Inspiron 8600 suddenly reboots

I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been operating fine up
until the past few days where it has reset itself suddenly while I am using
it. I can't recall installing any new software and hardware hasn't changed.
Is there any diagnostics I should run to check harddrive or ram, is there a
usual culprit to cause this sort of problem. Windows error reporting brought
it up as a device driver problem
http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...7-80ec56636cf3
but that seems to be Microsofts responce to any problem. Any help is greatly
appreciated.

Robert

Hi!

> I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been
> operating fine up until the past few days where it has reset
> itself suddenly while I am using it.

Give the fans on the system a good once over and make sure they aren't
plugged with dust or otherwise not working.

If those check out, run a memory test such as Memtest/86. I'd bet you
have bad or failing memory.

Also--turn off the automatic rebooting behavior Windows uses by
default when a STOP error is encountered. You can do this in the
Device Manager, Advanced Tab, under Startup and Recovery. Take the
check mark out of "automatically reboot" option. That way, the next
time this happens, you can see the exact nature of the error and the
name of the offending program/driver.

William

"Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
news:46bc6689$...
>I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been operating fine up
>until the past few days where it has reset itself suddenly while I am using
>it. I can't recall installing any new software and hardware hasn't changed.
>Is there any diagnostics I should run to check harddrive or ram, is there a
>usual culprit to cause this sort of problem. Windows error reporting
>brought it up as a device driver problem
>http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...7-80ec56636cf3
>but that seems to be Microsofts responce to any problem. Any help is
>greatly appreciated.
>
> Robert
>

Robert -

When you say "reset itself", what do you mean specifically? Did the system
spontaneously just reboot without a blue screen or an error?

If the machine is stable enough to stay in Windows for a bit, you might go
into control panel / administrative tools / computer management / event
viewer / applications and see if there are any (red) errors listed that
point to a particular program (times/dates are also there).

Another option would be to perform a Windows system restore (no data will be
lost, only updates and any recent applications might have to be
re-installed) and point the system back to a restore date prior to this
event. Start/programs/accessories/system tools/system restore

It could certainly be hardware, but I'd look at software first. The Dell
diags should be accessible by pressing F12 at boot while at the Dell splash
screen. To reach the full diags you'll want to choose the option to boot to
the utility partition. If the option isn't there, you can run the diags from
the Dell resource CD if you have one (F12, boot from CD/DVD drive).

More information would be helpful....

-Stew

sounds like your system may be overheating and that make the fan suspect.
the fan could have failed or it could just be dirty. the fan should spin up
to full speed when you first power on the system and then slow or turn off
if not needed as a test and to let you know that it is working. you are
throughly clean the fan by removing it as follows...
http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...an.htm#1000550


"Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
news:46bc6689$...
>I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been operating fine up
>until the past few days where it has reset itself suddenly while I am using
>it. I can't recall installing any new software and hardware hasn't changed.
>Is there any diagnostics I should run to check harddrive or ram, is there a
>usual culprit to cause this sort of problem. Windows error reporting
>brought it up as a device driver problem
>http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...7-80ec56636cf3
>but that seems to be Microsofts responce to any problem. Any help is
>greatly appreciated.
>
> Robert
>

Stew,
By reset itself I mean that it spontaneously just reboot, one second I was
working on it and the next it was the boot screen with the dell logo.

The system is mostly stable with only a few spontaneous reboots. Looking in
Event manager shows 5 errors in 1 second from a source crypt32. Properties
describes this as
Failed extract of third-party root list from auto update cab at:
<http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootstl.cab>
with error: The data is invalid.

I havent run system restore yet, but will try the Dell diagnostics tonight
and if that finds nothing system restore is next.

Thanks for the help so far.

Robert

"S.Lewis" <> wrote in message
news:ONZui.10658$.. .
>
> "Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
> news:46bc6689$...
>>I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been operating fine up
>>until the past few days where it has reset itself suddenly while I am
>>using it. I can't recall installing any new software and hardware hasn't
>>changed. Is there any diagnostics I should run to check harddrive or ram,
>>is there a usual culprit to cause this sort of problem. Windows error
>>reporting brought it up as a device driver problem
>>http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...7-80ec56636cf3
>>but that seems to be Microsofts responce to any problem. Any help is
>>greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Robert
>>
>
> Robert -
>
> When you say "reset itself", what do you mean specifically? Did the
> system spontaneously just reboot without a blue screen or an error?
>
> If the machine is stable enough to stay in Windows for a bit, you might go
> into control panel / administrative tools / computer management / event
> viewer / applications and see if there are any (red) errors listed that
> point to a particular program (times/dates are also there).
>
> Another option would be to perform a Windows system restore (no data will
> be lost, only updates and any recent applications might have to be
> re-installed) and point the system back to a restore date prior to this
> event. Start/programs/accessories/system tools/system restore
>
> It could certainly be hardware, but I'd look at software first. The Dell
> diags should be accessible by pressing F12 at boot while at the Dell
> splash screen. To reach the full diags you'll want to choose the option to
> boot to the utility partition. If the option isn't there, you can run the
> diags from the Dell resource CD if you have one (F12, boot from CD/DVD
> drive).
>
> More information would be helpful....
>
> -Stew
>

Christopher,

The fan is running correctly as far as I can tell, and when I opened it up
to give it a clean it appeared to be fine with very little dust on it.

