PC closing down....help

[renfrew]

Twice this evening my PC has closed itself down and then restarted.
Could this be a sign of something failing?
Could it have been a been a momentary blip in the electricity supply?

[dazdaz1]

Did your pc display any screen error message before, I presume re-booting?

Edited to say...Had the same prob on a lappie.....Memory chip fault.

[mixture]

Self-installing Windows Updates followed by a reboot ?

[renfrew]

A screen did come up with some choices but the reboot then started before I did anything.

Not a windows update.I am familiar with them.

[jimtherev]

Hottest day of the year so far. Had a look at the fan intake: any dust? If so, off with the case cover and have a look at the CPU. My old pc shut down a couple of summers back - I was astonished to see how much compacted fluff filled the gaps between the fins on the heat sink... and the fan looked as if someone had coated it in felt.

[Mike-Bracknell]

A screen did come up with some choices but the reboot then started before I did anything.

Not a windows update.I am familiar with them.

You have 2 options to swiftly resolve this:

1) Note down the error message and options, and report it back to us here.

2) Boot into Safe Mode, and try a system restore to prior to your issues occurring.

If your choice of #2 above fails to work, you will probably have to commence anti-malware checking. If so, ask and i'll send you the link to my 'how to' document.

Cheers,
Mike.

[renfrew]

Thanks Jim and Mike.
I will have a look inside and will come back when it happens again.

[Seat65B]

Had the Blue Screen of Death on two of our computers recently. Both running Vista.

You might try BlueScreenView, a free program from NirSoft - freeware utilities: password recovery, system utilities, desktop utilities (http://www.nirsoft.net) This analyses the minidump made when the system crashes and points to possible causes. In my case, it pointed to Avast, which combined with a Vista update might have been the cause. Upgraded Avast to the latest version, and (touch wood) no issues since.

[deltapapa]

I had that whilst in NZ with the laptop I took, after doing it 5-6 times throughout the week it failed to to start completely and was diagnosed as a motherboard fault - luckily as I couldn't back it up being away from home I could buy a casing for the hard drive and use it as an external.

[AnthonyGA]

Twice this evening my PC has closed itself down and then restarted.
Could this be a sign of something failing?

Overheating (fan failure or excessive dust) or a device driver bug are the main causes of unexpected reboots. If the machine does not want to reboot, overheating may be the issue. If it reboots with no problem, it's more likely to be a driver.

Check that all fans are running. Blow out any accumulated dust. Make a note of what you are doing when the machine reboots.

Failures caused by drivers are almost always caused by video drivers, which always contain bugs. Updating the driver may help, although in the case of video drivers you are often just trading one set of serious system-crashing bugs for another.

Sometimes a failing power supply, motherboard, or CPU may cause unexpected reboots.

If the reboots increase in frequency, it's probably hardware. If they do not increase in frequency, it's probably a driver.

[renfrew]

Thank you.
I opened the case last night and got rid of some dust.
If it happens again I will note what the screen says and come back.