Originally posted by: jporter313
wow, thanks for the quick response, guys. Here's some clarification:
Ryoga: well, it's hard to put my finger on. For example, a couple weeks ago my machine started randomly doing system resets at random. then it started to lag and do this thing where whenever I restarted it it would run chkdsk so one time I restarted it, and it wouldn't boot in to windows when it got to the windows loading screen it would just restart itself every time. I finally gave up and reinstalled windows and it fixed the problem, but now it's doing random system resets again. Not overclocking, stability is way more important to me than speed with the stuff I do. No recent additions, except reinstalling windows.
The chkdsk thing you're reporting is normal Windows behavior when it detects that the system crashed while files were open. Because the files were open, it's likely that the file system records aren't accurately mapping the drive anymore, so Windows check the file system for errors.
Well, assumming the system is literally just resetting like you'd pressed the reset button (no blue screen stop error, no nothing) then there are two likely candidates:
1. Damaged/underpowered PSU. (Do you have a UPS? If not, how old is the power strip and do you have a lot of lightning?)
2. Overheating.
I find it unlikely that #1 would be the cause becaue of some of the other things you describe (I would expect the errors to be more consistent and more related to cold boot problems). Overheating (or heat-related failures) on the other hand, seem more likely. Your processor might be nice and cool, but your RAM, chipset, or video card might be failing at high temperatures. Does your mobo have a system temperature sensor?
First, I would follow WW's suggestion of cleaning the system with static-free air (canned air designed for cleaning electrical equipment). Don't forget to blow out the inside of the power supply. While you're in there, you can remove and reseat the RAM, your adapter cards (especially the AGP card if you don't have a retaining clip), and the ribbon cables.
If the components are caked with dust a static charge can build up, and the dust can act like an insulator. If there's a lot of humidity, the damp dust can cause short circuits. If you smoke, then it gets even worse because the smoke particles are sticky. You can greatly reduce the amount of dust going in your machine by sitting it on your desk instead of on the floor (every foot off the ground reduces the amount of dust going in the case by half, so sitting it on an average desk reduces it to 12%).
Do you have case fans? Or do you just have the CPU fan and the fans inside the PSU?
Next, I would download an run
MemTest86+ overnight to check for RAM errors.
dclive's request for minidumps (C:\Windows\Minidump) could provide valuable information, but I suspect that if the system isn't blue-screening then there won't be any minidumps available to send to him. [Minidumps are "snapshots" of the system state taken when it produces a Stop error (aka, a blue screen). You can use a debugging utility to locate what went wrong.]
If everything seems to check out and you still have problems, then it's possiible that one of the core components (CPU, RAM, video, mobo, PSU) has become damaged.
