Computer randomly restarting

[Zylawy]

Its a rather older computer, and a friend who doesnt have a lot of
money asked me to look at it for him.

Its an Intel P3 450 Mhz, 512 MB RAM, 40 Gig HD secondary 15 Gig primary
and honestly an unknowen motherboard. I search the entire thing for a
name or brand, even grabed the serial number of the POST and even ran a
tool to see if it could find the name nothing.

The computer is running Windows XP Pro SP2 and recently just randomly
restarts. It restarts at will, and it even restarted in BIOS

I'm trying to determin if its the motherboard or the powersupply. the
powersupply isnt origional only 4 months old or so. Is there a way to
determin which one it is?

and if I uncheck the automatic restart option and dont get a blue
screen, would that tell me anything more?

Thanks

 

[Zylawy]

bump

 

[Smoker~]

Its a rather older computer, and a friend who doesnt have a lot of
money asked me to look at it for him.

Its an Intel P3 450 Mhz, 512 MB RAM, 40 Gig HD secondary 15 Gig primary
and honestly an unknowen motherboard. I search the entire thing for a
name or brand, even grabed the serial number of the POST and even ran a
tool to see if it could find the name nothing.

The computer is running Windows XP Pro SP2 and recently just randomly
restarts. It restarts at will, and it even restarted in BIOS

I'm trying to determin if its the motherboard or the powersupply. the
powersupply isnt origional only 4 months old or so. Is there a way to
determin which one it is?

and if I uncheck the automatic restart option and dont get a blue
screen, would that tell me anything more?

Try a different power supply. One you know works good. Was new hardware
added just before this started happening? Could be a lot of dust causing the
problem or a lot of nicotine residue. Is there adequate cooling inside the
case?

 

[Guest]

My old AMD 350 MHZ did that and it turned out to be the hard drive.

 

[Malke]

Its a rather older computer, and a friend who doesnt have a lot of
money asked me to look at it for him.

Its an Intel P3 450 Mhz, 512 MB RAM, 40 Gig HD secondary 15 Gig
primary and honestly an unknowen motherboard. I search the entire
thing for a name or brand, even grabed the serial number of the POST
and even ran a tool to see if it could find the name nothing.

The computer is running Windows XP Pro SP2 and recently just randomly
restarts. It restarts at will, and it even restarted in BIOS

I'm trying to determin if its the motherboard or the powersupply. the
powersupply isnt origional only 4 months old or so. Is there a way to
determin which one it is?

and if I uncheck the automatic restart option and dont get a blue
screen, would that tell me anything more?

Here are general hardware troubleshooting steps:
http://www.elephantboycomputers.com/page2.html#Hardware_Troubleshooting

Don't bother trying to get into Windows - the hardware failures are
occuring long before (in computer time) the operating system loads.

Malke

 

[Zylawy]

Some times it doesnt occure for hours, I even believe it made it
through a day. hardware changes was added only 3 weeks before the first
restart.

 

[Malke]

Some times it doesnt occure for hours, I even believe it made it
through a day. hardware changes was added only 3 weeks before the
first restart.

Same answer - troubleshoot the hardware. Could be bad RAM, bad power
supply, etc.

Malke

 

[Zylawy]

what are good memory, harddrive dionotics programs? and where can I
aquire these programs. also what are the chances that it could be the
motherboard?

 

[paulmd]

what are good memory, harddrive dionotics programs? and where can I
aquire these programs. also what are the chances that it could be the
motherboard?

in order:

memtest86, seatools. Bad motherboard is a good chance given age. Look
for bulging or leaking capacitors. Dust is another possibility, given
its age. It acts as an insulator, and restricts airflow. If you, or a
neighbor has an air compressor, use it. Otherwise go for the canned
air.

 

[V Green]

There's another reason for random reboots now:

http://www.glop.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=334

scroll down to Uncle_Mart's post of 03/15.

 

[Malke]

There's another reason for random reboots now:

http://www.glop.org/forum/viewtopic.php?id=334

scroll down to Uncle_Mart's post of 03/15.

That was *extremely* helpful. Thanks so much. I'd read something about
this since I was following the Sony debacle, but it had slipped my
mind. It's another thing to check with the end user. I've added the
manual uninstallation method to my bag of tricks and bookmarked the
Boycott Starforce page with the list of games.

Thanks again, V. Green!

Malke