PC issue-- mini*.dmp and sysdata.xml

Shurakai

Hey everyone. Thanks for your help in my last thread, I decided just to pick up a cheap PS/2 keyboard and be done with it.

Moving on, what I needed the keyboard for was to get into the bios, and chnage my boot settings so I could run memtest. Why memtest?

Click on the spoiler for the rather long-winded backstory.

My PC has been under the weather since I moved into my college dorm. At first, it began turning itself off at random times, I took it in to Mr. Bills (my tech guy, I know him pretty well and he runs a good business) and he had to warranty most of the computer parts because of electrical damage. So I went home with a brand new UPS and basically new computer and expected to be pleased. It began rebooting itself and giving me a blue screen around a week later. Took it back, he left it on and did a bunch of diagnostics and he couldn't repeat what happened, gave it back and said there wasn't anything wrong with it. Got it home, turned it on and 15 minutes later it flashed a blue screen at me and rebooted. Called him and told him it must be a perhipheral, he agreed and told me to start disconnecting things. So I did, and I got down to my keyboard and mouse and same problem.

Long story short: what the hell its rebooting for no reason yarr.

Now, it didn't always give me the whole "your computer has experienced a major error" blurb everytime it restarted, but when it did it gives me a mini032207-01.dmp and sysdata.xml as the problem files.

I've read up on these and found that it could very well be a hardware memory issue. Memtest to the rescue. I let it pass about 5 times and then I restart my computer and research some more. I found this solution on some random site:

"Delete the "USER DATA TEMP" File in local disk documents and settings and then delete the minidump folder in the windows folder and this should solve your problems. I havent had that problem now for about 8 months. Worked for me maybe it'll work for you. Good luck hope it works."

Is this safe? Will it help me? Are there better solutions? Am I fucked?

I can handle one random reboot a day, but it makes it impossible for me to do anything that requires saving without sweating profusely. Hell, even firefox remembers what sites I was visiting and restores my session. Id still like this thing to be actually working properly however.

Oh yea,I guess specs are in order, though they probably dont matter.

Motherboard:


CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2400 MHz (12 x 200) 3800+


Motherboard Name Gigabyte GA-K8N Ultra-SLI (2 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)


Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer


System Memory : 1024MB DDR400


BIOS Type Award Modular (12/05/05)


Communication Port Communications Port (COM1)


Communication Port Printer Port (LPT1)

Display:


Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6600 (256 MB)


3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6600 PCI-E


Monitor Samsung SyncMaster 910N/912N/913N/915N [19" LCD] (HVEY523008)

Multimedia:


Audio Adapter Realtek ALC850 @ nVIDIA nForce4 SLI (CK8-04) - Audio Codec Interface

Storage:


IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Parallel ATA Controller


IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller


IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Serial ATA Controller


Storage Controller SCSI/RAID Host Controller


Storage Controller Silicon Image SiI 3114 SoftRaid 5 Controller


Floppy Drive Floppy disk drive


Disk Drive Maxtor 6L250S0 (250 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)


Disk Drive ST3320620AS (320 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA-II)


Optical Drive OH5201S MHA629R SCSI CdRom Device


Optical Drive TSSTcorp CD/DVDW TS-H552U (DVD+R9:5x, DVD+RW:16x/4x, DVD-RW:12x/4x, DVD-ROM:16x, CD:40x/32x/48x DVD+RW/DVD-RW)


SMART Hard Disks Status OK

Partitions:


C: (NTFS) [ TRIAL VERSION ]


Z: (NTFS) 305243 MB (223466 MB free)


Total Size [ TRIAL VERSION ]

Input:


Keyboard HID Keyboard Device


Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard


Mouse HID-compliant mouse


Mouse HID-compliant mouse

Network:


Primary IP Address [ TRIAL VERSION ]


Primary MAC Address 00-0F-EA-8C-14-FC


Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8053 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller


Network Adapter NVIDIA nForce Networking Controller (70.6 [ TRIAL VERSION ])

Peripherals:


Printer HP LaserJet 1100 (MS)


FireWire Controller Texas Instruments TSB82AA2 1394B OHCI 1.1+ Compliant Link-Layer Controller (PHY: TI TSB81BA3)


Infrared Controller Infrared Port


USB1 Controller nVIDIA nForce4 SLI (CK8-04) - OHCI USB 1.1 Controller


USB2 Controller nVIDIA nForce4 SLI (CK8-04) - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller


USB Device American Power Conversion USB UPS


USB Device USB Human Interface Device


USB Device VGA SoC PC-Camera #3


Battery APC Battery BackUP

Shurakai

nothing? The most important thing I need is whether or not the deleting is safe. Even if you guys dont know anything else that would be helpful

Beazle

You can delete the temp folders with no problems.

Shurakai

the minidump folder as well?

embrik

Yep. Minidumps are just files that are created when your PC bluescreens. It takes a chunk of the memory (i.e. what's happening at that moment in frozen time) and saves it to a minidump file (or something larger, depending on your recovery preferences). Most average users have no use for these files, because they don't know what to do with them or even that they exist in the first place.
Go ahead and delete the files. It's unlikely that it'll help, but go for it. Do you see the bluescreens at all, or just the reboot? If you don't get to catch the bluescreen, Go to the System Control Panel -->Advanced tab --> Startup & Recovery settings button --> Uncheck "Automatically Restart". This will allow you to see the bluescreen error in all its glory, and write down anything that might be helpful (such as the name of the driver or hardware that caused the crash)

Hope this helps a bit!