why my PC resets...has this happened to you?

Hello, friends! I'm back from a long respite (work and trainings mainly kept me away from the board)...but it's good to be back!

My first question is this: My new PC was upgraded to a Duron 850 and after about three months of "non-use" (is a long period of non-usage a contributing factor?), the behavior is weird:

It keeps reseting itself after a few minutes, sometimes after an hour or two!

Please advise me what to do? Do I have a virus problem?


Toast!

 

A virus is the first thing that has to be eliminated. After that, the most likely causes I personally have seen are bad main board and bad memory, in that order.

Some say a failing power supply will cause this; but, my personal experience has been that a bad power supply causes more system freezes than anything else.

There is a way to test the power supply.

I posted my method od checking a power supply in another thread on another board. I will pase that unedited thread here for you.

 

After three months of sitting, I think dust blocking air vents could be a problem.
When a computer suddenly reboots, it usually is an indication of the processor overheating.

 

Alex and Mark, thanks a lot for your inputs! I will test my power supply as you described.

As to the processor overheating, let me clarify this: "Once a processor overheats, isn't that an indicatio that you need to replace it?"

Happy posting to you guys!

 

First off, my experience is that overheating processors cause system freezes. Personally, I have never seen a situation where the overheated processor caused a spontaneous reboot.

I'm not indicating that others haven't had a different experience. But, I do run an on-site service business and I do see a lot of machines and this is my experience.

As for the processor needing replacement after overheating, that depends on how many times it has overheated and how badly each time. Pentium processors have one thing going for them over AMD: They will tolerate more overheating. Discover if your processor and case/power supply fans are actually turning freely. If they are, and the fans and heatsinks aren't clogged with dust, overheating is a very remote possibility.

 

Agree with Alex re: processor or heat problem usually causing freeze or hang compared to reset; however, severe overheating will cause a spontaneous shutdown. Having said that, I don't think your problem is heat.

You'd be well advised to check the video card and memory, cleaning contacts and reseating both. For that matter, check all of your cards for proper seating - same with cables and anything/everything that plugs into something else.

 

Alex, after reinstalling the same 128 MB memory card, I run my PC for about three hours and I was quite happy to report that the problem was gone. I therefore conclude that it was a loosely fitted memory card that is causing my auto restarting problem. Thank you very much, Alex for your input. (I guess I will test the power supply only if the problem will still persist after refitting the card.)

Mark, thank you for pointing out the possibility of a dusting problem, I also covered this base while reinstalling the memory card.

Rockster, I agree with your view, as well as that of Alex, about the heating factor. Well, I’m glad I do not have that problem. Yes, I also checked the proper seating of cards and cables; thank you for pointing that out, so I guess reseating the memory card was not the only intervention I did today "“ thanks!

Toast!