My computer keeps randomly rebooting.

[Rainman]

I've been having this problem lately with my computer randomly rebooting. It was odd b/c sometimes certain sites would make it reboot and at other times not. At first I thought something had gone wrong w/ my copy of WinXP, so I did a fresh reinstall.

So I finished my install of WinXP, installed SP1, and the drivers (off Nvidia's site) for my GF4 and while installing Acrobat Reader it reboot again! Installing Acrobat consistently gets it to reboot. But I know it's not just Acrobat b/c IE would make it reboot as well. So I'm pretty pissed now...

I've stressed the CPU w/ Prime95, kinda tested the memory using SiSandra, and tested the HD using the WD's diagnostic software. So it seems that the video card is the only thing left.

Anybody familar or heard of this problem before? Or does anybody know of a good way to stress test my video card to see if there's anything wrong with it? Unfortunately I don't have a spare card to swap in.

Any help would be appreciated. I'm pretty stumped so far.

Thanks,
Keith

 

[blodhi74]

what PSU do U have? and also please list sys specs

 

[Rainman]

Ooops, sorry about that...

P3 1.5Ghz
Soyo TISU mobo
512 Crucial PC133
SB Live
Abit Siluro GF 4200
Intel 10/100+ NIC
Antec TrueCool 330W PSU (New)

There's a reason why the PS is new. I blew up my old Antec 330W (litterally, b/c I saw a ton of sparks shoot out the back) when I connected the floppy connector incorrectly. I put in a new power supply and shortly after my computer would reboot in the the middle of the night. Now it doesn't do that. It only reboots while I'm using it and especially if I load certain sites or open Acrobat files.

Normally I would just chalk it up to a defective PSU, but how would opening Acrobat files affect the PSU right? And I've tested the CPU, memory and HD and have a clean copy of Windows, so the only thing left is my video card which could have been damaged when I killed my PSU.

 

[Dnana]

I had similar problems with rebooting but it was something else - I would recommend that you check for viruses - using the latest virus checker - I used Avasti - which is free. Good luck.

 

[MrCodeDude]

Only things that come to mind:

1. Bad/dying Hard-Drive
2. Not Enough Power (Although an Antec 330W should power that set-up fine)

 

[nick1985]

temps?

 

[Rainman]

My cpu temp is about 42deg C, and I'm running w/o the case cover on. Prime95 torture test went fine, so I don't think it's the CPU. I had an older Antec True Cool 330W powering the setup fine, but the reason I have a new one is b/c I blew up my old PSU by connecting the floppy power incorrectly. I'm guessing when I did that I may have damaged some hardware, but I can't isolate which piece of hardware yet.

Viruses maybe, but NAV Corp Ed. 8 didn't find anything w/ the newest definitions. Plus this is a fresh install of WinXP and I've only thus far installed the newest nvidia drivers and SP1. I crash when I install Acrobat Reader.

I was thinking about the HD going bad or dying, but I have run WD Diagnostic Utilites and passes both tests fine. SMART values are within Threshold too.

I'm going to disable the auto reboot and see what the error log shows. But any more suggestions would be more than welcome!

 

[PCHPlayer]

Run memtest86, it may be the memory going bad.

 

[BofRA]

Another option is to look closely at the capacitors on the motherboard. I had several computers over the last month have bulging/leaking caps which ended up being the cause of my reboots. Of course now both MB's are dead and won't even boot

 

[Rainman]

Update:

Swapped out for some new memory. Still reboots randomly.
Swapped out for a different HD. Still reboots randomly.
Powered up PSU w/o mobo. All voltages within spec.
Did another fresh install of XP. Still reboots.

So I'm down to the video card, CPU and motherboard. Any ideas on how to test these? I'm going to swap out the videocard, but I can't find an easy way to borrow a cpu or motherboard.

I have a video clip that seems to do a good job of making the computer reboot. It doesn't always reboot during the clip and not always at the same point in the clip, but the clip 3/4 times makes the computer reboot.

 

[Dantoo]

I had one that gave genuinely random reboots for months. Turned out to be the network card. Go figure! It worked fine on the LAN seemingly 100% of the time but on totally random occasions something inside it triggered a system reboot. Can't for the life of me remember how I spotted it.

Anyway nailed the card to a tree and put in cheap generic replacement and problem never recurred.

 

[Viper96720]

You did turn off the automatically restart in advanced system settings startup and recovery?

 

[Viper96720]

Read the event viewer for any errors?

 

[Rainman]

Oops, forgot to mention my turning off the auto reboot. I turned it off, and the computer still reboots. No memory dump to be found, so my guess is that the reboot takes place before the XP can catch it and get a dump. Event Viewer shows nothing.

I was thinking possibly the nic, as that is only pci card I've left in there. A long shot, but I'm desperate since I am down to it either being the motherboard or cpu, neither of which I have a way of throughly testing. Unless you guys would consider Prime95 a through test for a cpu.

 

[novice]

We actually had a workstation at my office with random reboots, and it turned out to be a bad Keyboard! I was sure it had to be memory, power supply or M/B related, but no, just a funky new Dell keyboard. Go figure!

 

[Viper96720]

Prime 95 is ok for cpu torture testing.

 

[Erasmus-X]

That problem can be caused by a number of things:

1) Bad or fussy RAM modules (by fussy, I mean running two or more different sticks that don't like each other).
2) Bad motherboard - check for obvious things like physically swolen capacitors.
3) Bad, incompatible, or underpowered PSU.
4) Overheating CPU. Most motherboards will do a shutdown or reset to prevent damage to the CPU.
4) Virus - but this is the least likely in light of the fact that you just did a format/reinstall.

Good luck.