Computer Restarts on its own! Help me figure out the problem, PLEA

[Guest]

Past couple of days I have been working on my parents computer. The computer
would restart on its own and i don't mean every now and then. Sometimes it
would restart several times as soon as it boot back up to the welcome screen.
After doing everything I could think of (defrag, virus scan, uninstalling
some questionable programs, ....), I reformatted the hard drive and
reinstalled XP. I got through all of the install process, so I thought it was
fixed, but when I started updating XP it started restarting again. The
restarts were not as often this time. I also was having a problem with the
Norton Antivirus 2005, this is strange, the program would turn off and on
different parts of itself ( worm protection, auto protect, virus definitions,
and so on ) at random.
The computer is a generic brand AMD XP 2000, 512 pc2100, 60gig, with a 2001
version of Windows XP Home.
Does anybody have any idea what the problem could be? Hardware? Software?
Just tell me what you are thinking, please. Thanks for any help!!!!!!

 

[Malke]

Past couple of days I have been working on my parents computer. The
computer would restart on its own and i don't mean every now and then.
Sometimes it would restart several times as soon as it boot back up to
the welcome screen. After doing everything I could think of (defrag,
virus scan, uninstalling some questionable programs, ....), I
reformatted the hard drive and reinstalled XP. I got through all of
the install process, so I thought it was fixed, but when I started
updating XP it started restarting again. The restarts were not as
often this time. I also was having a problem with the Norton Antivirus
2005, this is strange, the program would turn off and on different
parts of itself ( worm protection, auto protect, virus definitions,
and so on ) at random. The computer is a generic brand AMD XP 2000,
512 pc2100, 60gig, with a 2001 version of Windows XP Home.
Does anybody have any idea what the problem could be? Hardware?
Software? Just tell me what you are thinking, please. Thanks for any
help!!!!!!

From your description, I would say you are having hardware failures.
Here are some general hardware troubleshooting steps:

1) Open the computer and run it open, cleaning out all dust bunnies and
observing all fans (overheating will cause system freezing). Obviously
you can't do this with a laptop, but you can hear if the fan is running
and feel if the laptop is getting too hot.

2) Test the RAM - I like Memtest86+ from www.memtest.org - let the test
run for an extended (like overnight) period of time - unless errors are
seen immediately.

3) Test the hard drive with a diagnostic utility from the mftr.

4) The power supply may be going bad or be inadequate for the devices
you have in the system - this isn't applicable to a laptop, of course.

5) Test the motherboard with something like TuffTest from
www.tufftest.com.

Testing hardware failures often involves swapping out suspected parts
with known-good parts. If you can't do the testing yourself and/or are
uncomfortable opening your computer, take the machine to a good local
computer repair shop (not a CompUSA or Best Buy type of store).

Malke