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Really annoying PC problem...random re-boots
Alan B - 8/4/08 at 02:37 PM

Problem as above.

PC will re-boot without warning at anything from 20 minute to 3 hour intervals. It's not a complete power loss as it comes back up by itself..just as if it's restarting.

It happened a while back and virus scan seemed to fix it..but now it has returned.

Any ideas?..it is driving me mental (short drive I admit)

Alan

Benzine - 8/4/08 at 02:42 PM

Could be something as simple as a faulty power/reset button, that's happened to me before.

Mr Whippy - 8/4/08 at 02:42 PM

do you have the option to got back to an earlier saved version of the system? that's what I do when it goes tits up.

twybrow - 8/4/08 at 02:42 PM

Mine does this! I am curious as what others say.... Mine also comes up with Kernel problems. I am thinking a format and re-install might be the only way forward.

vinny1275 - 8/4/08 at 02:43 PM

Getting hot, or getting a blue screen, then rebooting? To tell if it's a blue screen, right-click on My Computer, go to Properties, go to the Advanced tab, and press the Startup and recovery button. in teh System Failure area, take the tick out of the box that says "automatically restart".

Next time it happens, you'll just get the blue screen of death, with an error message. make a note of that and search Microsoft or google for it - it's normally a dodgy device driver or something that causes it.

HTH


Vince

Alan B - 8/4/08 at 02:44 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Benzine
Could be something as simple as a faulty power/reset button, that's happened to me before.


Cheers,

I thought that too...but if I simply interupt the power to simulate that, it doesn't reboot....very puzzling

meany - 8/4/08 at 02:44 PM

my old pc used to that (win98se) never dis get to the bottom of it

vinny1275 - 8/4/08 at 02:46 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
do you have the option to got back to an earlier saved version of the system? that's what I do when it goes tits up.


Mr Whippy, do you do anything all day but post on here? Every post I look at was either posted by you or replied to by you!! Don't let the boss catch you with the web logs.....

Alan B - 8/4/08 at 02:46 PM

quote:
Originally posted by vinny1275
Getting hot, or getting a blue screen, then rebooting? To tell if it's a blue screen, right-click on My Computer, go to Properties, go to the Advanced tab, and press the Startup and recovery button. in teh System Failure area, take the tick out of the box that says "automatically restart".

Next time it happens, you'll just get the blue screen of death, with an error message. make a note of that and search Microsoft or google for it - it's normally a dodgy device driver or something that causes it.

HTH


Vince


Sounds worth a try...cheers....no blue screeen yet as I've seen but I will try your idea..

Mr Whippy - 8/4/08 at 02:50 PM

quote:
Originally posted by vinny1275
quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
do you have the option to got back to an earlier saved version of the system? that's what I do when it goes tits up.


Mr Whippy, do you do anything all day but post on here? Every post I look at was either posted by you or replied to by you!! Don't let the boss catch you with the web logs.....


the boss is on the web booking holiday...

I have this site on the screen all day, easy work here most of the time

[Edited on 8/4/08 by Mr Whippy]

mackei23b - 8/4/08 at 03:01 PM

Blaster virus used to do this with XP

vinny1275 - 8/4/08 at 03:04 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Mr Whippy
the boss is on the web booking holiday...

I have this site on the screen all day, easy work here most of the time

[Edited on 8/4/08 by Mr Whippy]


Fairy snuff.........

r1_pete - 8/4/08 at 03:09 PM

Turn automatic recovery off, then run virus scan to get rid of anything nasty, I cant remember which bug it was but there was one which recovered itself via auto recovery following a virus scan.

As already suggested check connections etc, also that the motherboard is well insulated from the case, I've seen an occurence of this where the case just touched the back of the board, (heat expansion etc), earthed something out, wiped the bios, and caused a re-boot.

greggers - 8/4/08 at 03:35 PM

Could also be cr*p RAM.

I had this problem with an old PC went through and changed almost every component before I changed the RAM, which finally did the trick.

and before someone says a memory diag tool should pick up any errors none I tried ever did.

If you have two sticks of RAM take one out and try it, if it still does it put the other one back in. Failing that change all the RAM.

viatron - 8/4/08 at 04:01 PM

just had exactly this issue with a customers machine, faulty power supply. have also seen it with faulty ram.

jlparsons - 8/4/08 at 05:37 PM

Your power supply could be packing in. Go into your bios settings, there should be a page in there telling you what voltages are being produced. If they're low, there's your problem.

Alan B - 15/4/08 at 12:23 AM

Well this is what I did.....I took the side cover off knowing that it must affect the cooling one way or another.....and it's not crashed since.

So I assume it must be a overheating problem causing the random re-boots..

Thanks for all the good help.