Recurring System Crashes With Windows XP Professional : Greetings, My Gateway 2000 Pentium II (450 MHz) system is just over 10 years old and has definitely seen better days. [I’m currently shopping for a 2008 replacement.] I also use MS Windows XP Professional Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 3 Build 2600 … and my Internet Explorer is Version 7.0.5730.12 Build 75730 with Cipher Strength of 128-Bit. The first indication something was wrong was when Adobe prompted me to upgrade their Acrobat Standard program from 7.0 to something like 7.0.1 a while back. I tried doing so but it froze up before completion. So I cancelled out. The problem remains unresolved and I was unable to remove the program through Control Functions. This all seemed related to a problem with “ActiveX flash drive” (?). In recent weeks I started getting a number of system crashes (2 of them today alone) where the system automatically reboots to display a message that reads “The system has recovered from a serious error.” [I made some Print Screen captures and saved these as MS Word 2003 files if anyone is interested. These show the actual display screens and what they said including technical codes, etc.] Checking into this further I learned I had an “Ethernet Networking Problem.” I followed the screen prompts that eventually led to my Windows Update History. Now I’ve been receiving Windows XP automatic updates regularly since the spring of 2005. All have been received successfully except the following 2008 entries: Security Update for Windows XP (KB952954), Tuesday, August 26, 2008 [FAILED ?] Windows Service Pack 3 (KB936929), Wednesday, August 13, 2008 [CANCELLED] The following additional errors were received between April 2005 and December 2007: Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474), December 28, 2007 [CANCELLED] Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP, Tuesday, November 27, 2007 [FAILED ?] Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474), Tuesday, April 03, 2007 [FAILED ?] Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474), Tuesday, March 20, 2007 [FAILED ?] Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP, Tuesday, February 20, 2007 [CANCELLED] Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP, Sunday, December 10, 2006 [FAILED ?] Windows Internet Explorer 7 for Windows XP, Tuesday, November 21, 2006 [CANCELLED] Windows Genuine Advantage Notification (KB905474), Tuesday, June 6, 2006 [FAILED ?] Security Update for Windows XP (KB913446), Wednesday, February 15, 2006 [CANCELLED] Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool – April 2005 (KB890830) Friday, April 15, 2005 [FAILED ?] BTW … on each system re-boot I did “Send Error Report.” Were these supposed to initiate some corrective active on the part of Microsoft?? What do I do now please. Thanks. shamrock838

Does you gateway computer have an AMD processor inside? Click on the link below. You should run a system cleaner too. CCleaner is a good one. Use the cleaner and the registry modules. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/KB9... http://www.ccleaner.com/download

I have had similar behaviour due to hardware problems. 1. At the age your computer is I would think that the capacitors in the power supply or on the motherboard would be very dodgy. If they are swollen, or leaking brown goo, then they have gone "gassy" and could be causing noise on the dc supply lines, causing the comp to turn off and reboot. 10 years is well past use-by-date. The real answer here is to throw out your tired old system. 2. Running XP Pro on a 450mHz machine is like asking your comp to run up Mt Everest dragging a bag of cement. XP Pro needs at least a 1gHz processor and 1gb of fast memory. Again, XP would place extra demands on the memory and power supply. 3. The Genuine Advantage Notice and refused downloads prompt me to ask is your copy of Windows genuine? - sorry to be blunt but it sounds like it's blocking updates because it can't find the right serial key. Honestly, don't persist any longer with this antique computer, trade it in on the latest and you will be blown away by the high performance and speed of todays machines. Take you old hard-drive in and have essential files copied to a folder on your new one, or put it in a USB2 caddy so you can access vital files (as read only). Where have you been all this time man??

I don't disagree with response 2, except that XP Pro really does not need at least 1gb of fast memory. 512 MB is certainly sufficient.

Yes I agree with kx5m2g. Even 256MB isn't bad as long as you don't run too many applications at once. 450MHz is fine for XP. Just because a system is old doesn't mean it has bad capacitors. I have a Gateway 2000 motherboard. I also have a Gateway 2000 PC too that I picked up at a yard sale last summer. The capacitors on both motherboards are all fine. FYI, Gateway 2000 PCs can actually be upgraded quite a bit! You can put up to a 1.4GHz Pentium 3 / Celeron processor in them, and up to 768MB of RAM (384MB is the max on some Gateway 2000 versions). It's still not the fastest system in the world, but it's pretty snappy to say the least! A big jump from prior the upgrade. As for your situation, I wouldn't rule out bad capacitors. The only thing to do is slide the lid off and look inside. Your power supply may be going out too. Failing RAM is also a possibility. If you're shopping for a new computer, I don't quite understand why you're posting about your old system. WinSimple Software