system crashes on regular basis

My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

Well.. I finally gave up with it, after vista trashed my system... and then did so again, within hours of re-installing.
XP won't do what I want (develop websites with an addressable IIS website) so... I've installed Win-2003 server.
Now, I just have to work out how to get my Microsoft keyboard working again... what the hell do microsoft think they are saving the world from, by not supporting their own USB-BT radio, and hence making it impossible to use their own BT desktop.
One very P'd off customer.
"Mike" wrote:

My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

P.S. I will NOT be going back to VISTA... this is quite easily the WORST Beta-2 that MS have ever released (I was a survivor of the NT3.51->NT4 and NT4->NT5 debacles)… flaky as all hell and with almost no driver or application support… I will not put myself through this crap any more.
When MS have an SP2 of the next version… I’ll consider upgrading.
"Mike" wrote:

My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

Hey, Mike;
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Conversely, there are many people, Including myself, who are running Vista and are having relatively good results. In fact, I have not had one BSOD!
Is it possible an incompatible driver is responsible for your woes?
-- Mark
Keeping the fun in dysfunctional!
"Mike" wrote in message

P.S. I will NOT be going back to VISTA... this is quite easily the WORST Beta-2 that MS have ever released (I was a survivor of the NT3.51->NT4 and NT4->NT5 debacles)… flaky as all hell and with almost no driver or application support… I will not put myself through this crap any more.
When MS have an SP2 of the next version… I’ll consider upgrading.
"Mike" wrote:
My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

If it's a driver issue, then is a Microsoft Driver issue... as there was nothing installed that was not part of vista.
The machine is a HP D530... so it's not as if it's an unstable clone, or a machine so new that the HW is not supportable... and all the firmware if fully up-to-date.
Since installing Windows 2003 to replace vista... not even a hint of a hiccup.
I'll be sticking with this now, and giving vista the flick.
"Mark D. VandenBerg" wrote:

Hey, Mike;
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Conversely, there are many people, Including myself, who are running Vista and are having relatively good results. In fact, I have not had one BSOD!
Is it possible an incompatible driver is responsible for your woes?
-- Mark
Keeping the fun in dysfunctional!
"Mike" wrote in message P.S. I will NOT be going back to VISTA... this is quite easily the WORST Beta-2 that MS have ever released (I was a survivor of the NT3.51->NT4 and NT4->NT5 debacles)… flaky as all hell and with almost no driver or application support… I will not put myself through this crap any more.
When MS have an SP2 of the next version… I’ll consider upgrading.
"Mike" wrote:
My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

Hi, Mike.
Maybe too late to even ask you this, but did you change the default setting for what to do on System Failure? The default is to Automatically Restart, putting you back at the POST with no clue as to the underlying problem.
Let's see. I had these steps memorized in WinXP, but in Vista... Press the Windows key + Pause/Break; this brings up the System window. Then click Advanced system settings | Advanced | Startup and Recovery / Settings. Under System failure, remove the check from Automatically restart. Next time, instead of a POST screen, you should see a BSOD - with codes telling which driver failed. It won't help much with hardware problems, of course, but it should tell you if anything in software is causing your problem.
It sounds like you are an experienced user and you probably already thought of that, but sometimes we overlook the simple stuff.
As Mark said, I like Vista. This latest build (5456) is much better than what we first saw last summer. There are still bugs, of course, but I'm optimistic about what we'll see when it finally goes Gold.
RC -- R. C. White, CPA [RC] San Marcos, TX rc@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (currently running Windows Mail 7 in Vista x64 Build 5456)
"Mike" wrote in message

If it's a driver issue, then is a Microsoft Driver issue... as there was nothing installed that was not part of vista.
The machine is a HP D530... so it's not as if it's an unstable clone, or a machine so new that the HW is not supportable... and all the firmware if fully up-to-date.
Since installing Windows 2003 to replace vista... not even a hint of a hiccup.
I'll be sticking with this now, and giving vista the flick.
"Mark D. VandenBerg" wrote:
Hey, Mike;
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Conversely, there are many people, Including myself, who are running Vista and are having relatively good results. In fact, I have not had one BSOD!
Is it possible an incompatible driver is responsible for your woes?
-- Mark
Keeping the fun in dysfunctional!
"Mike" wrote in message P.S. I will NOT be going back to VISTA... this is quite easily the WORST Beta-2 that MS have ever released (I was a survivor of the NT3.51->NT4 and NT4->NT5 debacles)… flaky as all hell and with almost no driver or application support… I will not put myself through this crap any more.
When MS have an SP2 of the next version… I’ll consider upgrading.
"Mike" wrote:
My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

