Desktop PC - reboots for no apparent reason

Johnny Boy

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Hi all,

I have a Dell PC thats running XP. It will work fine for an hour or so then will just reboot, sometimes it doesnt make it fully through the start up before it reboots again. I am assuming its a hardware problem & was thinking it might be power supply related, before I start taking it apart and substituting parts does anybody have any suggestions?. It has numbered led's on the front panel (1-4) to be used as part of fault diagnosis but as the fault is intermittent I don't think they are giving any clues. Dont you sometimes wish things would just stop working altogether to make diagnosis easier !.

Thanks

John
 
Had a high end Unix server do something similar a few years ago. After a fairly stressful weekend onsite (about eighty hours IIRC) with hardware and software engineers, it turned out to be related to a software patch we had applied. Have you applied any upgrades to your O/S? This could include allowing auto update.

If so, it might be worth backing out to the last known good version. Just a thought.
 
i'm thinking power supply too, or overheating.

try running it with the side off and/or a desk fan blowing in.
 
I have had similar problems and found that the fins on the processor heat sink were full of dust. It has been much better since I blew it all out.
 
according to mcaffee there is a virus about that does exactly what you are describing:(
 
Are you sure its not a software problem? You haven't got the "Automatic Restart" box checked on System Failure?? I think this is the default XP setting.

Starts getting a bit tricky to diagnose for a hardware error. Obvious things power supply and memory. Had a similar problem on mine which turned out to be the Motherboard.
 
GSmonkey said:
Are you sure its not a software problem? You haven't got the "Automatic Restart" box checked on System Failure?? I think this is the default XP setting.

.
Click to expand...

:thumb2 Check that first.....if you can get it to stop on a BSOD you can check the error codes to find out wassup.

My money's on a Ram chip or overheating as well :)
 
I had several times the same problem but from different cause.


First time was due to a virus...I beleive so....not sure.

I saved all my important datas, then a decided to Format the HDD and install back the O/S.

Everything went back to normal, but I spent several hours putting back on my computer all my stuff.

No I have two HDD with an O/S on each and I transfer data with the "breifcase fonction".
By doing that you can easilly see, when it rebbots randomly, if it is a virus problem, a O/S problem or a hardware problem.


Two years ago, I changed the graphic card and then my computer started to reboot after 5 or 10 minutes....but most of the time was stable afterwards.
I lived with that until I changed again my graphic card this year. It started rebooting randomly.

I change the power supply from 350 W to 550 W, and now it runs fine.


So,

It can be software or hardware.

My advise is to :
Step 1 : check that you have enough watt supplied to run your computer.
Step 2 : save your important datas, format HDD et re install O/S.


Wulkanger01web02.JPG
 
Sounds like a heat issue to me too. I'd look at the CPU cooler - had a similar problem myself recently and tracked it down to a failed CPU fan. As stated above, get the side of the case off and see if any of the fans have stopped working.
 
PC Reboots

Thanks for all the advice so far, its much appreciated.

I tried to the "roll back" suggestion but the PC was rebooting after less than a minute so I didnt get chance to complete this.

I took the top off the PC and stuck a multimeter on a spare power socket leading from the psu. The voltage was present when the PC was working OK, but would dissapear just before it rebooted. At first I thought it must be a faulty PSU , but I am now not sure as I dont know if a psu gives a constant output once it has mains or if it is switched by the PC , if that makes sense ?

So I am again looking for advice, would you assume its power supply & replace it, or keep looking elsewere, maybe dissable the restart function somebody mentioned.

Cheers

John
 
Definately disable the restart function, as this is hiding the fault codes. This will then give you a blue screen of death with fault codes which may help to give you some answers.

Also remove all unecessary components from your PC e.g. interface cards, additional drives, video card (if you have onboard video), sound cards, etc. See if you can get it stable on minimum number of components.

If you can't work out blue screen of death codes, try a clean install of windows (back your data up first). This would also be my first choice before messing with hardware, as its normally a software problem first.

Also what is the age of the PC? If its a few years old, you should be inspecting the cards / mobo for obvious problems. Bulging capacitors are a common failure, look through your mobo and cards for this.

I'd then try new power supply first, then memory, then motherboard.

I recently had a similar problem to you and did all this.............ended up being the last thing, the motherboard. If its an old pc though, components are dirt cheap, certainly a lot cheaper than getting somebody to look at it.
 
At the Run line type:

Shutdown -a <return>

Now see if it still shutsdown, if it does it is probably hardware related, however if it is software you have a better chance of seeing an error message.

HTH :)
 
Computer Reboots

PC now working fine after I replaced the power supply.

Thanks for all the advice.

John
 
Nippy Normans supply Touratech, Wunderlich, Desert Fox and many other makes of accessories.
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