PC gets restarted automatically..?

[JJ 3000]

My money is on a slowly dying PSU.

Borrow a power supply of equal or greater wattage and swap it into your computer. If you stop getting all of these random errors with a different PSU, you will need to buy a new one. You may also want to blow the dust out of the computer while you are working inside of it.

[dahlarbear]

1.  Bad Driver.  My money's on a corrupt or bad driver.  You have several different drivers "blue screening".  I believe they are the "victim" of another driver which is corrupting their memory space.

2.  Driver Verifier Manager.  This utility may be used to troubleshoot and isolate driver issues.  Hopefully you'll be able to catch the driver accessing memory outside of its address space.  Choose your configuration settings wisely, as the "extra" checking it adds will slow system down.  Settings will remain until you rerun "verifier" and remove them.  See Mark Russinovich's "Windows Hang and Crash Dump Analysis" webcast for guidance.  It's about two/thirds into the video (or 2/3 into YouTube part 5/9).

To access:  "Start -> Run -> type "verifier" without quotes then press <Enter>.

3.  Webcast.  There's a wealth of information in Mark Russinovich's "Windows Hang and Crash Dump Analysis" webcast:  TechNet Webcast: Windows Hang and Crash Dump Analysis (Level 400).

To avoid jumping through Microsoft's hoops to access the webcast you might try the following link 1 of 9 on YouTube:  YouTube's Version: Part 1 of 9.
   
Look to right of YouTube's video box and under related videos you should see link to next part as you need it; e.g. "Windows Hang and Crash Dump Analysis 2/9".

Get plenty of popcorn - 85 minute video.

4.  Reference(s):
     a.  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Driver_Verifier
     b.  Using Driver Verifier to identify issues with Windows drivers for advanced users
     c.  How Windows XP's Device Driver Verifier Works

[karthik316_1999]

My money is on a slowly dying PSU.

Borrow a power supply of equal or greater wattage and swap it into your computer. If you stop getting all of these random errors with a different PSU, you will need to buy a new one. You may also want to blow the dust out of the computer while you are working inside of it.

I'm afraid my skills at hardware are not this competent...! I will need to call in an engineer if this is supposed to be done.. plus im not sure where to look for a spare PSU...
Is there someother way to check if the PSU is indeed the exact problem?

[karthik316_1999]

1.  Bad Driver.  My money's on a corrupt or bad driver.  You have several different drivers "blue screening".  I believe they are the "victim" of another driver which is corrupting their memory space.

2.  Driver Verifier Manager.  This utility may be used to troubleshoot and isolate driver issues.  Hopefully you'll be able to catch the driver accessing memory outside of its address space.  Choose your configuration settings wisely, as the "extra" checking it adds will slow system down.  Settings will remain until you rerun "verifier" and remove them.  See Mark Russinovich's "Windows Hang and Crash Dump Analysis" webcast for guidance.  It's about two/thirds into the video (or 2/3 into YouTube part 5/9).

To access:  "Start -> Run -> type "verifier" without quotes then press <Enter>.

Does the Youtube video link contain information on how to use this 'verifier' thing? unless otherwise, i guess i dont know my way around this.. I tried typing in it at Start>Run but all i was presented with was Next next next and then finally finish?! maybe.. i dont know what options im to choose to do what it does...

[karthik316_1999]

Earlier, allan had asked me if i could find any errors in Device Manager after enabling View > Show Hidden Devices..
That time, none was present.., but now there is a yellow exclamation mark for the item "Dev_CBIDDRV" under Non-plug and play Drivers.

[dahlarbear]

...but now there is a yellow exclamation mark for the item "Dev_CBIDDRV" under Non-plug and play Drivers.

1.  Dev_CBIDDRV.  I've not been able to find any useful data regarding this driver on the Internet.  What is the driver status?

Within Device Manager -> right-click on Dev_CBIDDRV -> select Properties -> General tab -> "Device status" subsection.

Does the Youtube video link contain information on how to use this 'verifier' thing? unless otherwise, i guess i dont know my way around this.. I tried typing in it at Start>Run but all i was presented with was Next next next and then finally finish?! maybe.. i dont know what options im to choose to do what it does...

2.  Youtube Video Link.  Yes, it explains how "verifier" may be used to troubleshoot hangs and crash dumps.  Perhaps you should watch the entire video for "context" regarding your current issue.  (Entire video, as in parts 1 through 9.)

I gave you the video link because you seemed interested in crash dump analysis and I thought you could handle it.  So what's the problem...  No "popcorn" in the house?

3.  Recovery Console.  Did you find your Windows XP installation CD?

4.  Diagnostic Startup.  This is still an option, although with your blue screens so far apart; this could take some time.  Can you duplicate the problem at will (or is it random)?

[karthik316_1999]

1.  Dev_CBIDDRV.  I've not been able to find any useful data regarding this driver on the Internet.  What is the driver status?

Within Device Manager -> right-click on Dev_CBIDDRV -> select Properties -> General tab -> "Device status" subsection.

This device is not present, is not working properly, or does not have all its drivers installed. (Code 24)

Click Troubleshoot to start the troubleshooter for this device.

2.  Youtube Video Link.  Yes, it explains how "verifier" may be used to troubleshoot hangs and crash dumps.  Perhaps you should watch the entire video for "context" regarding your current issue.  (Entire video, as in parts 1 through 9.)