No, I didn’t do that, but to be honest… I don’t see the advantage of a BSoD over a hard reboot… when the system is not running anything other than what MS installed… i.e. Why would I want to debug MS’s work for them? my role as a beta-tester is to debug the stuff they DIDN’T write or can’t test themselves.
I have a Hewlett-Packard workstation (modern, but not the very latest new-fangled toy) which ran Win-XP perfectly, and is now running Win-2003 perfectly… but which crashed every day running Vista… and eventually obliterated my system disk.
I fully appreciate the value of beta testing, but to have a system crashing like this, is not what I call beta-testing… it’s what I call masochism.
You are perfectly correct that MS will eventually sort Vista out… as they did with NT4 and W2K … but they are DEFINITELY now pushing the schedule on this **WAY** too fast, in order to satisfy their need for something to sell (and something for ISV’s to sell off) and hence keep the market speculators placated.
MS continue to fall for the same old trap, with ALL of their products… avoid selling minor upgrades, over-specify the next major upgrade and under-estimate the resources needed to achieve it.
The net result is ALWAYS the same with MS… late delivery, dropped features and a shipped product full of bugs.
MS need to learn from their own history… and target minor-upgrades, shipped on a more regular basis.
NT3.51 -> NT4.0 == PAIN NT4.0 -> NT5.0 == PAIN NT5.0 -> NT5.1 == NO-PAIN NT5.0/1 -> NT5.2 == NO-PAIN NT5.0/1/2 -> NT6.0 == PAIN
You would think that SOMEONE at Microsoft would look at this and figure.. hey, you know what?? We tend to ship major upgrades, rather than minor upgrades… and every time we ship a major upgrade, we get a whole bunch of problems and a heap of p’d-off customers… perhaps we should focus on shipping/selling more minor upgrades and only ship major upgrades when they are truly ready for prime-time.
Perhaps we could even satisfy that whole "Software Assurance" thing we suckered people into, if we did that.
"R. C. White" wrote:

Hi, Mike.
Maybe too late to even ask you this, but did you change the default setting for what to do on System Failure? The default is to Automatically Restart, putting you back at the POST with no clue as to the underlying problem.
Let's see. I had these steps memorized in WinXP, but in Vista... Press the Windows key + Pause/Break; this brings up the System window. Then click Advanced system settings | Advanced | Startup and Recovery / Settings. Under System failure, remove the check from Automatically restart. Next time, instead of a POST screen, you should see a BSOD - with codes telling which driver failed. It won't help much with hardware problems, of course, but it should tell you if anything in software is causing your problem.
It sounds like you are an experienced user and you probably already thought of that, but sometimes we overlook the simple stuff.
As Mark said, I like Vista. This latest build (5456) is much better than what we first saw last summer. There are still bugs, of course, but I'm optimistic about what we'll see when it finally goes Gold.
RC -- R. C. White, CPA [RC] San Marcos, TX rc@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (currently running Windows Mail 7 in Vista x64 Build 5456)
"Mike" wrote in message If it's a driver issue, then is a Microsoft Driver issue... as there was nothing installed that was not part of vista.
The machine is a HP D530... so it's not as if it's an unstable clone, or a machine so new that the HW is not supportable... and all the firmware if fully up-to-date.
Since installing Windows 2003 to replace vista... not even a hint of a hiccup.
I'll be sticking with this now, and giving vista the flick.
"Mark D. VandenBerg" wrote:
Hey, Mike;
Sorry to hear of your troubles. Conversely, there are many people, Including myself, who are running Vista and are having relatively good results. In fact, I have not had one BSOD!
Is it possible an incompatible driver is responsible for your woes?
-- Mark
Keeping the fun in dysfunctional!
"Mike" wrote in message P.S. I will NOT be going back to VISTA... this is quite easily the WORST Beta-2 that MS have ever released (I was a survivor of the NT3.51->NT4 and NT4->NT5 debacles)… flaky as all hell and with almost no driver or application support… I will not put myself through this crap any more.
When MS have an SP2 of the next version… I’ll consider upgrading.
"Mike" wrote:
My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

I recently started experiencing spontaneous reboots on my 5384-build system, myself.
I'm not sure what causes it, I'll just be in the middle of something and the system will just drop into a reboot.
It looks like an update was sent over and installed on the 12th, and that seems to be about the right timeframe. I wonder if there is something in that update that is causing the problem.
"Mike" wrote:

