Computer Restart

[DuskNightingale]

For some reason everyone once in a while my computer will randomly restart. It only happens when I play FFXI and I have well over the recommended requirements for the game. Can anyone explain this? It just restarts the whole computer! Anyone else had trouble?

Any help would be great.

[drizzt827]

I would first start out by uninstalling the software and reinstalling it again. Perhaps something got corrupted while installing the software. If that doesn't help then I'm thinking it's other software in your system.

First off, do you have an antivirus tool installed in your system? If not, I'd seriously get one and check your system if it still has any remanents of that Blaster/LoveSAN worm that reared its ugly head several months ago. If you do have an antivirus software installed, then I'd look to what softwares that you have running on your system. I'd start off by quitting all unnecessary applications on the taskbar before running FFXI. I have found that too many apps running in the background can add up to wasted memory and leaving next to nothing to run FFXI.

I'd even get a spyware/adware detect utility to get rid of any processes that run in the background (wasting your precious memory) without your knowledge.

Hope that helps.

[skoreanime]

Oh sure, your system may be up to specs, but that doesn't neccesarilly mean that your cooling system is. Your computer might be restarting because of either

1-GPU gets too hot (if you don't have a fan on it, try installing one)

2-CPU gets too hot (buy a bigger fan :cool: )

My two cents...

[DuskNightingale]

Well I'm using the fan that came with the processor. I don't know a lot about hardware, but I would think that if there was a heating problem then it would affect any high end program I run, not just FFXI. But I'm not discounting it.

[bside]

if it's a complete restart of the pc, i'd first doubt the softwares doing something. like software running in the background, drivers may be conflicting, etc.

in usual cases, hardware mulfunctioning or otherwise behaving beyond its specs results in either freeze, sent back to desktop, or so-called blue screen. the complete restart only under the specific circumstance (in this case, playing ffxi) would be something w/ software, i'd imagine.

of course, it could be a combination of hardware/software or i could be completely wrong. at any rate, i suggest that u give us ur pc spec in detail. some of the components may have known issues and could be fixed with driver updates or patches.

[DuskNightingale]

Wow! That's very helpful of you! I'll be sure to do that right when I get back to my computer.

But yes, it does restart, no blue screen of death or locking up, just a flat restart as if I had pushed the button myself. And it only happens when play FFXI. And at random times, not all the time, just sometimes. Weird I know.

Okay, well thanks for the help, I'll post specs when I get back tonight.

[Macht]

Sounds me like it's probably a corrupted file in the OS. If it's specific to a program you run and not all programs. There maybe a special command that the program is using from the OS if that file is corrupted and is a file that manages something that would effect the OS base functions then it will restart you're system.

Files like the NTFS.sys if they become corrupted the system will restart, yes it does do a blue screen but the majority of the time it'll be so brief that you may not catch it. Only indication of one ever being there is a very brief blue flash before the restart.

Solving this problem IS A PAIN IN THE BUTT! Reason is because there is a million and one different possibilities. You can go with what I was guessing above, but it doesn't guarentee that it will work.


I'd start by having the computer on with the side panel remove and observe the fans for any that seem to be stopped, or if the motherboard comes with temperature readings then check the BIOS and monitor the temperature for about an hr. Take down the temperature in-between of what it peaks at and maintains.

If the Temperature is getting in the high 50's Celcius or 60's then your system may not be cooling properly. The general temperature should be about 48-53 Celcius, sometimes it can reach 55 but if it's reaching 59 and up then you have a problem.

Check to make sure the video card isn't burning out, most of the time before my video cards went out they would cause this problem. Look at the card for any scorches look at the capaciters to make sure they arn't breaking open (It'll sort of resembles pop-corn that's mid-way popped if it is).

If all that checks out then run a memory and HD diagnostics. Make sure there isn't a problem there, you'll want to check the HD seek rate and read error rate. If the seek rate is lower then the read error rate then the HD is malfunctioning and may give out soon.

If all that checks then it isn't hardware. So now you'll be getting into the harder to find problems then. You'll have to diagnos you Operating System and make sure all the files are there and working properly, after that check the drivers make sure the drivers are the correct ones for the cards being used and they are not missing or corrupt. Make sure that none of the drivers are beta versions.

Finally SpyWare and AdWare, there is no way that someone can say they don't have this on their system unless they use a software specific to removing these programs and that they do not download trial versions of programs. Get a program like "Spy Nuker", "Spy Agent", or "Spy Bot" these programs will remove SpyWare and AdWare programs, virus scan programs do not remove them or remove a limited number of them.

If none of that works then we'll definatly need more info on the computer specs..

[Rubik]

You have checked for the Blaster and other viruses, correct?

Also, take a look at the system and application logs in event viewer (Control Panels -> Administrative Tools -> Event Viewer).

[Susano]

Another cause for PC's to restart is Power Supply innadequacy. Your video card may be running harder with ffxi than it does with other applications and every so often, it spikes the PSU and the system will restart.

I had a similer problem with my PSU when I installed my latest video card. Mine occured at the post screen, but I assume it could also happen during regular use if it were just slightly underpowered.

[Arctyc]

If you are still experiencing this problem after trying what some of the above posters suggest, please try this:

Go to your Start Menu, then Settings, then open your Control Panel.
Open the 'System' window from in your Control Panel.
Go to the 'Advanced' tab.
Click on the 'Settings' button under 'Startup and Recovery'.
Uncheck the box labeled 'Automatically Restart'.

(This is for if you have Windows XP, which I am taking an educated guess that you have.)

Note near the bottom the box labeled 'Small Dump Directory'. It should be something like '%SystemRoot/Minidump'. This defaults it to 'C:\Windows\Minidump', as a .dmp file.

The next time this happens I believe you will probably get a BSOD (blue screen of death :P ), which will give you an error code and some other various information.

If you need to take the matter up with tech support at all, this information will be very valuable.

[PetriW]

I had this problem too and only in FFXI, turns out it was my SoundBlaster audio drivers causing it. I uninstalled the creative driver and installed the default Microsoft driver and now it work perfect (no crash in 2 weeks, twice per play session before).

[kuza]

well i have this same problem too and still have this same problem. i'm using a laptop and i've no idea how to check what problem it is.

it auto-reboots on random and yes i have that blue screen that appears very very briefly and then its gone. and i never have this problem b4 and it is only when i started ff11 that this problem occurs.

well, juz wan to let u noe that u're not alone and if u have solve ur problem, let me noe.