Spontaneous reboot?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Linn Kubler
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Linn Kubler

Hi,

I''m running XP with sp1 but all other updates installed and I'm finding now
that the computer spontaneously reboots a couple times a day, everyother day
or so. I've checked the event logs and nothing gets reported, no error
messages. It looks like the power gets cut and then the computer goes
through the normal power on boot process.

What do you think can be causing this? Any suggestions on how to
troubleshoot it?

Thanks in advance,
Linn
 
The first thing to check is the power supply. Have you added any new
hardware recently? Many people, when building a new computer, will reuse the
power supply from an older computer. In many cases it is woefully short on
the required output capacity in a newer computer. Also, they just go bad.

The easiest way to test for this is to temporarily connect a new power
supply to the system and just lay it on the desk/floor next to the operating
computer. See if the problem still exists.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!
 
Hi,

I''m running XP with sp1 but all other updates installed and I'm finding now
that the computer spontaneously reboots a couple times a day, everyother day
or so. I've checked the event logs and nothing gets reported, no error
messages. It looks like the power gets cut and then the computer goes
through the normal power on boot process.

What do you think can be causing this? Any suggestions on how to
troubleshoot it?

Thanks in advance,
Linn
Click to expand...

I'm wondering if you have auto-restart on system failure enabled?
Go to Control Panel - System - Click the Advanced Tab - Then click Settings in the Startup
and Recovery section. Is Automatically Restart checked?
If so, uncheck it & reboot.
Next time, if it's a system failure you may get an error message, and it won't reboot
autromatically. Thus, you may find out what's causing the problem
If it still reboots, it could be a bad memory module... maybe a power supply.
I'd download Memtest86, and check your memory... let it run overnight, and see if there
are any errors.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Hope this helps...
 
Thanks for replying. Yeah my gut reaction is that it's a hardware problem.
We haven't changed the configuration of this computer at all that I'm aware
of and it was a purchased computer, not a rebuild of an old one. It is
going on two years old and the computer runs 24/7 so I won't be surprised if
that's the issue. Unfortunately I don't have a spare power supply to do the
test you suggest. If I have to buy one to test I'll just replace it and see
if it helps. I also thought about getting a UPS on that system in case it's
a power line issue, I'll have to talk to management about either of those
solutions.

Thanks,
Linn
 
buRford said:
I'm wondering if you have auto-restart on system failure enabled?
Go to Control Panel - System - Click the Advanced Tab - Then click
Settings in the Startup
and Recovery section. Is Automatically Restart checked?
If so, uncheck it & reboot.
Next time, if it's a system failure you may get an error message, and it
won't reboot
autromatically. Thus, you may find out what's causing the problem
If it still reboots, it could be a bad memory module... maybe a power
supply.
I'd download Memtest86, and check your memory... let it run overnight, and
see if there
are any errors.
http://www.memtest86.com/

Hope this helps...
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks for the tip on memtest, it's been so long since I've needed to
run hardware tests I've forgotten all I once knew. I'll see if I can do
that this weekend. I didn't think about the auto-restart issue either, I'll
have to check that out too.

Thanks for the help,
Linn
 
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