Computer Woes

[dazzler]

Hey

My PC has a mind of its own. Every now and then why working away it just decides to reboot itself.:mad:

He is running windows XP and normally behaves 'imself.

Its too big to throw through the window so he may have to stay a little longer. I thought he may have been gettting hot but this is tassie after all and i chip the ice off the keyboard anyway. I cleaned the dust from inside the finned thing and fan with low pressure compressed air.

A loooooong shot...........would this be a software or hardware problem.

Cliff????

Anyone

cheers

dazzler

[Gumby]

Do you get a message saying it's rebooting or does it just turn off ?

[bennylaird]

Had a similar problem, tried just about everything, changed the power supply, reloaded XP, etc etc.

In the end it was the hard drive itself, had to replace it.

It would just reboot itself at random intervals.

[goat]

do you get a little pop up window telling you that the system is going to shut down in 60 seconds to save your work??? if so mate you have the "sasser worm". i hope it's some thing else simple

[journeyman Mick]

..................Its too big to throw through the window so he may have to stay a little longer......................

You haven't tried hard enough (or eaten enough weetbix for brekkie )
Frustrating piles of junk that they are, I hate 'em, I hope you can get it sorted.

Mick the luddite

[Ianab]

If it's just rebooting at random then it's probably hardware.

First suspect is a dead cooling fan, PC probably has at least 3. Run it with the covers off and ensure they are all working, especially the one in the power supply.

If all looks OK there you are really down to a process of elimination. A faulty power supply would be the next suspect, around this time you need an organ donor PC and start swapping out parts. Hard disk / ram / motherboard or CPU are also remote possibilities. But check the fans and power supply first. It will be fixable, but it may be a process of elimination, starting with the most likely suspects.

Cheers

Ian

[Cliff Rogers]

Hardware, suspect M/Board, how old is it & what brand of M/Board?

We are having a VERY high number of Gigabyte motherboards in the 1 to 2 year old range failing at present.

You may be lucky as it could just be a crook power supply.
You should be able to get an ATX PSU for about $40, try that first.

[mudgutts]

I find they make great anchors lol

[dazzler]

"thanks, it just goes click and then restarts as if nothing is wrong. Its a pentium 1100 with a 20gig HD with windows xp and another 20gig for storage.

Its ummmmm 4.5 yrs old which is what, 110 in dog years, "

Maybe he needs a rocking chair and a rest perhaps"

[Ianab]

We are having a VERY high number of Gigabyte motherboards in the 1 to 2 year old range failing at present.

Yup.. I seen some of them too.

Have a look at the power capacitors on the board, around the CPU socket. If there is gunge leaking out of them.. the board is on it's way out

Ian

[bennylaird]

[FONT=Arial][SIZE=2
Its ummmmm 4.5 yrs old which is what, 110 in dog years,

110 dog years and 4000 computer years, was around when they built the Pyramids....

A new hard drive will give you better speed and more space and not be to costly. I have been down the motherboard RAM power supply road, getting more and more pussed off. Borrow another hard drive, or change to your other 20G and your worries may dissappear.

[Daddles]

Just take it to your local PC repair shop and have a long chat with the sorcerer behind the counter. If it's obvious, he'll fix it in a jiff. If it's not, you'll need his resources to fix it anyway.

And remember, in this day and age, sometimes just trading it on a new box is sometimes the quickest and best fix. Computers these days are more disposable than many razor blades (no, I don't think that's good ... unless you're selling the rotten things)

Richard

[Bob38S]

Would this be a good time to say "I love my Mac?"


Sorry to hear of your woes
Bob

[Cliff Rogers]

.... Borrow another hard drive, or change to your other 20G and your worries may dissappear.

I don't agree. A faulty HDD usually doesn't cause intermittent restarts.
A faulty HDD causes things to go slow & speed up & go slow & then certain aps will close with an error.
Reboots without warning are usually the M/B or the PSU.

[namtrak]

Possibly overheating?

Although I think it may tend to freeze rather then reboot.

You could download a CPU temperature clock - small and free.

When in doubt Google is your friend.