Vista Ultimate Rebooting

[geeman]

I have a computer running Vista Ultimate w/ all the latest updates (including
SP1) and latest drivers/bios from the manufacturer and my computer looks like
it is rebooting randomly in the middle of the night. I noticed I leave it on
all the time and my apps are closed. When I look in the event log, it says:

The previous system shutdown at 4:02:19 AM on 5/13/2008 was unexpected.

I also checked if there are any memory dumps and there aren't any. I'm
stumpted why this is happening if this is due to a hardware failure or a
software/driver crash related issue.

How do I go about figuring this out? There are no other events in the logs
that tell me anything.

Thanks

 

[Mark]

Maybe check "Problem Reports And Solutions".

Mark

 

[geeman]

I already checked "Problem Reports and Solutions." The history shows no
problems.

It is also not a Windows Update as 1) I don't have it set to automatically
install and only download, 2) there were no new updates installed in the
history

This is really random so it's not like a set time everyday that I can
associate back to a process. Here are the last few times:

The previous system shutdown at 4:02:19 AM on 5/13/2008 was unexpected.

The previous system shutdown at 8:30:14 AM on 5/12/2008 was unexpected.

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

You may have overheating. Have you checked in the Event Viewer for any
serious events?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Not at all. It depends on the component. If the cpu throttles down some
fans may be shutting off instead of slowing down. Things like that. You
may be right and I am just speculating on the point, but don't discount
thermal issues. Check all connectors, reseat cards, and see if you can
check the fans and ventilation. Computers don't shut down randomly. They
do so for a reason. Start troubleshooting with the hardware then move on to
the system software and finally look at the third party stuff.

 

[geeman]

I found that is most cases if you only get a shutdown error in the event log
and nothing else is because of hardware failure. More specifically it's your
motherboard, cpu or memory.

Did you change any BIOS settings from the default? To make sure, I would
recommend going into the BIOS and applying the default settings or default
optimized settings (depends on your MB manufaturer) and see if that solves
your problem. I hit this problem because when I changed settings for my
memory because I have high performance memory but for some reason the memory
manufacturer settings don't work and caused my shutdown problem.

Second thing, as already mentioned, it might be overheating. Overheating of
the CPU should be visible in the BIOS immediately. You system will only
shutdown if it reaches the max which it shouldn't on boot. But if you notice
the temp to be high, then you're fan is not working or seeded properly and
you will need to reseed your fan by taking it out and putting it back in.

-geeman