To the best of my knowledge, the S.M.A.R.T. option is something to do with newer HD's that have this active feature built into them. It's a way to tell the user upon reboots or power on's that there are now one or more media defects on the HD plater(s) and that attention to this is important before you lose any data
 
However, why does this behave badly with some drives, I'm not really sure. Hopefully somebody with more knowledge about this could chime in here.

Well thought I would let you know that the pc has now been up for more than 24hrs and aint fallen over yet, Fingers crossed but that S.M.A.R.T option seems to have done the trick so far. Thanks for that with any luck it will keep going......
 

poopster.
 
any updates about the status of your pc?
 
please let us know before closing this case, ok?
 
im praying that SMART thing will do the trick.....
 
that was a cool SMART solution, jmmijo
 
peace!!!
 

Yeah let us know your updated status on this issue

Dooh! thats about 48hrs read this thread put some music on and over it went, I hope thats just glitch going to leave it running again and see. If restarts once in 48 hrs I'll be happy.. but have to wait and see

Well I'm knocking on press-board now oh wait, here's a cardboard box I can bang on too

Nope all for no good still shutting itself down and restarting.
Although if I leave it for a while it after it crashes out i can use it for a bit. So that says to me that something is overheating , but the only thing is what? Checked the temp settings for the processor and they are all fine even flashed the bios. still no joy. Is there anything eles on that could overheat and cause the pc to fall over like the ati graphics card would that cause that effect?

Operating System
System Model
Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2 (build 2600) Enclosure Type: Desktop
Processor a
Main Circuit Board b
2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon XP
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache
Board: nVidia-nForce
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 6.00 PG 06/19/2004
Drives Memory Modules c,d
160.11 Gigabytes Usable Hard Drive Capacity
110.65 Gigabytes Hard Drive Free Space
 
Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1633S [CD-ROM drive]
SONY CD-RW CRX220E1 [CD-ROM drive]
3.5" format removeable media [Floppy drive]
 
SAMSUNG SP0802N [Hard drive] (80.06 GB) -- drive 1
SAMSUNG SP0812N [Hard drive] (80.06 GB) -- drive 0,
rev TK100-24, SMART Status: Healthy
512 Megabytes Installed Memory
 
Slot 'A0' is Empty
Slot 'A1' has 256 MB
Slot 'A2' has 256 MB
Local Drive Volumes
 
 
c: (NTFS on drive 0) 80.05 GB 68.90 GB free
d: (NTFS on drive 1) 80.06 GB 41.75 GB free
Network Drives
None detected
 
Microsoft Office Document Image Writer Driver on Microsoft Document Imaging Writer Port:
Controllers Display
Standard floppy disk controller
NVIDIA NForce MCP2 IDE Controller
Primary IDE Channel [Controller]
Secondary IDE Channel [Controller]
RADEON 9200 SERIES [Display adapter]
RADEON 9200 SERIES - Secondary [Display adapter]
CTX 17.7 [Monitor] (17.7"vis)
Bus Adapters
Multimedia
D347PRT SCSI Controller
Standard OpenHCD USB Host Controller (2x)
NVIDIA nForce Audio
NVIDIA nForce Audio Codec Interface
NVIDIA nForce MCP Audio Processing Unit (Dolby Digital)
Communications
 
Other Devices
 
1394 Net Adapter
NVIDIA nForce MCP Networking Controller
NVIDIA USB 2.0 Enhanced Host Controller
USB 2.0 Root Hub Device
USB Root Hub
 
The above is a list off what the make up of my pc..
Is there any part of the above that could be giving me a problem?
 
 

I've read and heard that some users have issues with graphic cards based on the ATi 9200 GPU. I can't really recall if these were just gaming related or just in general.
 
Do you have any other graphics card to test out with ?!?

No other card but I just thought to hell with it and went in to bios messed about with the mem settings and it seems to be going fine at the moment, also on the plus side its running faster than ever so far so good

I have been in the business for about 5 years. What you are incountering can be fairly tricky to diagnosis. Remember to remove all external devices and PCI cards before starting this, because they could be causing the conflict.
 
1. Is it blue screening, if so then write down the stop error code. IE 0x0000007b can be a driver issue. Google search the code. You might hit on hardware that you have.
 
2. If if does a memory dump you can goto this article. Memory dump doesnt always mean bad memory. Could be a driver.
 
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;315263
 
3. If you believe power, and I see that you have replaced the power supply. Dont forget the obvious. I have seen many old UPS's or surge protectors cause grief.
 
