Help Please - PC randomly restarts. *SOLVED!*
 

Hi chaps,

I have a wee problem - My PC randomly restarts itself, for no apparent reason.
There are other issues too; The PC takes ages to boot up (desktop icons especially, despite having a relatively uncluttered DT), and Internet browsing can be a little on the slow side.

I'm running Windows XP, AV software is AVG, firewall is ZoneAlarm.
A virus scan has revealed nothing.

Over to you...

Cheers,

Don

Hi,

Aging power box ?

Hi,
I have just been through this. My computer would just randomly restart, usually when a game or film was launched.
I checked the event viewer to see what the problem was - nothing, just that the computer restarted.
I flashed the BIOS with an update. Still restarts.
I ran RAM and graphics card tests. Still restarts.
Unplugged the RAM and graphics cards and reseated them. Still restarts.

Checked the PSU and found that, despite it being an 850W PSU, it was only providing 16A across each 12V rail, therefore when PC was launching a graphically intense program, there was insufficient amperage from the PSU to power the processor, graphics card and other bits plugged in.

Picked up a brand-name 1050W PSU with 87.5 amps off a single 12v rail yesterday. No more problems with restarts. Hooray!

I was pulling my hair out as it was a process of elimination to work out why the PC was restarting, and it was a gamble that it was the PSU.

critter - I would advocate this as step towards finding the problem. Worth a try. You did not specify which 'virus scan' you ran. Again, the advice here commonly is Malwarebytes and if the preceding does not allow you to track the fault, for persistent boot-up/odd events run a boot-time scan with something like Avast or Avira.

Cheers for the replies, chaps.
Forgot to mention in my originalpost - The problem only started after I'd downloaded and installed the last MS update.

BOAC,
The virus scan was performed by my AVG prog; first the "Scan Whole Computer" option, followed by the "Rootkit Scan".
Someone on another Forum also suggested Malwarebytes.
I'll give it a whirl and report back.

Rev I. Tin & jcjeant,
I'll check the PSU. Although it is the original unit (PC is around 5 years old), it seems to cope OK with the few online browser games I play, one of which is quite demanding on the system.
Could it be a dust build-up?
Again, I shall check when I have some spare time.

Are there any other options to consider?

Check graphics cards drivers are up to date. A program could be a bit too much for it now and again.

Also concur with BOAC's untick 'Automatically restart' in System properties. That'll be the easiest thing to start with.

Give Msconfig a look at for your programmes that run at startup. That may improve start times.

PS. A 'relatively uncluttered Desktop should have no more than 10 icons on it!

PPS. How much free hard drive space do you have on the drive that Windows is installed on?

Read Windows restarts without warning. and report the error here

Try safe mode and report results

Run a boot time scan and report results.

Call back next year :8

Hello again chaps,

Well, I think it's a case of "problem solved"...

I finally managed to get an error report out of the obstinate p.o.s. - AFTER I'd tried all of your suggestions!
Googling said error report revealed there was a problem with my graphics card.

A quick visit to a well-known PC superstore resulted in me leaving clutching a shiny new GPU (and 45 notes lighter in the wallet department).

Thanks for all your help and suggestions!

Kind regards,

Don (critter592)

Duff reset switch on case?

It's happened to me....

Mac

:ok:

Overheat?... or PSU overload
 

I've had the same prob several times over the years.
MY PC now runs with no side panels to aid ventilation and the PSU is 1000+Watts (Power causes increased temp output!)
I've improved from lots of 500GB HDDs to 2x 2TB HDDs with 2 optical drives to reduce power usage, so I agree with the above, it's probably not temp, but power usage causing the re-boots

"My PC now runs with no side panels to aid ventilation"

Unless you don't have a proper fan flow-through setup this worsens the cooling.

:(

Mac

Why does no one ever think to look in the event viewer when that is exactly why MS provide it in windows?:ugh:

Yep its happened to me too - a tiny bloody piece of plastic
caused it. Of course this was after hours of diagnosises of
HD, BIOS updates, MSCONFIG runarounds, processor tests
RAM tests with multiple reseats, guru consultations etc.

In desperation I took it round to an old bloke at the puter
shop who had it fixed in 3 mins. :ugh: