Possessed Computer

[onebigdog]

I have a possessed computer. I have built several computers over the years but this one has me stumped. The problem: For no apparent reason, the computer will reboot itself. No blue screen, just reboots. The strange part is, this never happens while working on it. It only happens when the computer is idle and not being used. It doesn't happen very often...maybe once per month.
The parts list: Asus A7M266 motherboard, 512 DDR2100 Kingston memory, 400W Antec power supply, APC UPS backup/surge protector, XP 2000 AMD cpu (motherboard bios has been upgraded), Sony CD Rom, Iomega CD RW, on board sound, ATI graphics card, Logitech laser wheel mouse and Windows 2000 pro.
I replaced the CPU (it had AMD 1.4gig Thunderbird), replaced the memory and the power supply with no luck. I keep the virus protection updated, and all Windows updates and patches are routinely done. I use Ad-Watch and Spybot to rid the computer of spyware and defrag the computers harddrive on a regular basis. Someone suggested that maybe I had dirty power (maybe there is some appliance on the same circuit) so I changed where the computer is pluggedd in. No luck. Any ideas?
obg

 

[kippy13]

Right Click on my computer,advanced,startup and recovery,settings, untick "automatically restart on system failure" This will ensure that it wont restart if theres an error.-I am not sure if its the saqme for 2000
Also right click on my computer,manage, event viewer, See if there are any warning or error messages in the application,system or security logs around the time that the PC rebooted.
Have you a surge protector plugged into it?
Would you think that overheating is causing it to crash?

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[onebigdog]

It is connected to a APC battery backup/surge protector. I thought that it might be heat or maybe the original cpu was acting up, that is why I changed the cpu out. The temps for the cpu are somewhat high (AMD always runs hotter than Intel) but still within reason. I even put an additional fan in the case. I then thought that maybe it is the memory...so I replaced both sticks. Then I thought that it might be the power supply and thus replaced with a 400W Antec. Now I am wondering if it could be Windows itself? Or maybe the mouse driver or the mb or who knows what. Kind of getting frustrating. It is a very nice setup that is quite quick so I would hate to just trash it and start over.

 

[kippy13]

Can you please have a look in the logs as described above and give some feedback.

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[onebigdog]

I asked my son to go to Administrative Tools and look at the event viewer for any errors that it was reporting around the times that the computer reboots. He reported that there are a large number of errors (about every 5th one) and that they are all the same...mouclass! We did a search for mouclass on his computer and found one in C:\winnt\system32\drivers\mouclass.sys. This turns out to be (of all things) a mouse class driver. Over the years I have had many computers and I have found that sometimes when there is a strange problem, it turns out to be a mouse driver!!! Could this be the case here as well? Has anyone ever encountered a stability issue with this Microsoft driver? Is it possible that this driver is the root cause of rebooting while idle? Any thoughts? Any suggested stable replacement mouse (wheel) drivers?

 

[kippy13]

Hi,
What is the brand/product type of your mouse?
You may be able to download driversfrom the web site...

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[onebigdog]

It is a laser wheel mouse by Logitech.

 

[kippy13]

Have you tried downloading the drivers from the logitec site?

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[onebigdog]

I could have sworn that we loaded the Logitech drivers when we upgraded the mouse. If it was updated, why is mouclass.sys even running to cause these errors? Wouldn't the Microsoft mouse driver become inactive when a different mouse driver is installed? Or is mouclass.sys always running in the background? What if I just deleted the mouclass.sys driver...would this solve the errors or create more problems?
obd

 

[mainegeek]

Hello Onebigdog,
I had an odd problem on an ASUS A7N266. I know this is not the same board as you but I'm assumming the same Nforce chipset. I was running an XP2000+ and the system clock would fly. The hour hand moved as fast as a second hand would normally. This was intermitant. The OS was 98SE.
This was happening on an MSI board with the Nforce chipset also. Bios updates did not help and the only thing that seemed to correct this was to install WinXP. I researched this extensively and found this to be the only cure.

 

[kippy13]

mainegeek,
The problem descriped is nothing like the problem you were having....where did you see the link between them....they are both computers???

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[mainegeek]

Kippy13,
I know the problem isn't even remotely close to his. But the chipset and cpu are and I would suspect a power management issue before a mouse.

 

[kippy13]

Fair enough.....but looking in the event log points towards a mouse based driver........if it were a power management issue you would think that it would occur far more often than it does. Although I do agree that it could be hardware related.....

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[toned]

You should disable the Power management in the Display settings-screen saver-power.
Turn off any settings for standby and hibernate, and do the same in the bios.
And turn off your screen saver too.
I never have any of these enabled, I've seen to many problems caused by them.
I just turn off my monitor when I don't need it...

 

[onebigdog]

I have had my son turn off all power management in Windows and in the bios to see if that helps, although I am still curious about the mouclass.sys driver and why it is creating so many errors. I will try to get my son to look at what driver is currently being used by the mouse and maybe will even tell him to delete the Microsoft driver for good measure. Unfortunately, since his computer shut down only happens every so often, I will not be able to report any progress with these work arounds till it happens again. By the way, I had him uncheck in the System Failure section the automatic reboot so that if and when his computer shuts down maybe he will get a blue screen. Maybe we can make heads or tails out of the cryptic message that he will get to answer this crazy problem.
obd

 

[onebigdog]

Eureka!
I figured out the Possessed Computer reboot problem. After trying more fixes, including un-checking the “Automatic Reboot on System Failure in Startup and Recovery to get a blue screen error message the next time it happens. It happened again. It rebooted last night. Now its getting crazy since it should just go to a Blue Screen and not automatically reboot. This time my son casually mentioned, what turns out to be a VERY important piece of information, information that he had not mentioned before.
While sitting in the living room where the computer is he casually mentioned that there was a flickering of the lights which he says happens every so often. Maybe once a month. I asked him if at the same time the computer rebooted. He said, as a matter of fact, yes. Now normally that should not cause a problem since he has an APC battery Backup that the computer is connected to. I asked him to reboot to DOS. Then I had him pull the plug on the battery backup from the wall socket. Bingo! As soon as the plug was pulled the battery backup and the computer shut down. Obviously what has been happening is a combination of poor steady power in his old apartment building and a battery backup that is no longer functioning properly. I told him to go to Batteries Plus and replace the battery in the backup unit. I am confident that this will solve this mystery, once and for all. Whew!
obd

 

[kippy13]

What an absolute waste of time.

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Looking for the best answers:
faq222-2244
Keeping your system clear of malware:
faq608-4650
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Dont forget to post back with the eventual resolution.
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[BadBigBen]

Kippy13 - not really, at least this way some of us are warned (and got this info) to which when something like this happens again, we at least know what to check for...

mainegeek - there is/was an update that took care of the TIME problem for W98SE (if I remember correctly) from MICROSOFT... but don't quote me... it's been a long long long time ago, in another galaxy, far far away, that I used W98SE... at least 6 months...

Ben