4. Smart technology communicates with the chipset on hard drives. If there is media defect are on the hard drive you might see Smart errors during post. That usually means your drive is out of tolerence and needs replaced. Lots of hard drive manufactors also have free downloads that you download and extract to a floppy and it will tell you if the drive is defective.
 
5. Memory can cause this issue also and if the board allows. Remove one stick and run the system if no crash the exchange for the other stick. If it crashes then there is the culprit
 
 
6. you might try a fresh load of the OS after formating the hard drive and not loading any software on it other then chipset drivers and video drivers and run it And see if it crashes. If no crash then install one program at a time testing for the period of time that it usually takes to crash the system.
 
Hope that helps

Error Caused by a Device Driver.
Generic DVD-ROM SCSI CdRom Device [CD-ROM drive]
 
Are you using Daemon tools or some other similar program?
 
Try dissabling or uninstalling the program and see if it helps.
 
Yankee
 
 

I have found the problem its a problem with the graphics card its seems to be quite a common problem as i found out on google but trying to find a fix for it aint. Call me stupid but i never turned off the restart on fault option and now i get a blue screen when it crashes out now the fault seems to be something to do with the ati2dvag.dll, thats whats causing the problem does anyone know of a fix?
 
Cheers for all your help people much appreciated!!

Yeah I do and it requires a new graphics card or one *not* based on the 9200 GPU I'm afraid
 
I've read about this too but the issue is that it does affect some and not others, could be that the hardware, graphics card and/or the GPU itself is sensitive to timing issues
 
When I upgraded my dad's and cousin's boxes, I used the 9600 GPU and these have been working just great, no reports of issues like this at all.

Seem to have fixed that fault with the drivers the ati2dvag.dll. removed the drivers with driver cleaner pro and reinstalled them and that blue screen no longer appears. but another blue screen has come up
STOP: 0x0000008E
 
As far as i have managed to find out this fault is due to hardware failure or the settings of either 3 things the Mobo, CPU or the Ram. I am getting a paging error fault as well, this would point to the ramm would'nt it?
 
Just ordered another graphics card saphire 9600xt 256 and a stick of 512 DDR400 to see if that will cure the probs
 

Just increase the memory timing in your BIOS.
 
Also download memtest86+ and test out your memory.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!
 
Downloaded memtest86+ and ran the tests all came back fine so I messed about with the settings in bios for the mem and its been going the past 24hrs without a hitch, I think the inital problem was the ati drivers that they where getting installed twice for some strange reason so I ran driver cleaner pro and reinstalled, then I changed the mem setings in bios and it seems to have done the trick but now I have a new graphics card and ramm to install LOL. Oh well more fun and games.
 
Thanks a Lot every one for all the advice and help you have given me its been very much appreciated.....
 

You're welcome
 
Also, I was browsing ATI's website this past weekend when I noticed they had some Refurbed X800 Pro cards for $200. They come with 256MB of frame buffer and a 3 year warranty to boot
 
 

I hate this kind of problem. I had a similar problem in a gaming pachine for the kids... It only did it when using a graphic intensive application (like a game) I ruled everything out, including swapping PS, except for the possibility of a flakey MB, CPU (amd) or video card (ATI)...
 
There is one thing I do different than anyone else I know. I don't put complete trust in system reported temperatures. Before spending too much time on any problem, I measure the temperature of every component I can see with an infra-red thermometer. Many intermitten problems are heat related.
 
My problem did not require massive time committment becuase it also provided a solution to another problem. It gave me a computer that no one ever wanted to install games on. It works perfectly good for everythint else. I simple added a second monitor to the video card (for my dual-monitor needs) and made it my PC and they use mine for their games.
If I were going to spend more time on it, I would suspect: (in order)
1. AMD CPU (I had no way to test it)
2. Video Card (I had no way to test it either - no direct swap spare)
3. MB (again, I had no exact replacement.
 
All of the above passed all diagnostic tools I own... but that's not 100% either.
Everything else I absolutely eliminated, including memory and HD.
 
I just fixed a Compaq laptop that was doing that exact same thing... after exhausting all reasonable diagnostics, I replaced the HD (it was a Samsung also) it worked. The owner was happy with the increased storage also.
 
If any of this helps, you are welcome to it. I don't normally put in my two cents worth because usually people have already done anything I might have to offer... which is pretty much the case here too.
You can have any of my typo's also. I didn't bother proof-reading.
 

Just looked at your system info.
 
as per my previous post... I concluded, but did not prove, that it was probably one of three things:
1. AMD CPU ---------AMD Athlon XP
2. Video Card ----- IT IS ALSO A RADEON of about the same series
(may be the same series... don't have it in front of me.)
3. ....