Auto 10:00 AM reset

[Dr Mordrid]

Says it all. One of our 'normal use' WinXP SP2 rigs has decided that somewhere between 10:00 AM and 10:15 AM every day it'll reset. NO, not shut down/restart normally like a scheduled restart but acting like someone had hit the front panels reset button. It always requires a visit to Safe Mode else it go into a restart loop, then the rest of the day and all night it works perfectly

AVG, CA etc. etc. virus hunters and every adware tool I can find do no good. Neither do registry tools.

I've done everything I can think of short of wiping the HDD and reinstalling.

Any ideas?

[Wombat]

Are you sure there isn't something happening to your power feed to cause the machine to bounce?

Did you try Hijaak This?

[Mehen]

Could that coincidently be around the same time you spill your cup of coffee on it every morning?

A power issue is the only reason I can come up with (but I'm sure there's a good software explanation too, I just can't think of one). Maybe one of the neighbours fires up their grow-op lights around that time. Try it with a different powersupply or on a UPS.

When I had a cheap PSU sometimes when the air-conditioner kicked in it would reboot.

(BTW I do have a neighbour who got busted with 50-something plants in his basement, we used to get strange power fluctuations...)

[MultimediaMan]

Another vote for a power-related problem....

We had a new business office open next to our subdivision a few years back...all was well until about May of that year: every morning at 8:00AM (EXACTLY) the entire subdivision would lose power for 5 seconds. This went on for several days, and I called the power company. After the third day of calling, they sent out an engineer: there was a faulty Transformer feeding the new office building which caused a local brownout on our entire segment. What brought it all to light was a large HVAC unit on a timer - as soon as it started, it sucked the entire segment dry.

Using that little experience, I'd look to see if ANYTHING in your home is set to activate on a timer. Coffee Makers are notorious for this.

No matter what you do; you'll always run into a machine which is "different": One of my parent's PCs is VERY sensitive to power failures, it requires a complete isolation of the PC in order to successfully boot subsequently; even on a SOHO UPS (~1000VA) it will drop. If you put it onto a commercial grade unit (~3000VA), it's fine.

Localized "brownouts" can occur in even in newer homes. In my house, I only recently discovered that both Bathrooms, the back hallway, and the Master Bedroom were all on one 20A circuit (A total of 8 outlets, four light fixtures, a bathroom ventilation fan and an overhead fan). The labelling on the breakerbox was not even close to what the actual power distribution was. This winter and spring, I'll be putting in at least three more breakers (not for capacity, but for safety... each bathroom should have it's own breaker according to Code). Luckily, I have spots for seven more breakers on my breaker panel.

[Fat Tone]

My vote is Eric's wicked sense of humour

[Dr Mordrid]

1. fairly new EnerMax 600w, but I swapped another in and no change.

2. other systems don't show any similar effects, and besides it's on a UPS

3. no coffee, no coffee makers. Only timed devices are alarm clocks and they go off at 6:00 AM.

4. HiJaack This isn't helpful, nothing unexpected.

and Erik isn't allowd on that rig.

Ready to nuke the bastard

[MultimediaMan]

Anything in the event log?

[Dr Mordrid]

Nothing useful. Windows doesn't have time to record an event, it just resets as if someone had punched the button. No message, no warning, no nothing. I even tried rolling back to a few weeks ago and rolling back the BIOS. No change.

[lowlifecat]

hmmm, sounds like about the time AVG kicks in it's system scan. maybe you are infected

[MultimediaMan]

If you have a PE disk, I'd suggest booting that and running an AV against it with the disk completely "offline"

[Wombat]

If you don't find any thing, maybe boot it in to Linux using a Live CD. Then, wait to see if it reboots that day. It will give you a clear dividing line between "OS or above" and "hardware/power/BIOS".

[VJ]

Good idea with the Linux cd.

It is not the ups sending a reset command to the pc? Or a ups malfunction (try a ups selftest)?

Jörg

[Claymonkey]

I know it 'shouldn't' matter since it's the same time every day and it shouldn't matter unless you reboot but have you tried a new motherboard battery? Does the bios have a scheduled-reboot area? Try resetting the defaults. I'm assuming you already looked for a scheduled task since that would be in the event logs anyway.

you might also look at the following:
http://www.theeldergeek.com/auto_reb...stem_crash.htm

and

http://www.aumha.org/win5/a/shtdwnxp.php

[Dr Mordrid]

OK, I turned off auto restart. We'll see if that has an effect.

[Claymonkey]

....and?