Computer randomly reboots

[IS]

My computer will just all of a sudden go through a restart process.
I have tried to reinstall XP. I also disabled anything that could be a
hardware conflict in the BIOS soundcards, joystic video card etc. But it
still kept doing it.

It's very annoying because when it happens there are no questions asked and
all work is completely lost.

Can anyone tell me what could be going on? Or how to isolate the problem?
I don't know much about comptuer so details would be greately appreciated.

Thanks.

IS.

 

[Raoul]

Have you tried scanning for viruses?

 

[IS]

Yes.
This started happening way before the Blaster worm came about.
I always have the latest virus definitions.

Thanks.

IS.

 

[Bern]

When I had such a problem, it turned out to be hardware. Both my memory and
hard drive had problems.

You can download a torture tester:
http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm
or a conventional tester:
http://www.sisoftware.co.uk/index.html?dir=dload&location=sware_dl_x86&langx=en&a=

To test your hard drive, go to the site of the drive's manufacturer. You
should be able to download a diagnostic there.

 

[GSV Three Minds in a Can]

My computer will just all of a sudden go through a restart process.
I have tried to reinstall XP. I also disabled anything that could be a
hardware conflict in the BIOS soundcards, joystic video card etc. But it
still kept doing it.

It's very annoying because when it happens there are no questions asked and
all work is completely lost.

Can anyone tell me what could be going on? Or how to isolate the problem?
I don't know much about comptuer so details would be greately appreciated.

1) Have you turned off 'restart after failure' in my computer,
properties, advanced, startup & recovery? If not, please do so, so you
get to see the error message instead.

2) If it reboots with =no= error message (after you've done 1) then the
problem is 95% likely to be hardware - bad memory, PSU, mains supply,
etc. You can get a decent memory test from www.memtest86.com .. for the
others, the easiest way to debug is to swap in known good units, but
that assumes rather a large pile of (working) spares, which you may not
have .. in which case, try a computer repair shop.