Windows 95 - Premature shutdown

[Ron Braggins]

Time Computer - 200CPU - 64Mb RAM - 4.3Gb HDD - Windows 95 installed.
Increasingly, my PC shuts down prematurely either directly, without warning or, after the message 'it is now OK to shut down your computer' (eight times this evening, so far!). Or, the mouse freezes. Each time, of course, I have to reboot and lose any unsaved data. Incredibly frustrating!
Any suggestions please? I would consider installing W98, but could it be a hardware problem? In all other respects, the PC is fine.
Regards & thanks - Ron Braggins

[Mntsnow]

Ron. Welcome to the boards.

Have you made sure that the CPU is not overheating? Have you recently made any Software or hardware changes?

[This message has been edited by Mntsnow (edited 08-22-2000).]

[BFlurie]

You're right, installing W98 over a hardware problem isn't a solution (it's not a solution for almost anything IMHO). You're not getting ANY error messages? Hit Ctl-Alt-Del & shut down EVERYTHING 'cept Explorer.exe & SysTray. Stop any timed Screensavers, Power management features, and Antivirues running in background. Then see if the problem continues. Post back on this same thread.

[Ron Braggins]

Many thanks Mike for your prompt reply to my call for help. No, a hot CPU had not occurred to me, but before grabbing a screwdriver, I ought to answer your othwer queries and go into a little more detail.
I should first say yhat , in between the spells of sudden shutdowns, my PC works very well. Also, there are three different kinds of shutdowns:
The most frequent is by receiving the screen message one gets on a proper shutdown, i.e. 'It's now safe to turn off your computer', and it remains frozen at that point. A soft boot works here.
The secondis a completely without warning shutdown and immediate restart.
The third is a mouse freeze or, it disappears altogether. A Reset is needed here.
In all three cases, of course, I have to suffer the slings and arrows of the Scandisk run. But the HDD is perfectly OK and I often exit out of it.
I have tried deleting and reinstalling W95 to no avail. And going back to the factory settings with the Recovery Disk hasn't helped.
I haven't installed any new hardware since a scanner some twelve months back. Recent software includes pson PhotoDeluxe & PhotoSheet; IE 5.0; MS Money 2000 and Teso Online Shopping. But I cannot be sure which might have been before or after the problem.
If it were due to overheating of the CPU, wouldn't the problem be there all of the time? But I get long periods of uninterrupted use. now, for example, while drafting this note. Saving every 2/3 minutes, but there has been no need! Some time back I was told that this problem is typical of W95, after a couple of years, and that I should upgrade to W98. But we now have W2000 and will soon have Windows ME to consider. Could upgrading help?
Anyway, I thought I would get back to you first with the extra info and then stand by with screwdriver raised, ready to check the CPU.
Thanks again for your expert help.
Regards
Ron Braggins
P.S. Just checked. Earlier - eight shutdowns in 20 minutes, but has now been running for 95 minutes without shutting down once!

[BFlurie]

The problem isn't W95 per-say. You'd be sorely disappointed when you installed W98 or Win2K & it did the same thing, or probably worse. Sounds like a hardware, not a software problem since it occurs w/o any error message. Does your CPU have a fan on the heatsink? Case fans working? There's all kinds of possibilities -- overheating, power supply, video card, memory, CPU............ All I can suggest is getting a can of compressed air (made just for this kind of thing) & blowing out all the dust off the components inside your case. Get a CPU fan if you don't have one; they're cheap. Remove & carefully reinstall all ribbon cables and power cords. Make sure your memory is tightly seated. Might also remove & reseat any PCI & ISA cards. Others'll probably have some suggestions.

[This message has been edited by BFlurie (edited 08-25-2000).]

[Ron Braggins]

Since our last discussion I disabled power saving with no success (replaced) - cleaned thoroughly and checked tower with no success - removed A-V program with considerable success, i.e. I can now go for long periods without shutdown and the PC runs faster. However, although less often, I still get shutdowns. Added to the other kinds are illegal operations (pretty standard, I suppose)and errors in Registry messages requiring a shutdown to re-initialise. Also, a recurring problem with Microsoft File Transfer appearing on the Task Bar. Have copied this to a floppy and deleted from HD. Could this have any bearing on the Shutdown problem? any ideas please?

Ron Braggins

[senecadan]

You may want to download one of the registry cleaner programs and run it to clear up some of the errors you're getting. One site to try is: http://www.winfiles.com/

Also you may want to check for IRQ and DMA conflicts.

Senecadan

[Ron Braggins]

I thought that I should give you and everyone an update on ths problem.
I now get much longer periods of use without the shutdowns and this appears to have resulted from removing the A-V program, which I have not replaced as yet.
Three further points:
- I did download a registry cleaner as you suggested, but as I have had no further messeges of this nature, I have yet to actually use it. In any case, it seems such a radical sweep that I doubt that I would have the courage to try it.
- The shutdowns I do still suffer are immediately after booting up. It may shut down two or three times and then all is OK for the rest of the evening.
- Some of the shutdowns - and this a new departure - are the result of an illegal operation on the blue screen and with the message: An exception was caused at 0028: C2439FB in VxD.Somtimes I can continue by pressing any key - on other occasions, I have do a soft reboot.
By and large, things are now a lot better with your help, with faster running. But if you have any further ideas, I would be most grateful.
Ron Braggins

[BFlurie]

Was the registry cleaning program Microshaft's RegClean? If so, feel safe to use it 'cause it's actually quite conservative & doesn't go after alot of orphaned entries -- I've never had any problems using it w/W95. If the Reg file it generates is very long, it just tells you your registry had alot of junk in it!