What Is Wrong With My Girlfriend's Computer?

[Kenji4861]

Well, she has Windows 2000 and Abit BE or BH or BM-6 II motherboard and Intel Pentium III 600mhz processor.

Problem
It will go into Windows 2000 and starts to load up the desktop items, then all of a sudden it'll act as if someone pressed reset.

What's Strange
Problem occured out of no where and sometimes will not happen. It'll actually decide to restart at random times.

What can it be?
Power supply? CPU? Motherboard? Any tips would help. Thanks in Advance.

 

[lsman]

do you open the case and look inside, how long has the computer clean (dust, hair, etc)?

 

[mechBgon]

Here are my brainstorms:

• Check the slide-switch on the rear of the power supply to make sure it's not set for 220V input. This caused those symptoms for a former co-worker of mine.
• Have Win2000 do a scandisk at bootup (My Computer > right-click the hard drive > Properties > Tools > Scandisk) to see if the drive's getting funky. Also consider running a diagnostic on the drive using software from the manufacturer (download the diagnostic utility from the manu's site)
• Do a thorough virus scan of every file of every type, using up-to-date virus definitions. You can download a limited-time trial of Norton, or there's Grisoft's free + good AV software. www.norton.com or www.grisoft.com.
• Make sure the CPU fan is actually running, sometimes they get clogged up with dust and kick the bucket. Make sure there's thermal grease between heatsink and CPU.

Could be the PSU is giving out, too. There's a good Sparkle Power 300W unit for $33 shipped from Newegg.com, for one.