I gave you the video link because you seemed interested in crash dump analysis and I thought you could handle it.  So what's the problem...  No "popcorn" in the house?

Actually I had crossed my bandwidth limit for last month... 

3.  Recovery Console.  Did you find your Windows XP installation CD?

Yes, I have.. Will do it sooner or later..

4.  Diagnostic Startup.  This is still an option, although with your blue screens so far apart; this could take some time.  Can you duplicate the problem at will (or is it random)?

No.. it is strictly out of my control and at random.. (only thing is 99.9% of the time, it occurs when I'm away from my computer... leave it un-attended with the internet connection ON... i.e.., throughout the night...which i do for the sake of downloads mostly...)

[karthik316_1999]

Okay.. bumped into something now..
Hit my XP cd-rom into the drive, configured BIOS to boot from CD, Windows setup loads, I hit the 'R' key to start the repair using the recovery wizard after which I guess I'm supposed to be prompted to select the windows installation that needs to be repaired followed by the admin password and all that....

But then, soon after I hit the 'R' key , it says "Examing disk configuration..." and then gives out the message
"The volume contains one or more unrecoverable problems"
and then the c:\> prompt is shown. Thats it..

The chkdsk command or not even the DIR command will work.. Typing the command gives out an error again.. (says something like could not be executed or something....)

I tried searching for this particular error online.. but then all of them seem to have got this error half way through the chkdsk command only and we were at all able to boot into windows.. had problems with boot.ini file and all that.. which I hopefully do not have..! I can log into windows and work with whatever i want just fine.. but the error shows up even before I could type in anything..!

Help !

[karthik316_1999]

okay... just an update to the one who is going to reply to my posts..

After that error, i suspected my drive and downloaded the seagate seatools disk check utility from here

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools

Was told the DOS version was more intensive and scanned the surface of the disc sector by sector.. so burnt the ISO, booted from it and performed the "Long Test" for about 2 hours. with the result being a "pass".

Also, tried the Recovery console which went onto the c:\> prompt this time without an error. (Although I was not asked to select Windows partition or prompted for the admin password)

But the moment i typed in chkdsk,  got the same error
"The volume contains one or more unrecoverable problems"

I was not able to access the other partition apart from where Windows was installed which I guess is normal when within the recovery console?
This time I made a note of the error that came up when I typed in the DIR command..
It was:
"An error occured during directory enumeration"

Maybe the command is not supported in the recovery console and the error is normal again?

That being secondary, why is the chkdsk throwing back such an error when my 500GB HDD has been scanned completely without errors?!

[karthik316_1999]

Oh yes, forgot to mention this..
The OS on my system is Windows XP professional sp3 with all current updates installed and the bootable CD with which I tried the recovery console was the original Windows XP professional without the service packs..
Just thought of letting you all know of this.. might me this is the reason for those errors...

[karthik316_1999]

anybody?

[JJ 3000]

You can still get into your computer at this point, right?

Start backing up all of the data that you want to save now.

[karthik316_1999]

May i ask why a backup is needed at this point? Am I going to be suggested to do something else post that?
Cuz.. thats 400GB of data..!

[JJ 3000]

Well....
It seems to me that your computer problems are compounding by the day. If I were you, the first thing I would do is make a back up of all of the stuff that I didn't want to lose. You may have luck with doing a clean install of windows. You are spending  a lot of time and effort trying to clean up your system and a clean install may be the quickest fix.

However, my opinion is still that your power supply is dying. My first clue was the title of this thread. Also, random and intermittent problems almost always point to a PSU problem.  We've gone for several days now trying to solve your problem. If you are not comfortable swapping out your PSU, then you should call a technician. Power supplies are one of the most difficult PC component to replace and if you don't know what you are doing you can cause more damage. Static electricity can fry your motherboard.

My best advice at this point, would be to call a professional.

[karthik316_1999]

Well, though I hope the PSU is not a problem.. you might have a valid point there. You would not be surprised hearing this then.
About 4 months ago, I had a 250GB seagate drive and was getting the same BSOD's. Trying to break my head for a cause, made a fresh installation of windows but it did not help. So I ended up buying this new 500GB one..! (The 250GB is now added up as a secondary drive to my other PC and is working just fine...)

Now, again this problem with the 500GB as well.
We have tested the HDD, the RAM both are ok. So, that leaves behind the mobo, pci cards, graphic cards and of course the PSU. Nobody has suggested that my pci, pci-e cards or the mobo could have a problem.. so why not the PSU?

Also, I have had problems with the power connectors coming out from within my PSU. Have several of them branching out with some working and some not ..

But then there are several reasons for me not to believe this as the cause of the problem!

1. The title of the thread again! -> It restarts automatically because I had the option enabled to do a restart instead of presenting a BSOD.. simple aint it?! Though i truely understand a random restart could be because of the psu..

2. Assuming this problem has been there for past 5 months, shouldn't the problem have been worser now .. past the BSOD's and all that... atleast should it not give out some other very obvious PSU failure symptom?

3. The problems occur ... as i said... almost always only when I leave the computer un-attended for downloading.. so could it be something related to a remote attack or a virus or something... I mean.. why is it so very difficult for us to judge the cause when windows provides us with so much information via Event logs, BSOD's... !?

4. Considering the messages in the BSOD, the errors in the device manager.. IRQ conflicts and all that.. does that not indicate problems with the drivers indeed....?

I dont know.. I am so much confused..