HELP!! System rebooting by itself for no reason!!

[Vigilante82]

Hey,

Yesterday while I was editing my registry, my computer just rebooted by itself. It didn't shut down and reboot... it just rebooted as if I had a power outtage. Now every so often my computer reboots by itself in the same way when i'm browsing in IE or playing games or whatever. I don't think it has anything to do with me having been editing my registry because it rebooted while I was editing not after but i'm not sure. I've had this computer for two months and I haven't had any problems like this b4. I'm thinking it might be a heat problem since the temperature in my house has been very high these last few days. Can any of you offer any suggestions on how I can find out whats wrong?

My specs:

Athlon 1900+ xp
Epox 8KHA+
512 samsung PC-2100 RAM
MSI GF 4 Ti 4400
Maxtor 40GB 7200 RPMs

Windows XP Professional

Thanks,

Mark

 

[Thegonagle]

Dollars to donuts, it's your power supply. Mmmm. . . Donuts. . .

 

[Democritus10]

Try the following:

1) Go to Start->Settings->Control Panel->System
2) Click on the "advanced" tab
3) Click the "settings" button in the "startup and recovery" box
4) In the "system failure" box, uncheck the "automatically restart" box. If this box was not checked, then ignore me.

I used to have a similar "spontaneous restart problem" with several systems using Windows 2000 and XP. Unchecking the aforementioned box usually solved this issue.

However, it does not really solve the problem at heart. The reason that your computer is "spontaneously restarting" usually is not really out of spontaneity (i.e. there is a reason: it has encountered a system failure; but rather than give you the blue screen of death or freeze, it automatically restarts). Unchecking the box might halt your computer from restarting; instead it will greet you with the Blue Screen of Death But now, you might be able to discern the true cause of your problem by attempting to decode the error codes. It may come back to whatever the heck you did to the registry.

Now for a completely different take: Check to make sure that you don't have any physical interferences with the components inside your case. For instance, with a particular system, the computer would restart everytime I put my foot up (literally) on the desk. I eventually disassembled my system and found that there was an extra mounting screw below my motherboard. I had neglected to take it off during installation and it was occassionally causing a short circuit (due to vibrations) which made the computer restart.

If you think it's a heat issue, check the temperature monitor program to give you a better idea. I've found that excess heat doesn't restart a computer. It usually freezes it or shuts it down completely.

Good Luck.

 

[wfbberzerker]

bum ba dum....

AnandTech FAQ: Why does my computer reboot itself?

 

[RedShirt]

Usually this is caused by:

1. Faulty, or underpowered Power Supply
2. Faulty RAM (or RAM being pushed too fast)

 

[Duvie]

I agree the restarts are likely winxp masking the fact there was an error or system failure...uncheck it like it was mentioned above...You still will likely get some errors but at least you can see what is the issue and likley recover out of it without a shutdown....

There is obvious some stability issue here that needs to be resolved....