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Computer restarting by itself

G

gbabione

Junior Member
My computer has been shutting off and restarting by itself. Does anyone know what could be causing this? Is it software or hardware? I have run Norton SystemWorks and gotten rid of any viruses and fixed problems that showed up. I am starting to wonder if I have a bad mobo or processor.
 
It happened to me once. The repair techie guy said that it was a problem with the BIOS. He replaced it and everything is running perfectly since then...

Or, it could be a problem with your power supply. Try starting with a different SMPS.

Hope this helps.
 
If you're using XP, it restarts instead of giving an Blue screen of death. You can turn this feature off in the settings. If this is an XP machine, check the event viewer to see the core dump. If not that, I'd look at hardware.. in the BIOS it shows how the P/S lines change. I don't know too much on this area, but you might want to google to see whether the variations are in the acceptable range.
 
First you need to find out why it's restarting.

Click Start -> Right Click My Computer -> Properties -> Advanced -> [Startup and Recovery] -> Settings -> Take tick out of Automatically Restart and press OK about 4 times.

Next time computer crashes you may get a BSOD with an error message. Write all this down and post it here.


I was curious that you said "I have run Norton SystemWorks and gotten rid of any viruses and fixed problems that showed up". Did you have a virus??? Perhaps you should try this as well

What have you done changed since it was working well????
 
Thanks for the help! There were a couple of viruses but I don't remember what they were. I think there were 2 different viruses. One was only in a couple of things. The other was in everything I had downloaded from Kazaa. I ran Stinger as you suggested. It found a virus in a lot of installers I had in Kazaa shared folder. I have had this problem almost since I got the computer. I just got the computer in April. The only thing I had changed was put in an ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 8500 video card. I already e-mailed ATI customer support and I didn't get anything back.
 
My computer shut down twice this morning before I made the change for it not to. I just got the Blue Screen of Death. It said something about updating drivers and gave me this:
stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000047, 0x804F66FA, 0xB1F7B8C4, 0x00000000)
Is this what you wanted me to post?
 
The STOP error codes were useful, but you should also mention what driver is causing the problem and what type of error it is.

For example

PAGE_FAULT_IN_NON_PAGED_AREA
further down the bottom you may see

...in Wdmaud.sys. (or other file)


Probably just a driver issue but could be hardware prob. I need to know more info to help.

Does the computer crash while playing a game, using a specific program or when idle????



 
I didn't see any other faults. Next time it happens, I will write everything down. It has shutdown during all of the above. I can't play any games because it shuts down. It will shut down when Internet Explorer is open, even if I stay on 1 page for a while. It has even shut down when nobody was using the computer. I don't remember if the problem started before or after I installed the ATI video card. I am thinking I installed the card the first day I got the computer. I had been reading about averclocking and tried to increase the frequency in the bios a little at a time. When I first started to notice the computer shutting down, I backed it off until I got back to the original setting. I have thought it was the video card for a couple months.
 
So, just to clarify, everything is back to normal as far as the system speed goes (i.e. you're not overclocking the cpu or memory?)
 
Yes, I set everything back to default. It hasn't shut down since the last message. It does this. It will do it a lot for a day or two and then it won't do it for a while! I remembered it also had shut down once while I was printing. Luckily it happened just after it was done printing but had not kicked the paper all the way out.
 
I had this problem as well. Check in your bios and make sure wake up on lan is turned off, or wake up on anything. Also update your bios
 
I disabled the wake as Emperor suggested. I'm back because I got the blue screen again. Here is for the most part what it said.

Check for adequate disk space. If a driver is identified in the stop message, disable the driver or check with the manufacturer for driver updates. Try changing video adapters.
Check with your hardware vendor for any BIOS updates. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching and shadowing.

Technical information:
*** stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xB2A7A970, 0xB2A7A460, 0x00000000)

I am also giving some information from my BIOS.

Vcore 1.660 & 1.676
DDR Vtt 1.328 & 1.344
+3.3V 3.072, 3.088, 3.104, 3.120
+5V 4.838 & 4.865
+12V 12.608 & 12.672
5VSB 4.865
System Temp 45 degrees C
CPU Host Frequency (Mhz) 168
PCI/AGP Frequency (Mhz) 33/66
Dram Clock 166-DDR333
Overvoltage Controls are all Auto
 
It just happened again. I got something new this time.

stop: 0x0000008E (0xC0000005, 0xBF892F79, 0xB2675C48, 0x00000000)

win32k.sys - address BF892F79 base at BF800000, Datestamp 3db6d462
 
Yeah I'm still watching and reading this thread


Have you read this???

Have you downloaded new video card drivers, uninstalled your old driver and installed the newest driver?

Can you try a different graphics card in your system?

Does your BSOD always mention the Win32k.sys file???
 
Thanks Cotswold. I just read that article. I will be getting ahold of Cyberpower to see about getting that fix. Microsoft won't give me any support because XP came with my computer. They say I have to contact the place I bought it from. I have thought about taking out the ATI card for a while and seeing what happens. I haven't used any of it's so called abilities. What is memtest86 and where do I find it?
 
Although I am not an expert, however, taking all BIOS settings to default, and reformatting afterwards might be your best bet. I think something is messing up your video card's drivers... but as I said, I am no expert.

Goodluck,

Xiety
 
What is memtest86 and where do I find it?
Click to expand...
Memtest86.com
It is a memory tester, a good one. Usually you would get some sort of error about memory, but random reboots are are classic symptom.
Download the 3.0 floppy version or the ISO for making a bootable cd-rom, boot into it as instructed, and let it run overnight.
If it shows any errors in the log in the morning, pull out one stick and retest, If you have multiple sticks of RAM.
 
Just to add a link for Memtest86. You can download either a boot floppy or boot CD version. Remember to change your BIOS settings to boot from this device if the computer just starts Windows normally when you insert the disk and restart/ switch on computer.
 
Please run memory test. Memory test runs from a floppy, no Windows operating system, no hard drives, etc. If it still reboots but gives no memory errors try pulling the cards and disconnecting the drives. If it still restarts--it's the MB or the power supply.
 
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