Desktop Reboots Without Warning

[Parry]

Hi,

Have been facing this issue with my desktop for the last eight months or so. Lately, its become more frequent with almost at every startup.

Mostly at startups, the CPU reboots without warning. Once the machine is up & running then its only sometimes that it reboots while working.

This desktop is at my office so once its switched on in the morning, mostly it up till the day's end.

Desktop Specs:
Manufacturer/ Model: Compaq-Presario 061/ SR1630IL
OS: Windows XP Professional Service Pack 2
Motherboard: MSI/ Model: Graphite/ Version: 3.08
CPU: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.06GHz
RAM: 2GB DDR2 (1. Kingston-1024MB-400 MHz/ 2. Kingston-1024MB-333 MHz)
HDD: Western Digital 80GB (Model: WDC WD800JD-60LUA0)
Display Adapter: Intel(R) 82915G/GV/910GL Express Chipset Family

Pls assist.

[quaxo]

Check your processor and motherboard temperatures and check that all of your fans are working properly. Check for excessive dust as well. It's possible it is shutting down from overheating.

On a side note, once you get this resolved, you should upgrade that system to Service Pack 3. It's free and you can get it from Microsoft.

[Parry]

Thanks quaxo for your reply.

Temperatures are Motherboard: 42C & HDD: 48C. (checked with Everest Home Edition)

It's possible it is shutting down from overheating.

But its mostly on startup's in the morning.

[Allan]

System Properties -- Advanced - Startup & Recovery Settings - uncheck "automatically restart". If you see a blue screen error, post the entire contents here.

[Parry]

Hi Allan, thanks for your reply.

In case the Blue Screen appears, will we be able to reboot the PC?

[Allan]

No. Will have to do a "hard" reboot (press the power button).

[Parry]

Today morning the system booted without any re-boot. Will update with the blue screen error message when it appears next.

[Parry]

Desktop rebooted but without any blue screens.

[jason2074]

There are several things you need to know if there is no error messages or BSOD upon sudden reboot. However you can remain the default checkmark used as suggested to double-check any error. By this time, your computer has not detected any error messages, so it mostly mean a hardware at fault. On a cold boot, it suddenly restarts your computer. What is your current power supply voltage? Make sure all fans are running in their expected performance(rpm) especially on processor fans and video card(if its on dedicated). You can check this on your CPU monitor software. If running your computer on first boot with internet connection, try unplugging it first and do a fresh boot. You can also try plugging CPU to another power source. If you have made a clean-up on dust and dirt, have you check for any unlikely disfomed capacitor? If you have optical drives connected to the PSU, have you tried unhooking power connectors and do a fresh boot? Disconnect also other external devices, if it made no rebooting issue, put them one by one.

[Parry]

Thanks jason2074 for your reply.

Last time when I started facing this issue on a daily basis. Had done a clean up & it worked okay for about 5-6 months with missing once or twice in a month. So, did a clean up of dust & dirt over the weekend and it worked perfectly yesterday.

But today when I started it, it did give one reboot. No blue screen or error message was seen. Today when I booted up it was without the internet connection.

Also, remember plugging the CPU to another power source but was of no help either.

How can I check for the fans through Everest?

[Parry]

Today, while booting up desktop rebooted 4-5 times & finally after it booted up I kept getting a busy mouse sign on the taskbar.

I was neither able to press any quick launch buttons nor the 'Start' button. Tried restarting the system from Task Manager, on shut down it hanged on 'Saving settings ...'. Restarted the system by pulling out the power cable and still had the same busy mouse sign on the taskbar.

Pls assist for this latest issue. 

[jason2074]

If ever you have a successful boot, Go to Control Panel, System, Advanced tab, Under Start-up and Recovery, Click Settings, Under System Failure, Uncheck Automatically Restart. Exit. It will give you the system  conflict. You may also want to check your RAMS by using just either one while booting.

[Allan]

Obviously you can ignore the above post regarding "automatically restart".

1) Have you run a diagnostic on the ram (ie, memtest)?
2) Have you tried booting to safe mode to see if the problem exists there?

[Parry]

If ever you have a successful boot, Go to Control Panel, System, Advanced tab, Under Start-up and Recovery, Click Settings, Under System Failure, Uncheck Automatically Restart. Exit. It will give you the system  conflict.

Have already unchecked that option as advised by Allan on Sep 29.

You may also want to check your RAMS by using just either one while booting.

Will try with this & update. I guess this will help us determine the rebooting issue; any ideas on busy sign on taskbar.

[Parry]

Obviously you can ignore the above post regarding "automatically restart".

1) Have you run a diagnostic on the ram (ie, memtest)?
2) Have you tried booting to safe mode to see if the problem exists there?

1) Will run diagnostic on the ram & update.
2) Safe Mode - For busy sign on taskbar issue???