Uninstalled the USB Mouse. Got another crash. Reinstalled the mouse and uninstalled ESET. Got another crash. Forgot to mention that after I did the clean boot, I have disabled all network adapters.
Now I'll have to try booting in safe mode with networking and see how that goes (after the next witnessed crash).
Thanks for hanging out with me, Pauly. At this point, I expect that I'm dealing with a hardware problem - some weak or defective component. When the laptop reboots, it is sudden and appears just as if you were to hold down the power button - except that it reboots. It goes so fast that the OS has no time to write log files, which is why I haven't tried the driver verifier.
I thought maybe I was causing a heat problem for the CPU because I have a sloppy desk and sometimes I have papers next to and right up to the computer. So yesterday, I installed a widget to monitor the CPU temp and I saw nothing unusual. The computer rebooted in the night and then again this morning - twice, when I was trying to use it. So now I just have it sitting there running in safe mode. I'll leave it like that for 24 hours or so.
There are others on the ASUS forums that have reported the same thing, but the threads are 2 years old. However, the symptoms they report are identical to mine and at least one that I've read was apparently fixed by swapping some component at an authorized service depot. I'm not looking forward to that prospect since the warranty on this machine ran out during the time I've been troubleshooting.
Just been re reading and it looks like in post #30 you have 2 AVs installed you dont ever want to do that, i take it also that you have no more dump files, this is turning out to be a pain, im a bit tied up at the moment gonna get kids in bed then i will have a go back through this thread and see if we can come up with something. Prob be couple hours im getting funny looks from the wife
Rusty go with Paul on the AV issue and mate have you measured the CPU temp from the BIOS or using something like Speccy plusd the mobo temp too it might also just be the graphics chip poorly re compounded with either a poor quality one or having it slathered everywhere .
Speccy - System Information - Free Download Try this one cos it sounds like a real hardware problem. You mention at the beginning it was a refurb and mate I have seen some pretty ordinary "refurbs" the Tjunction of that core is 100C and I would expect it to be running at 50-70C max on a hottish day.
You might if you are game enough have a look at the cooler too again I have seen some very shoddy attempts at prettying machines up.
No guys, I don't have two AV's running. Windows defender is normally turned off. I only run ESET. In that one post, I uninstalled ESET and activated Windows Defender. I've since deactivated Windows Defender and reinstalled ESET. Sorry I wasn't more clear with that post.
Thanks for the tip on the bios temp. I'll check that out.
Running Speccy now and not seeing anything unusual. CPU & Motherboard running 47-48 degrees C. Hard drive at 28 degs.
Hum that is pretty good depends on your ambient room temp but even so no probs there Rusty.
Now we have done temps, memtest, new CMOS battery, resaeted all laeds and sticks - have we done a hard drive test yet?
If not there are two that you can try
SeaTools | Seagate < sometimes needs the AV disabling but try it will check the sectors whatever
and
Partition Manager Server, server partition manager and partition magic server for Windows Server 2000/2003/2008. Server Partition software for Windows Server and None-Server partitions < do a suface test it actually "tests" the disk suface.
I know this is very frustrating but it will eliminate things as you go.
Meanwhile I'll check out some other on call scanners:)
Both take a wlittle while
Just checking through:
Control Panel/Perfomance information and tools/Advanced tools/View Performance Details in Event log
Does anyone know how to interpret this stuff? (See attached jpg)
[/QUOTE]
Now we have done temps, memtest, new CMOS battery, resaeted all laeds and sticks - have we done a hard drive test yet?
[/QUOTE]
Yes, I've run memtest many, many passes with no errors. I have not had the computer open and don't really want to. It's a fairly new laptop (3 months old). What would you expect to find with a hard drive test? If there were any read errors or bad sectors, the worst case I would think would be a BSOD and I'm not getting any BSOD - just a hard reboot as though the machine is taking a power hit.
I'm currently running on a clean boot with only a browser (Chrome) running. I have not added any apps or services back into the clean boot. I ran it last night without the browser running and it rebooted during the night and then a couple more times this morning when I was working on it.
I had it running in safe mode and was going to just let it cook like that, but I rebooted into my clean boot again to install and run Speccy.
I'm pretty wiped out now and need a break. Don't know when I'll get back here. I truly appreciate all the attempts to help me with this.
For now, I will boot back into safe mode and just let it cook like that to see if it will do a reboot.
Last edited by RustyCannon; 06 Jan 2013 at 16:28. Reason: Additional info
Quote