[hemanjoyman]

Besides a bad power supply, what can cause a computer to restart? It doesn't do it all the time, it just seems like it does it once in a while. I just replace the power supply with a 500 Watt power supply yesterday, but it restarted once on its own yesterday.

It's not temp. related, idle temp of cpu is 37 deg. celcius, and case temp is 30-33 deg. celcius.

Could it be the video card??? I ask because I used to use a cheap little pci video card and then I switched to an AGP card, it's not that great of a card ethier, but when I used the pci card, it never used to restart on its own, but now it does. I also added a hard drive, so it has two hard drives instead of one in it, could those be a problem?

Edited by hemanjoyman, 30 January 2006 - 06:22 PM.

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Just because its 500 watts doesn't mean its supplying enough power on the appropriate rails, it only needs an underperforming rail to cause issues. A 350W unit that provides enough power across the rails as a whole is better than a 500W one that has a faulty rail.

The fact that you've moved from PCI to AGP (cards which are beefier in power) is interesting, because you've said that since you added a new drive and the beefier video card, things have started acting up. These of course put extra strain on the power supply.

Alternatively, Windows is quite capable of rebooting on its own for no apparent reason.

[Neil Jones]

Just because its 500 watts doesn't mean its supplying enough power on the appropriate rails, it only needs an underperforming rail to cause issues. A 350W unit that provides enough power across the rails as a whole is better than a 500W one that has a faulty rail.

The fact that you've moved from PCI to AGP (cards which are beefier in power) is interesting, because you've said that since you added a new drive and the beefier video card, things have started acting up. These of course put extra strain on the power supply.

Alternatively, Windows is quite capable of rebooting on its own for no apparent reason.

[macten]

go to start>settings>control panel>system>advanced>startup and reovery

uncheck 'automatically reboot', check 'write an event to system log'.

This will force it to halt on a blue screen with an error message that might offer some info on what's causing the problem. Post that message back here. Also there should be something of value in event viewer...

Edited by macten, 30 January 2006 - 06:47 PM.

[macten]

I would completely sweep the machine for viruses, spyware, trojans etc. Here's are some very good utilities:

free avast
free trial of counter spy
http://www.sunbelt-s...py-Download.cfm
free trial of Trojan Hunter

You can find those utilities with a search on Google. It's probably not the cause of it but you should eliminate that possibility.....

[hemanjoyman]

macten,

unfortuenately I cannot try what you have told me because I let someone borrow that computer a few days ago, and they live about 45 miles away from me. I guess I will just have to wait and see if they complain to me about it restarting or not. I really thought it was the power supply because it had a really cheap 350W supply with really low current ratings for the rails; the new one I got is pretty decent, and I don't believe it should be causing me problems.

The computer I am talking about is not the one on my signature, in case there was any confusion.

This is the one I got: http://apextechusa.c...eet\ATX500W.pdf

Thanks for the help.

Edited by hemanjoyman, 31 January 2006 - 10:37 AM.

[rov]

same thing used to happen to me and another guy i know
it would always be while were gaming, just randomly restart

but it hasnt happened to me in a few months and i didnt change anythign to this comp

[rumble291]

I had that problem it was the sound driver. I updated and it never crashed once. have you tryed updating the drivers?

[hemanjoyman]

No, I haven't tried that. Maybe I will try that when I have a chance.

[Nait Dawg]

go to start>settings>control panel>system>advanced>startup and reovery

uncheck 'automatically reboot', check 'write an event to system log'.

This will force it to halt on a blue screen with an error message that might offer some info on what's causing the problem. Post that message back here. Also there should be something of value in event viewer...

I like this thinking. Hard to help if we can't see the error. There are a hundred different reasons for a computer to restart randomly from chipcreep to power supply, to memory going, to an assortment of windows issues all dealing with necessary files and things. It could even be a modem in your computer thats on the way out.

When it restarts, does it imediately reboot or do you have to wait a minute or two, or turn it back on manually. (meaning, does it literally restart, or shut off completly?)

[hemanjoyman]

It immediately restarts. It goes to the windows logo screen and it starts loading again.

[Nait Dawg]

Ok....when it restarts, just after the motherboard splash screen press F8 before windows can start loading like you would getting into safe mode. IN the menu options there, there is one option that says "disable restart on system failure" highlight it and press enter so that we can see the error. And then post in here what the stop error number is.

[Retired Tech]

Windows XP logon screen does not appear and the computer continuously restarts

SYMPTOMS

When you start your computer, the Microsoft Windows XP startup screen appears, and then the computer may restart. The Windows XP logon screen does not appear.

CAUSE

This issue may occur if the Kernel32.dll file is missing or damaged.

RESOLUTION

To resolve this issue, use the Windows Recovery Console to extract a new copy of the Kernel32.dll file from the original Windows XP CD. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Start the Recovery Console. If you do not have the Recovery Console installed, start it from the Windows XP CD.

To do this, follow these steps:

a. Insert the Windows XP CD, and then restart the computer. If you are prompted, select any options that are required to start from the CD.

b. When the text-based part of the Setup program starts, follow the instructions that appear on your screen. To select the repair or recover option, press R.

c. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot computer, select the installation that you must access from the recovery console.

d. When you are prompted, type the Administrator password.

2. At the command prompt, type cd system32, and then press ENTER.

3. Type ren kernel32.dll kernel32.old, and then press ENTER.

4. Type map, and then press ENTER.

5. Note the drive letter that is assigned to the CD-ROM drive that contains the Windows XP CD. It is appears in a format that is similar to the following format:

D: \Device\CdRom0


6. Type the following command, and then press ENTER:

expand drive\i386\kernel32.dl_

Where drive is the drive letter of the CD-ROM drive that contains the Windows XP CD).

For example, type:

Expand d:\i386\kernel32.dl_

Note Include the underscore character after the "L" in Kernel32.dl_.

You receive the following message: Kernel32.dll
1 file(s) expanded.


7. Type exit. The computer restarts.

8. Remove the Windows XP CD, and then start the computer as you regularly do.

APPLIES TO
Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

[Nait Dawg]

The problem...if that is the case...can also be solved with a repair installation of windows through the very same setup if you just press enter then F8 and then wait for it to locate a previous installation of windows...if it does, press R for repair....if it doesn't find a previous version of windows....Stop....don't go any further.....but if it does....*shrugs* Does the same thing as what he just posted...only takes less effort and about the same ammount of time....either way works the same.

[Retired Tech]

The repair would mean downloading all the updates

[Nait Dawg]

Not if the CD used had the updates installed already.