Computer restarting randomly

[A Casual Fitz]

Now I'm not 100% sure that it's hardware based, but it seems more logical. Basically my home computer restarts whenever it feels like it...sometimes even when it's in the middle of booting up. I'm thinking it might be an overheating issue. I'm running an Athlon xp 3200+. Any insight is greatly appreciated and I'll try to give any more information that is needed with any help.

- Shane

 

[montag451]

Try taking the side of the case off and using a fan if you have one (table fan) blowing onto the mobo.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Cool I'll try that. I don't have any extra case fans at the moment, they're so cheap I can probably just pick one up.

 

[montag451]

Just try doing it externally for now -

What graphics card do you have?
What psu do you have?
What RAM do you have?
Other peripherals - how many hdds/optical etc?

 

[A Casual Fitz]

8MB Nvidia Vanta card
400W PSU
1GB RAM
1 PATA 80GBHD
2 PATA Disc Drives (CD Burner and DVD Rom)

It's a simple family computer that doesn't run much other than web browsing and such.

 

[benzylic]

Do you have a brand name on the PSU? Also how old is it? It could possibly be your PSU is starting to go bad. I would also check to see, once you get into Windows of course, if reboot on stop errors is checked. I think thats what it is called anyways If it is uncheck it, your computer might be giving you blue screens and you wouldn't even know it.

 

[montag451]

What screen resolution do you use?

 

[coolpurplefan]

I had some rebooting problems once that were due to RAM. A power outage damaged it so I had to RMA. Now the computer works fine.

It can be a lot of other things though.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

Originally posted by: montag451
What screen resolution do you use?

1024x768

And it hasn't restarted since I left the case open, I think I'm just gonna pick up a case fan and have it going for now.

 

[murphy55d]

I'm having a VERY similar issue. I suspected the PSU as well but this morning when I booted up, it read my cpu as a 457mhz(or something dumb) athlon XP. Its a 2800+. So now I'm wonderinf if its not the motherboard/bios. Can i just reflash the bios with the same version?

its a Soyo Dragon Ultra KT400, Athlon XP2800, 1GB Corsair(2x512), Radeon 1650XT, 2x HD, Antec TruePower 430W(few yrs old)