Random Restarts

[Celegorm]

ok, i'm typing this for my brother. his computer has started restarting its self randomly. it started in-frquently, and has gotten worse (three times in the past 3 hours).

the only clue to whats going on that i get is the following from event veiwer:
"Error code 100000d1, Parameter f6bc8c60, Parameter2 00000002, parameter3 00000000, Parameter4 f6b73a80"

microsofts explanation is "Follows Blue Screen error. User Action: none. Solution: unknown."

do any of you know wahts going on? all drivers are up 2 date. i have even tried rolled back versions. All anti-virus and male-ware programs are comming up clean. Hard ware looks to be in good shape and i hope its not the issue, but before turning it in for repairs, i'd like to hear what some of you have to say.

[edit] i have googled the error code, to no avail.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

I have no clue what the heck that error message means. Try reformatting the hard drive. Use a utility to wipe everything clean. Then use the Windows XP CD to reformat and reinstall the OS. Parition it if you wish from the CD.

 

[Celegorm]

sorry, probally should mentioned it, but thats been done... its was about a month after the reformat that it started again.

 

[TRDCorolla1]

At this point, it is still hard to pinpoint where the problem resides. What you could've done is right after the reformat, reinstall Windows XP and just the bare essentials like driver updates. Run if for awhile to see if errors occur. If not, then install virus protection and firewall, then go online to get Microsoft updates. Test that out for a week to see how that goes. Then install Office and test that out and so on and so forth until you find the culprit. If it crashes on you prematurely, it may be hardware issue.

Try installing a diagnostic utility such as Fix-It Utilities which includes powerful diagnostic tools to aid in finding problems with your system. SMARTDiskCheck Hard Disk Failure Early Warning System notifies you when your SMART-compatible hard drive motor is having trouble, before the drive fails and your data is toast. PCDiagnostics checks and reports on your installed system hardware including memory, hard drives, serial and parallel ports, video and sound cards, DVD/CD drives, and more. It pinpoints errors and identifies possible causes of trouble. SystemExplorer scans your system and provides a complete list of system statistics. SystemMonitors keeps an eye on your system resources and warns you when monitored resources reach critical levels. ErrorTracker logs all Windows errors messages to assist in troubleshooting system problems.

Those will help to determine hardware faults and possibly pinpoint exact replacement if necessary.