Computer Reboots By Itself

[chevykanteve]

This has been happening off and on for two days. I disconnected the UPS, but that didn't help. I ran McAfee which says no virus. I sent the computer to a shop that insists it's working OK.

The first time it shut down I was watching a downloaded movie using the TV CRT. A string of "Hard drive partition failure" (or something to that effect) flashed briefly across the screen. At the time I was using an external hard drive (a new one). I disconnected it and the problem remains with my internal drive.

Is my internal hard drive (80 gig) slowly dying? It's about 3 years old.

Any opinions/advice???

I want to fix this thing before the next holidays start!

Cheers all!

[peter991]

I have the same problem of Office computer rebooting itself - but only when I am using MS Office XP Word. It usually happens after about 5-10 minutes in Word - usually just *before* I get around to saving my document. I am running Windows XP Pro, Office XP, NOD32.

Peter

[chevykanteve]

I have the same problem of Office computer rebooting itself - but only when I am using MS Office XP Word. It usually happens after about 5-10 minutes in Word - usually just *before* I get around to saving my document. I am running Windows XP Pro, Office XP, NOD32.

Peter

I've been using Open Office Org for months now in lieu of MS Word. I use this home computer mostly for movie downloads, emails and world news. Your input is nonetheless appreciated.

[jas007]

A few years ago there was a computer worm going around that would cause this problem. I didn't realize it, though, and so I went out and bought a new computer. I gave the old one to my brother after reformatting the hard drive. It's been working fine ever since.

J

[sbk]

Just curious if you've recently installed any windows updates? I had that happen to me once and it was some incompatibility with a recent security fix. I uninstalled the security fix and voila, the problem was solved.

[chevykanteve]

Just curious if you've recently installed any windows updates? I had that happen to me once and it was some incompatibility with a recent security fix. I uninstalled the security fix and voila, the problem was solved.

Thanks for your comeback. Absolutely no recent Windows updates installed.

The computer has been on now for two hours straight and no problems.... yet.

[terryp]

Could be a hardware problem, sometimes if the sound/graphic etc cards are not contacting properly (caused by humidity) they can cause the blue screen of death showing dump files and then reboot

Also if you have a bad cluster on your Hard drive that is part of important data for windows this can cause the same

Do you have the copy of windows that you can re-install (over the top of the one now installed.. not a fully formatted installation)

My money would be the hard drive is on the way out

If this happens only when you are on line …most prob a virus

[Firefoxx]

Just a computer reboot would be a symptom of:

1. A virus

2. A mainboard failure.

3. A power failure.

4. A PSU failure.

5. A CPU failure.

6. A memory failure.

7. A memory card failure.

8. A harddisk failure.

9. A network card failure.

10. Overheating of any of the above.

11. An OS failure.

12. A corrupt drive.

13. (the list goes on and on)

Anyways, that's the problem if you just say "my computer reboots, what's the problem?". However, since you give the extra info of how it happened along with a bit of problem-solving you did, it's easier to diagnose and narrow down the problem (as has already been done).

Sorry, it's just my way of ranting about how many people don't supply enough details.

[Gary A]

I had that problem and no matter what I did it didn't make any difference. I finally took it to the computer shop and they told me the CPU was burned. It was a Pentium 4, 3.0 ghz. They didn't have a replacement for that CPU but they did have a slower Celeron that fit. They must have been right because I have had no more problems.

[A_Traveller]

Are you using the machine in an AC'd environment?

Regards

[chevykanteve]

Are you using the machine in an AC'd environment?

Regards

When the weather's hot and/or palpably humid, yes. Otherwise, there's always a fan aimed at the equipment (my external hard-drives each have their own separate built-in-the-box fans as well).

Why? I don't think heat is the problem.

[MrSnrang]

A faulty UPS that has power spikes? I had one that made the power spikes more pronounced on the hardware monitor. I think that's what killed my PSU and RAM.

[chevykanteve]

Well, I'm about to turn off this computer (gotta work tomorrow). It's now been nine hours with no problem. I had run McAfee again on the internal drives and both external drives, totalling about 670 gigs, and no indication of a virus.

I suspect that the problem will come back and my gut feeling is that it's incipient internal hard-disk degeneration. But what do I know? Time will tell, and probably sooner than later. Anyhow, everything important is backed up.

Thanks to everyone for your comments!

[swain]

Overheating .. clean the fans .. add another if needed.. beef up the air con... seriously.. this really sounds like the problem