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From: padgett%tccslr.dnet@uvs1.orl.mmc.com (Padgett Peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.virus
Subject: re: sudden reboot on PC (PC)
Message-ID: <0005.9011081406.AA17159@ubu.cert.sei.cmu.edu>
Date: 9 Nov 90 07:26:20 GMT
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Approved: krvw@sei.cmu.edu

Erik Fong writes:
>Subject: sudden reboot on PC (PC)
> my PC starts to reboot itself once or twice a day without
> any reason.
> My machine is Zenith 248/12, running DOS3.3+ and himem.sys, smartdrv
> is nstalled.

I have seen this more times than desired but the effect is usually
immediate both on the 386-25 in my den and the Zenith 248/386 at work.
The cause has always been something writing/executing into a BIOS area
in high memory. This normally occurs right after I decide to load
something into an "unused" area, and I find out that it was not unused
when either the system reboots continually or the screen puts on a
spectacular light show.

The latest excursion was caused by a faulty AboveBoard (just got the
RA from Intel) that made the system reboot immediately after
displaying the QEMM logo.  Consquently, since your system was working
& does not crash immediately on boot (from your description) I would
suspect a marginal ram chip might be the cause in this case, but you
never can tell.

							Padgett