Random Restarts

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

Okay guys and gals, I am unable to give you many details.

Other than my computer Randomly Restarts.

It does not matter WHAT I am doing, WHEN during the day, HOW long my PC has been on.

Any ideas? I have swapped the Power cable, and swapped socets the power cable plugs into. I have changed powersupply. I have re-seated the RAM. I have checked all conections on MB are fine.

[Xanith]

If you already checked the power supply another thing that can cause random restarts is heat. Check to make sure all fans are working, processor, video card, case fans...etc.

Another thing I found that causes this problem is the video card, having out of date/corrupt drivers, or it could just be the video card is bad itself.

That would be I would start next.

X

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

Checked Fans Prior to this, they are fine. Nothing is so warm I am unable to touch easily.

And I have had the Video card for quite a while, this problem has recently started.

Thanks thought

[Teseng]

Is it just a hard restart or does it flash a BSOD or anything? Check event viewer and see if any errors are around.

[Hack]

How old is the computer?

When did it start doing this?

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

A few weeks ago, it is a fairly new computer, 15 months or so? Maybe 12months.

Just a hard restart. No BSOD or anything.

Nothing under Event viewer either.

[Hack]

If it is that new, then I'm guessing it is probably still under some kind of warrenty, and I'd be dealing with the vendor.

Have you taken a look at the vendors web site? Perhaps this is a known issue with your model.

[dark_shadow]

look on the motherboard and see if any of the capacitors have burst or look like there about to ie. there bubbled at the the top ive seen your exact problem happen if they have burst or are going to

[Hack]

What would cause a capacitor to burst? Exposure to intense heat?

[Teseng]

Something as simple as a short somewhere, over a period of time it can damage them, making them appear bursted.

[Xanith]

Checked Fans Prior to this, they are fine. Nothing is so warm I am unable to touch easily.

And I have had the Video card for quite a while, this problem has recently started.

Thanks thought

If your video card is older then that just means it probably has more of a chance to fail, if you can swap it out I would. Also before doing that I would uninstall then re-install the latest graphics drivers for your current card.

Even though you said you have reseated the RAM I would still check to see if your RAM passes some memory tests.

Also if you are overclocking you might want to reset your computer back to default settings in the BIOS.

X

[dark_shadow]

What would cause a capacitor to burst? Exposure to intense heat?

as Teseng said a short somewhere could cause it and if its overheating or the comp doesnt have proper air flow and your playing an intensive game it could get hot and as you said burst we come across alot of them at work ( alot actually due to defective motherboards)

[Lord Orwell]

go into your bios and shut off EVERYTHING except hard drive.
This includes com ports, parallel ports, sound, etc. It's most likely a driver error because the HAL can cause a fault that immediately resets your system.

Also have you tried booting into safe mode and seeing if you still get the random restarts?

[dark_shadow]

did you try disabling automatic restart on error? maybe that will give us something to work with ?

[kregg]

What OS are you running?

[Lord Orwell]

What would cause a capacitor to burst? Exposure to intense heat?

they are their own heat source. Also there was an issue a few years ago where there were a bunch of MOBOs affected by defective ones. ABIT comes to mind.

[03myersd]

Try running a different OS to see if it is a virus or something?

[Lord Orwell]

Try running a different OS to see if it is a virus or something?

wow that's overkill.

Still waiting to see if he's tried safe mode...

[dark_shadow]

ya man that is over kill....

[03myersd]

I meant using a live disk? E.g. ubuntu or something?

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

If your video card is older then that just means it probably has more of a chance to fail, if you can swap it out I would. Also before doing that I would uninstall then re-install the latest graphics drivers for your current card.

Even though you said you have reseated the RAM I would still check to see if your RAM passes some memory tests.

Also if you are overclocking you might want to reset your computer back to default settings in the BIOS.

X

Sorry, my graphics card isn't that old, its about 12 months.

No Over clocking, and how do I test my RAM?

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

go into your bios and shut off EVERYTHING except hard drive.
This includes com ports, parallel ports, sound, etc. It's most likely a driver error because the HAL can cause a fault that immediately resets your system.

Also have you tried booting into safe mode and seeing if you still get the random restarts?

Well the thing is it has not happened since I mentioned this, and it is only 1's a week.

And I do not use my computer for playing games, its my Work PC. We have air conditioning in my office so it is always chilly in here, and we have a good air flow.

No burst capacitors.

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

Try running a different OS to see if it is a virus or something?

I am sat behind a hefty Firewall, which is inside a hefty isp provider. We also have a big and juciy anti virus, plus im using Windows deffender ontop of tha.t

And I am using Windows XP.

