Comp. Restarts when downloading something

[Questi4110]

Whenever I am downloading something, my computer restarts. It usually only happens when I am using a program to get something off of IRC - I have tried mIRC and X-Chat and both produce the same problem.

I can run games like half-life 2 fine with no problems but whenever I download something I have this problem.

I ran memtest for 10 hours and there were no errors and I put automatic shutoff off and there is no blue screen, only a black screen. Also, I ran antivirus and no viruses were seen.

I think it is a power problem but I dont know how to check - I have a DELL and I dont think any of the motherboards are supported to run a software based power program.

Sometimes it takes an hour or two before it restarts and sometimes its within 15 minutes...but it always happens when I have X-Chat or mIRC open.


Any clue?


THANKS

 

[LifeStealer]

Did you try at least two different anti-virus and spybot programs?

Also software based power readings suck. Have you messed around in the bios lately?

 

[Questi4110]

No I haven't messed around in the bios lately. I have tried Norton but I am going to borrow my friend's mcafee and try that later this week.


THANKS

Any others?

 

[LifeStealer]

Originally posted by: Questi4110
No I haven't messed around in the bios lately. I have tried Norton but I am going to borrow my friend's mcafee and try that later this week.


THANKS

Any others?

Watch out when installing McAfee, it doesn't care for Norton very much and sometimes they fight. Are you using a mobo based nic or a card based? Try reinstalling the drivers either way.

 

[Questi4110]

mobo based

 

[LifeStealer]

Reinstall the drivers see if that helps. Take the cover off and see if any caps around it are buldging or even cracked. Its either that, a bad PSU (Though doubtful if it only happens during surfing the net and not while playing HL2), bad ram (But you checked so..), bad caps, or general overheating issues.

Are you using IE6 or Firefox? Clear out your temp files and cookies regardless. It sounds more software related than hardware but that may just be me..

 

[Questi4110]

It doesn't happen when I am surfing the net or using any other program to download though. I was thinking that it was the power supply going to the hard drive. I use both ie and firefox (mainly firefox).

THANKS

 

[LifeStealer]

If it was the power supply it should be taking it out during gameplay though, thats the biggest stress. I'd run spybot check and viri scan other than that... Not sure what it could be.

 

[LifeStealer]

Maybe it restarts cause you use chat for bad things though