Help, computer keeps restarting

[The_One]

Yesterday computer worked fine, now computer acts strange. Computer keeps restrating when I turn computer power on. Sometimes I can get to windows and it restarts after 10-20 minutes.

Windows 7 32bit
3.2 P4
Asus P4GPL-x
OCZ DDR 400 2x2GB
Corsair 620HX
Ati HD5670

[NJuice]

Check temperatures and voltages.
Does it restart randomly or only when it is in heavy use? Does it bluescreen before it restarts? If so, do a memory test.

[The_One]

Temperatures and voltages should be ok, I will try memtest to check if memort is ok. Computer restarted randomly, after 5-10 minutes(?) while I was only browsing internet..it has not restarted now. Might be faulty cpu thermal sensor? Who knows.

[Gone'Postal]

How dusty is it inside?

[General Jameson]

PSU, check connections and if poss. check system with a known good PSU.

[The_One]

Ok, I ran memorytest on other computer 2 pass ok, so it is not memory I think. Computer has good cooling (Antec 900II) and there is not much dust inside the case. I finally managed to get computer boot to windows, before that computer just kept restarting itself. These are bios voltage readings:

Core ~ 1.4v
3.3V ~ 3.408v
5V ~ 5.068v
12V ~ 12.408

[andyxl987]

Random restarts are often caused by driver problems and automatic restarts being turned on (i.e. rather than hanging on a blue screen). You can turn this option off by:

1. Click on the Start button and then on Control Panel.
2. Click on the System and Security link.
3. Click on the System link.
4. In the task pane on the left, click the Advanced system settings link.
5. Locate the Startup and Recovery section near the bottom of the window and click on the Settings button.
6. In the Startup and Recovery window, locate and uncheck the check box next to Automatically restart.
7. Click OK in the Startup and Recovery window.
8. Click OK in the System Properties window.
9. You can now close the System window.

Source: about.com (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/automatic-restart-windows-7.htm)

You can also look in Windows Event Viewer to see if there have been any unexpected restarts.

[rotNdude]

When your computer is restarting before it even gets past the BIOS POST, it is either CPU temps or the PSU. If you feel that the heatsink fan is working properly and temperatures are acceptable, then it's probably the PSU.

[Bad_Motha]

Yeah I'd keep an eye on these, see how much they jumping around (if it all).

3.3V ~ 3.408
12V ~ 12.408

[Bad_Motha]

Random restarts are often caused by driver problems and automatic restarts being turned on (i.e. rather than hanging on a blue screen). You can turn this option off by:



Source: about.com (http://pcsupport.about.com/od/windows7/ht/automatic-restart-windows-7.htm)

You can also look in Windows Event Viewer to see if there have been any unexpected restarts.

All you had to do was right-click "Computer" and go to properties, just like in the old days ;)
What used to be tabs, are links on the upper left corner of that window.

[andyxl987]

True, but it was even quicker for me to copy and paste the instructions from googles first search result ;)

Although it's not clear from the original description, if there are restarts during post then it is for sure a hardware problem as rotNdude has mentioned.

[The_One]

When your computer is restarting before it even gets past the BIOS POST, it is either CPU temps or the PSU. If you feel that the heatsink fan is working properly and temperatures are acceptable, then it's probably the PSU.

CPU temps should not be the problem because CPU has also very good cooling (scythe mugen with 120mm cooler) and PSU has worked fine and voltages dont jump much, (e.g 3.3V line stays around 3.408, not actually jump that much, sorry for the confusion). Yesterday everything worked as good as it can be, all I did, I installed catalyst 10.2 drivers and played new alien vs predator game. I unchecked automatically restart box, thx for the link andyxl987. Hopefully computer acts normal now or..:mad: