spontaneous reset

[Aitch]

My desktop resets spontaneously. It has been happening for about a week. I'd
greatly appreciate some help in diagnosing what the problem is.

 

[Michael W. Ryder]

My desktop resets spontaneously. It has been happening for about a week. I'd
greatly appreciate some help in diagnosing what the problem is.

You could have a hardware problem like a failing power supply or
leaking/bulging capacitors on the motherboard. You could use a program
like Speedfan to monitor the voltages from the power supply to see if
they are correct. As far as the capacitors you would have to visually
inspect the motherboard to see if any of them are misshaped. The last
time I had your problem I was able to spot the faulty capacitor through
the side window on my case. Asus repaired/replaced the board under
warranty and everything was fine.

 

[smlunatick]

My desktop resets spontaneously.  It has been happening for about a week. I'd
greatly appreciate some help in diagnosing what the problem is.

First make sure you turn off the Automatically Restart on"errors"
option. This will show you if a Windows error happens. It normally
would force XP to "restart" when a Windows XP error:

Control Panel ---> System --> Advanced

Click on Settings button in Startup and Recovery "section.

Uncheck Automatically Restart

From tehn on, you should see any Windows XP errors instead of having
XP restart on you,

If after this the system still restarts, you can continue your
diagnostics.