PC reboot after 5 minutes

[Bizman]

Heh, no panic about the information flow. I've got used to it, my customers often give even less - not to mention erratic! Figure telling "the Internet doesn't work" meaning "the computer doesn't power up at all"...

I understand your concern about programs you don't know. The Internet is full of programs that look like direct copies of known-good tools with a different logo and a fancy site bragging about how their coding team hasn't been saving their efforts etc. Not to mention such programs get advertised on various "tech" sites. At best such programs are just plain copies, at worst they're filled with crapware. About.com is one site whose recommendations I've learned to take with a grain of salt, although they also have some easy reading advice. A site I've learned to trust is WindowsSecrets.com which I found after LangaList merged with it. Needless to mention that WhoCrashed has come to my toolbox via the latter. I haven't been using it much, but the only thing I've noticed it to install apart itself is a Microsoft dump analyzer whose results it translates into plain English. There's a way to use the MS tool by itself, but it's much harder. At least for me the MS instructions were gibberish...

[Rich46yo]

I dont know if you tried this yet but you can get a driver error message, and a start up loop, by a badly seated Graphics card. If you havnt tried reseating the card then do so.

[Blagard]

I dont know if you tried this yet but you can get a driver error message, and a start up loop, by a badly seated Graphics card. If you havnt tried reseating the card then do so.

Thanks for the contribution but that really isn't the problem - While there is nothing wrong in pulling out components and reseating them, the card is doing it's job fine in XP. So I am still focused on something about the Windows 7 setup that is the problem (I have XP and Win 7 on separate drives in the same PC). I think the problem is likely either software or the hard drive windows 7 is on. In an effort to identify the culprit I will usually do just one change at a time then test. - Reseating the card is a long way off at this stage.

[morfiend]

 Blag,

  Have you tried loading Win7 on the drive that has XP on it?  if that drive is functioning properly,loading the OS to it should let you know if the other drive is bad or not.

  There are some issues with doing a dual boot on a single drive that has xp already on it but they aren't insurmountable.



   

[Blagard]

Blag,
  Have you tried loading Win7 on the drive that has XP on it?  if that drive is functioning properly,loading the OS to it should let you know if the other drive is bad or not.

  There are some issues with doing a dual boot on a single drive that has xp already on it but they aren't insurmountable.
   

My Win7 is installed on the drive I used to use for XP - So it is not exactly a new drive but the newest one I have and 1Tb. I cloned XP back to a smaller drive to free it up for Win7. The small space allocation issues found when doing chkdsk may have come from the disco's/reboots I am seeking to solve.

[Bizman]

Blag,

  Have you tried loading Win7 on the drive that has XP on it?  if that drive is functioning properly,loading the OS to it should let you know if the other drive is bad or not.

There are more reliable ways to test a hard drive than loading the OS to it. All major manufacturers have a free testing tool both as an ISO file for a bootable CD and as a Windows program.

[morfiend]

There are more reliable ways to test a hard drive than loading the OS to it. All major manufacturers have a free testing tool both as an ISO file for a bootable CD and as a Windows program.

 I understand that,my thinking was if Win7 worked on the HDD that has xp on it and is known to function properly and it doesn't go into the boot mode then it would make sense that the other drive has issues.

  I'm the first to admit that I know just enough about comps to really mess them up!





     

[Bizman]

I understand that,my thinking was if Win7 worked on the HDD that has xp on it and is known to function properly and it doesn't go into the boot mode then it would make sense that the other drive has issues.

That's a good way to test power supplies and processors, for which there are no widely available, reliable and inexpensive testing methods.

[Blagard]

I ran SFC /scannow and there were no problems. All my drives are Seagate and I have used their tools before now. In fact the last time I had any problems with a Seagate drive  it turned out to be a messed up OS - So much for letting the wife and son please themselves on their PC!

Windows 7 drive - I have been on AH last night and got into a busy area - the PC rebooted. I re-logged but lasted about 1 minute or less after the re-launch into the busy area before the next reboot. All told about 4 re-boots so I had enough    and selected XP on the last reboot.

Windows XP drive - Flew around 4 or 5 sorties in all sorts of situations and quite a lot in really busy spots - Rock steady, at least I was able to enjoy myself for a bit 

I checked the Nvidia driver version on XP it was release 275.33. The latest available for XP is 327.23 Interesting, loads of updates and I have ignored them all and have a stable XP! -its staying that way.

The driver I had for Windows 7 64bit was release 327.23 (Interesting that its the same as the latest XP 32bit one).I have found Windows 64 bit drivers for the 275.33 release and have installed them. I have not really tested in AH yet as it was only one uneventful and quiet sortie. I have checked the Video settings in AH and I have used the same in both installations so nothing different there.

For what its worth the hard drive with windows 7 on it has never previously given me any problems when I used it for XP and it still seems alright in windows 7 except for AH. - I may buck my one step at a time approach and try re-installing AH in Win7.  Of course when I do find what the problem is, I have that sneaky feeling it will turn out to be something stupid I have done. - It was that way at work when some-one had a PC problem and nine times out of ten it was a user problem. Some of my colleagues got in the habit of calling me before our IT dept. because as one of the more able users doing the same job I was familiar with all the silly things they tried to do that caused a problem.

[Bizman]

Reinstalling AH in Win7 doesn't sound like it were a hard job to do.

How about the possibility that your Win7 nVidia driver might be too new? I didn't find your video card model, but there has been issues with a little older cards using new drivers which may try to run features not applicable for the card in question. Someone more nVidia savvy might be able to tell the best drivers for your card. So the best drivers might be the last ones released before releasing a new series of cards with new features. Waiting to read how the 275.33 works.

I've witnessed hard drives act less funny although they pass all manufacturer tests. That means their platters are intact but there's something like a cold joint in the circuit board. Impossible to detect other than changing the hard disk. In the cases I've worked on, even cloning worked perfectly well, resulting a stable system.

[Blagard]

I am using an older driver and that did not solve the problem and so re-installed AH over the top of my current win7 installation to keep my settings.

Now it may sound silly but do you have to run AH as an administrator to avoid the permissions pop up (I just don't remember seeing them before), and do you need to run it in XP compatibility mode ? I can't remember what it was before except I am pretty sure I did not have it in compatibility mode. I didn't get any pop ups before in Win7 so must assume I set it to run as administrator. On the re-install I have set both on and flown once with no problem but not really enough to be sure yet.

Also I have run various Seagate Tools on the hard drive and it has passed all tests.

[Skuzzy]

Does not need to be run in 'compatibility' mode.  Not sure why you are getting the UAC warning every time you run the game.  That should not be happening.

No, you do not have to set the game to run as administrator.  I run Aces High on Windows 7 at home and at work and never get a pop up.  I do have UAC turned down one notch from its default.

[Blagard]

Thanks Skuzzy,

I have unchecked both compatibility mode and run as administrator and tried again - this time no pop up seeking permission to run. But I do wonder if because it happened before if it is a clue as to what is not right!

Edit:
Just had a few sorties and working the same as before and still getting rebooted now and then in Win7. The only other bit of software I have that seems less than stable is IE10 and when I opened it after being rebooted I got "Your last browsing session ended....." But so far as I am aware I was not running it at the time! - I have reverted to IE 9 as 10 does not seem to be an improvement to me. It mades no difference to AH.

[Blagard]

Just checking - I am using Microsoft Security Essentials for anti-virus protection is this a known problem?

[Skuzzy]

Any type of anti-xxxx or security software could cause a problem with the game.