and seeing if the problem stops with any of them removed. Thanks for the tips everyone.

Shawn

 

[Marie012]

There used to be a problem with IBM Director monitoring software that caused the random rebooting of the machine when it lost communication with a service the server would reboot to rectify the problem.

Do you have any monitoring software running?

If someone already asked this question I apologise I broke my unwritten rule and didnt read all the posts i m tired 12 hours straight running cabling and listening to sexist comments while climbing through a plenum inspecting the cable run from an mdf =)

Marie