Computer restarting

[FArting]

When I go into my account under Windows XP on my mom's computer and surf the net the computer restarts. It has been happening the last couple of weeks. Why is it restarting so much and is there anyway to stop it?

I'm using my computer for the time being.

 

[SirStefan32]

Power supply might be bad.

 

[Brian in Mesa]

You could run a chkdsk to see if there are errors causing it.

Start > Run > cmd > chkdsk /r

It will prompt you to restart and run the chkdsk when it reboots.

In the bios there is also a setting that restarts the computer each time it runs into a fatal error. You can change that so it doesn't restart and it might give you an error message instead of restarting on you next time.

 

[thirty-two]

Power supply might be bad.

Stefan might be right - this same thing happened to me and it actually was the power supply

http://www.arizonasportsfans.com/vb/showthread.php?t=61692&highlight=power+supply

 

[Chaz]

Could be power supply.

It could also be some other hardware issue or a hardware driver.


Does it flash a Blue Screen (BSOD) when it restarts? If so right click on My Computer and go to properties, under the advanced tab click the settings for startup and recovery. Uncheck the box for automatically restart on system failure. The BSOD will tell you what driver failed and you then have a starting point for internet research.

You can boot the computer and go into the BIOS screen and let it run there for a bit. If it reboots from there it is not a driver. Usually you can monitor temp and voltages from that screen as well.

You can also get an ubuntu or knoppix disc to boot from. If it still does it when booting from the disc it is probably a power supply or overheating issue.

 

[dreamcastrocks]

Overheating CPU could also cause this problem.