My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

Hi, CWB.
Same basic advice that I gave Mike: Remove the check from Automatic restart on System failure.
Spontaneous reboots can be caused by hardware or by software. The BSOD is your friend if the fault is in software, because Windows detects that it is about to reboot and presents the BSOD instead. We non-experts may need some help in interpreting the codes, but they should hold the clues to what is causing the problem. New updates might have included a faulty driver or, especially in a beta like Vista, some new code that is not fully compatible with the old.
Hardware problems don't generally produce a BSOD. When the power cord is yanked from the computer, the system has no time to write a log or a BSOD or anything else. Less drastic hardware problems, like overheating or faulty cables, also don't usually produce error codes that can be written to a log or BSOD.
So, if you remove the instruction to Automatically restart and you still don't get a BSOD, then start looking for a hardware problem. If you do get a BSOD that you can't figure out, post it here VERBATIM and somebody probably can tell you where to look next.
RC -- R. C. White, CPA [RC] San Marcos, TX rc@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (currently running Windows Mail 7 in Vista x64 Build 5456)
"CWB" wrote in message

I recently started experiencing spontaneous reboots on my 5384-build system, myself.
I'm not sure what causes it, I'll just be in the middle of something and the system will just drop into a reboot.
It looks like an update was sent over and installed on the 12th, and that seems to be about the right timeframe. I wonder if there is something in that update that is causing the problem.
"Mike" wrote:
My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.

All righty,
I'll try it and see what happens.
"R. C. White" wrote:

Hi, CWB.
Same basic advice that I gave Mike: Remove the check from Automatic restart on System failure.
Spontaneous reboots can be caused by hardware or by software. The BSOD is your friend if the fault is in software, because Windows detects that it is about to reboot and presents the BSOD instead. We non-experts may need some help in interpreting the codes, but they should hold the clues to what is causing the problem. New updates might have included a faulty driver or, especially in a beta like Vista, some new code that is not fully compatible with the old.
Hardware problems don't generally produce a BSOD. When the power cord is yanked from the computer, the system has no time to write a log or a BSOD or anything else. Less drastic hardware problems, like overheating or faulty cables, also don't usually produce error codes that can be written to a log or BSOD.
So, if you remove the instruction to Automatically restart and you still don't get a BSOD, then start looking for a hardware problem. If you do get a BSOD that you can't figure out, post it here VERBATIM and somebody probably can tell you where to look next.
RC -- R. C. White, CPA [RC] San Marcos, TX rc@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (currently running Windows Mail 7 in Vista x64 Build 5456)

So I tried what you suggested, and still got a spontaneous reboot. And now, after coming back, everything runs more slowly, or not at all. I noticed that the reboots ocurred whenever Firefox was open, so I thought I'd try uninstalling it and reinstalling it, but the uninstaller won't run.
Kind of a bummer. Everything else worked fine up til a few days ago.
"R. C. White" wrote:

Hi, CWB.
Same basic advice that I gave Mike: Remove the check from Automatic restart on System failure.
Spontaneous reboots can be caused by hardware or by software. The BSOD is your friend if the fault is in software, because Windows detects that it is about to reboot and presents the BSOD instead. We non-experts may need some help in interpreting the codes, but they should hold the clues to what is causing the problem. New updates might have included a faulty driver or, especially in a beta like Vista, some new code that is not fully compatible with the old.
Hardware problems don't generally produce a BSOD. When the power cord is yanked from the computer, the system has no time to write a log or a BSOD or anything else. Less drastic hardware problems, like overheating or faulty cables, also don't usually produce error codes that can be written to a log or BSOD.
So, if you remove the instruction to Automatically restart and you still don't get a BSOD, then start looking for a hardware problem. If you do get a BSOD that you can't figure out, post it here VERBATIM and somebody probably can tell you where to look next.
RC -- R. C. White, CPA [RC] San Marcos, TX rc@grandecom.net Microsoft Windows MVP (currently running Windows Mail 7 in Vista x64 Build 5456)
"CWB" wrote in message I recently started experiencing spontaneous reboots on my 5384-build system, myself.
I'm not sure what causes it, I'll just be in the middle of something and the system will just drop into a reboot.
It looks like an update was sent over and installed on the 12th, and that seems to be about the right timeframe. I wonder if there is something in that update that is causing the problem.
"Mike" wrote:
My Vista-B2 system crashes on a regular basis.
However... it's not just your everyday BSoD, but it actually blows the entire OS out of the water and commences a reboot.
If left running overnight, I invariably find the system sitting at a POST prompt in the morning... telling me that my SATA harddrive is missing from the BIOS... WTF??
On the occassions when I've been there to witness what happens... the system seems to start scanning the disk for something... the CPU fan goes ballistic... the UI becomes totally unresponsive (not even Ctrl+Alt+Del will get it's attention) and eventually... KaBOOM!!! ...we are now in reboot
In a new twist... this morning the system still had the screen-saver logo displayed... but the UI was totally unresponsive and the CPU fan was throttled up for V2... rotate... no idea how long the engine had been screaming like this, and the only option was index-to-power.