Restarting problem

[stevepro]

Hi

I have been having a problem recently with my computer restarting automaticallywithout me choosing to restart it.
The problem started when i downloaded a program called Sony Vegas(a video making program) When loading this program up, nothing seems to be wrong, i made my video and had begun to save it, whilst saving it constantly restarts, but when saving a small project it sometimes completes.
When i noticed all the restarting i thought it might be the program but, recently he computer has been restarting a whole lot more. I recently downloaded a music making program and whilst starting up it crashes and my comp restarts, but when i downloaded a version just a bit earlier to that one nothing seemed to be wrong and my computer did not restart.
On another time i had thousands of images to delete on my computer whilst trying to make a GIF image. Once i started to try and delete a whole bunc at a time the computer restarted but when deleteing them bit by bit it did not restart.
And the last example of my computer restarting was when i started a defragmentation, i was sitting away from the computer whilst this had happend, it was roughly about 2 hour into defragmentating then it suddenly restarted(im not sure if it finshed or not)

Can someone please help me, this is a very weird problem and i cant seem to find any solution for it at all..

thx

[Backdated]

Enter shutdown -a in the Start>Run box. This will disable that stupid auto restart on error feature.

Where did these programs come from? If they're "illegal downloads" please do not be afraid to say so as it may help pinpoint the problems.

[Suicidal_69er]

Hey StevePro

It MOst certainly sounds like a Hardware problem rather than an Software Problem.  I am bettng a Memory Problem.  (1)First of all.  Press Ctrl+Alt+Del and check your System performance.  Is the memory usage passed its capacity and is it using your Page File (Check PF Usage).  (2) Do you have more than one Memory Module in your PC.  (3) If you answered yes to q no (2) then that might explain why you do not have immediate problems with your PC as you would expect from a Memory module being faulty.  (4) If the answer to (2) was no then a certain address block of your memory might have a problem.  Either way I would suggest trying to [1] Remove one of the memory modules and run one at a time to see if the PC runs stable on any one of them.  [2] Replace the One memory module (if you only have one) with another (borrow from a friend) to see if your system stability improves.

Hope This HElps....

[Backdated]

If a hardware memory problem is suspected, it's much easier to run MemTest or similar.

[Suicidal_69er]

Oops my bad... Being an onsite consultant I tend to forget about the Diagnostix tools As I hardly ever have time to use them.  PLease try a diags tool first.  Another good one to try would be Quick Tech Professional by Ultra X

[stevepro]

K thanks guys, i have downloaded Memtest and ill report back when i have run the test with the results shown.

thanks.