I have a weird computer problem
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I have a weird computer problem
My other computer is going crazy. While I'm using it, it randomly restarts itself. This can get really annoying, because I have to save my homework about every minute to stop from losting any of it. I checked all the power connections and everything's secure, and I ran AVG Antivirus and a few days ago and it didn't catch anything. Can anybody help me out?
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bicostp
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Maybe it's overheating.
Open up the case and see if the heatsink is full of dust. Use some compressed air (preferably from a compressor, but a can will do) to drive out any dust clumps. (Not just on the heat sink either, for best results blow as much dust out as you can.)
If you have a real compressor, try removing the power supply, take it outside, and blast some air into the vent holes and fan. Chances are it will be chock full of dust.
You may also want to run a malware scan if you haven't already. You might as well run CHKDSK on it too.
Open up the case and see if the heatsink is full of dust. Use some compressed air (preferably from a compressor, but a can will do) to drive out any dust clumps. (Not just on the heat sink either, for best results blow as much dust out as you can.)
If you have a real compressor, try removing the power supply, take it outside, and blast some air into the vent holes and fan. Chances are it will be chock full of dust.
You may also want to run a malware scan if you haven't already. You might as well run CHKDSK on it too.
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blackbox_dev
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Maybe the power supply isn't able to output enough wattage?
Just a guess, but its happened to me before.
By the way, to find out, if your BIOS has a "Reset on power shortage" option, disable it, and then see if the computer just shuts off instead of restarting. If it does, there's your problem.
Just a guess, but its happened to me before.
By the way, to find out, if your BIOS has a "Reset on power shortage" option, disable it, and then see if the computer just shuts off instead of restarting. If it does, there's your problem.
I'd imagine right now you wish you were a cuttlefish...
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marshallh
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On all the PCs I've worked on, overheating simply causes the machine to lock up.
Random restarting is a software problem. On many of the computers I've seen, the fault is a buggy graphics card driver. See, when XP has a kernel fault that is impossible to resolve, it just resets the machine (int 0x40) so you won't see the BSOD.
I'd try updating your graphics card drivers, and also disable stuff that boots up alongside Windows.
Start > Run > msconfig
On the startup tab, you can usually get away with deselecting every one. If you know you need to keep something booting at startup, leave it checked.
Random restarting is a software problem. On many of the computers I've seen, the fault is a buggy graphics card driver. See, when XP has a kernel fault that is impossible to resolve, it just resets the machine (int 0x40) so you won't see the BSOD.
I'd try updating your graphics card drivers, and also disable stuff that boots up alongside Windows.
Start > Run > msconfig
On the startup tab, you can usually get away with deselecting every one. If you know you need to keep something booting at startup, leave it checked.