Sorry for late reply, I don't come on here over the weekends.

[dark_shadow]

see if the option for automatic restart is on my computer --> properties-->Advanced-->System Startup and recovery --> settings--> System Failure--> untick automatic restarts

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

Done. Guess I just have to wait and see what happens then when it crashes again.

Sigh. So frustrating!

[Hack]

Lerroy: If it is your work computer, then why are you messing around with it?

Call hardware services or whoever does computer support in your company and dump the problem in their lap!

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

Lerroy: If it is your work computer, then why are you messing around with it?

Call hardware services or whoever does computer support in your company and dump the problem in their lap!

Okay....

We are the computer support for our company! lol. I am a Technician!

And my warranty has run out now. Only had 1 year.

[alex_read]

I've just read the above posts - automatic restart switch is a must, that was a good spot. I wouldn't be looking at MOBO or memory as problems with them are usually indicated earlier, graphics again usually exhibit different problems.

I'd go with the heat suggestion as that's the most common for reboots. I'd be tempted firstly to switch the warning alarm for temperature on in the BIOS if you have this option, then to leave the case sides, top etc. off for a day with a fan next to your box to prove whether this is the case or not.

Under control panel > system, advanced tab, there's an error reporting button. I'd make sure this is on too. If not the event viewer logs won't be showing anything as you're seeing.

Finally, does it happen in safe mode? Could you turn all Windows services, system tray and processes which aren't critical off and leave it running for a day to see if it reboots at all - that would rule out some updating software program from doing this (also a virus check as mentioned above as there are some older viruses which cause this).

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

I am behind a hefty firewall, and several servers , routers etc and then behind a beefy anti-virus.

My computer is not running hot, i am easily able to touch the heatsink over myprocessor.

I have enabled the error button.

See why I am getting frustrated!? LOL!

[alex_read]

There may be other places than just over the processor where it gets hot and is monitored from personally the random reboots I've seen 90% of the time are caused by this - I still think it's worth a try. Ok if that isn't the case then you're cold for 1/2 a day and need to dust inside the comp as a worst case scenario.

Turning all the other programs off you could try at the end of the day - leaving your comp overnight just running with the OS services and programs running. I'd be really suprised if this isn't to do with heat or software, or if it's not, that you don't get any event log messages. I'll bet you a pint it's one of them. Just give them a go - then by this time tomorrow you should have either found the cause or ruled them out. Not too much time wasted...

[alex_read]

Incidentally, the way you worded that sounds like you have some sort of hardware firewall if there are such things - routers and servers fair enough they won't make any difference to this (unless it's an admin who doesnät like you and is remotely booting you off with a shutdown command ), but have you got a local anti virus?

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

Hey again, well it has not re-booted in the past 4 days.... Sods law right? But i leave my PC running overnight everyday with all my previous programs up and running.

A security camera live feed, VB forums and 1 other website on firefox, microsoft outlook, vb.net 2008, treesize professional and any other things, sometimes a remote desktop into one of our servers, depending on what im doing, if I have that up i will probably have macromedia dreamweaver or MS express running aswell, sometimes I have PSP running to.

Oh I also sometimes have IE up to

Just checked the whole of my motherboard, cant find a single hot place.

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

What I was saying is we have a yellow box in our server room. Which is our firewall.

All our internet runs through this, all our PC's have anti-virus, I also have windows deffender installed, just incase

[alex_read]

Ohh ok that makes sense. Could've been that security cam software eating your resources if that's buffering locally possibly - if you're leaving it on all night & day but will have to wait & see if it comes back then

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

That hardly uses any of my systems resources to keep the feed going.

How about this for a rebooting problem? This is on a server im working on.

BSOD

HardwareMalfunction

Call your hardware vendor for support

NMI: Parity check/ Memory Parity check

*** The System has Halted ***

THATS IT!

But I do not want to go off topic, so just laught at me in your head and ignore that lol.

[CodedFire]

You need to download memtest: http://www.memtest86.com/. Burn it to a CD and boot it. It will check your ram, i had the same problem and it turned out to be ram. Make sure you select to do an extended test from memtest menu.

I left memtest run for 3 days with no error, when i done an extended test i got 4000!!!! errors in 30 mins. After replacing the ram it still happened, turned out the mobo was faulty at the ram connectors.

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

AHhhh ha, thank you, I shall do this momentarily... did I spell that right?

[CodedFire]

momentarily <- Yup (spell check with firefox).....

[Lerroy_Jenkins]

Hey, I downloaded that, and the help file is in a load of garbage, I run the exe and nothing happens....?

[CodedFire]

it hase to be put on a cd, gimme a sec and il look.