Thanks,
Robert

"Christopher Muto" <> wrote in message
news:...
> sounds like your system may be overheating and that make the fan suspect.
> the fan could have failed or it could just be dirty. the fan should spin
> up to full speed when you first power on the system and then slow or turn
> off if not needed as a test and to let you know that it is working. you
> are throughly clean the fan by removing it as follows...
> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...an.htm#1000550
>
>
> "Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
> news:46bc6689$...
>>I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been operating fine up
>>until the past few days where it has reset itself suddenly while I am
>>using it. I can't recall installing any new software and hardware hasn't
>>changed. Is there any diagnostics I should run to check harddrive or ram,
>>is there a usual culprit to cause this sort of problem. Windows error
>>reporting brought it up as a device driver problem
>>http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...7-80ec56636cf3
>>but that seems to be Microsofts responce to any problem. Any help is
>>greatly appreciated.
>>
>> Robert
>>
>
>

William,

The fans seem fine with very little dust on them. I will run memtest later
tonight and have disabled the automatic restart option so that next time I
can see what has cause the problem, though you will see in my reply to Stew
that it appears to be the program crypt32 causing the stop errors.

Thanks,
Robert

<> wrote in message
news: oups.com...
> Hi!
>
>> I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been
>> operating fine up until the past few days where it has reset
>> itself suddenly while I am using it.
>
> Give the fans on the system a good once over and make sure they aren't
> plugged with dust or otherwise not working.
>
> If those check out, run a memory test such as Memtest/86. I'd bet you
> have bad or failing memory.
>
> Also--turn off the automatic rebooting behavior Windows uses by
> default when a STOP error is encountered. You can do this in the
> Device Manager, Advanced Tab, under Startup and Recovery. Take the
> check mark out of "automatically reboot" option. That way, the next
> time this happens, you can see the exact nature of the error and the
> name of the offending program/driver.
>
> William
>

"Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
news:46bd78e9$...
> Stew,
> By reset itself I mean that it spontaneously just reboot, one second I was
> working on it and the next it was the boot screen with the dell logo.
>
> The system is mostly stable with only a few spontaneous reboots. Looking
> in Event manager shows 5 errors in 1 second from a source crypt32.
> Properties describes this as
> Failed extract of third-party root list from auto update cab at:
> <http://www.download.windowsupdate.com/msdownload/update/v3/static/trustedr/en/authrootstl.cab>
> with error: The data is invalid.
>
> I havent run system restore yet, but will try the Dell diagnostics tonight
> and if that finds nothing system restore is next.
>
> Thanks for the help so far.
>
> Robert
>

Certainly don't rule out the very good suggests that this may be thermal
related (heat due to dust/dirt buildup)......

Keep us posted.

Stew

It now looks like the computer might have been overheating. The fan appears
to function normally at first but then seems to be ignoring the current
temperature. I installed I8kfangui which showed my current cpu temp was
65deg celcius which i imagine is far too hot. I set fangui to manage the
fans and I am currently down at 40deg which seems alot more reasonable. I
will monitor the stability this next few days and let you know if it is
fixed.

Thanks again,
Robert

"Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> Christopher,
>
> The fan is running correctly as far as I can tell, and when I opened it up
> to give it a clean it appeared to be fine with very little dust on it.
>
> Thanks,
> Robert
>
> "Christopher Muto" <> wrote in message
> news:...
>> sounds like your system may be overheating and that make the fan suspect.
>> the fan could have failed or it could just be dirty. the fan should spin
>> up to full speed when you first power on the system and then slow or turn
>> off if not needed as a test and to let you know that it is working. you
>> are throughly clean the fan by removing it as follows...
>> http://support.dell.com/support/edoc...an.htm#1000550
>>
>>
>> "Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
>> news:46bc6689$...
>>>I have a 2 and half year old Inspiron 8600 that has been operating fine
>>>up until the past few days where it has reset itself suddenly while I am
>>>using it. I can't recall installing any new software and hardware hasn't
>>>changed. Is there any diagnostics I should run to check harddrive or ram,
>>>is there a usual culprit to cause this sort of problem. Windows error
>>>reporting brought it up as a device driver problem
>>>http://wer.microsoft.com/responses/R...7-80ec56636cf3
>>>but that seems to be Microsofts responce to any problem. Any help is
>>>greatly appreciated.
>>>
>>> Robert
>>>
>>
>>
>
>

"Robert McMillan" <> wrote in message
news:...
> It now looks like the computer might have been overheating. The fan
> appears to function normally at first but then seems to be ignoring the
> current temperature. I installed I8kfangui which showed my current cpu
> temp was 65deg celcius which i imagine is far too hot. I set fangui to
> manage the fans and I am currently down at 40deg which seems alot more
> reasonable. I will monitor the stability this next few days and let you
> know if it is fixed.
>
> Thanks again,
> Robert
>

Yes, 65C is way too high. I believe 70C is the limit (Intel forced thermal
shutdown).

40C is warm (Prescott idle range, generally) but much better.

Good call by William and Christopher. Guess the 8600 has a desktop chip in
it not unlike the I5100/5150.