Automatic Reboots

T0t

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My computer has been rebooting itself lately. In the 2-3 months that I've owned it it's probably happened about 5-6 times. Thats not alot but it still worries me. It always seems to happen when I'm doing something graphic wise. Such as working in Photoshop or Illustrator. Or when I'm playing a game(happened once). I recently had to reformat due to virus related problems. I'm pretty sure it's not a virus/spyware because I run scans every 2 days. Both in Normal and Safe mode. I run a scan ATLEAST once a week. It's just a habit I've gotten used to. I called customer support for my computer and they thought that it might be either the ram or the video card. What he suggested is that I take out my current video card(128mb 9800 PRO) and put in the one that came with my computer(Geforce mx4000). I dont remember these problems happening as often until I reformatted and installed the semi latest drivers for my card(Catalyst 4.8 drivers) The newest ones are the 4.9 but I heard there were alot of issues with these so I stuck with the 4.8. Now here's the problem with the tech support guys suggestion. It's not like I can predict when this happens. It doesnt happen everyday just sometimes. This leads me to a problem. I have to stay with the Geforce mx4000 until the automatic reboot happens. God knows when that will be. As stated above this reboot has only happened 5-7 times during my period with the computer. I personally don't think its the video card. It could be though. I was hoping you guys could help me out abit. The tech support guy didnt seem like he really cared about my problem. I really want some second opinions on this. Below are my system specs.

AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Abit Motherboard
Maxtor 160gb Sata-150 hd
ATI Radeon 9800 PRO 128 mb videocard
Kingston 512 mb of ddr 400mhz ram
Windows XP Home
Onboard Sound card(Came with ABIT mobo)
 
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You're all updated right? So the blaster virus is out of the way. What i'm thinking is either heat or something with the drivers/settings. I'm pretty sure your computer is designed to shut off or reboot when the temperature gets too high, check your temps while in game and monitor them. Update all the latest drivers, you're using a Via chipset right? Or whatever chipset you use, make sure you update the drivers for it on the webpage instead of the cd, updated DirectX too right? Also, try using 4x AGP instead of 8x to see if it stops the rebooting (I had a similar problem using 4x AGP with my 9700 pro, i had to use 2x, my computer just wasn't stable with 4x even though the motherboard supported it). Oh, and exactly what does happen? It reboots right away or does it hang and show graphical garbage on the screen?
 
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It's a trojan... I recommend a trojan killer.
 
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Nein, it's most likely not a trojan. I've heard of this happening so many times. Most of the time the problem is that something is overheating. Or, your drivers are acting weird. Grab the newest Catalyst drivers form ATi (www.ati.com). And get the newest drivers for your motherboard, (www.nvidia.com if the board is nForce, http://www.via.com.tw if it has a Via chipset on it.)
I've had the same kind of problems before, the only thing I can suggest is make sure you get your drivers, that includes motherboard drivers. And try the 4.9 cat if nothing else works. Maybe you should post the current temperature of your processor too. Slight possibility of faulty ram too, lot of possibilities, but I would say it has nothing to do with a trojan or a virus.

*waits for Cucumba to tear him apart*
 
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While I have heard of the random driver crash/reset problem, I never saw anything that lead me to beleive it was correct. Heat may definately be a problem. Tell me how many fans you have, and which way they point (in or out), please include the PSU fan(s).

More often than not, the mysterious reset issue is an underpowered or unstable/"dirty" power PSU. They can cause some freakish errors that are difficult to troubleshoot on symptoms alone. If your PSU is 300 watts or less, consider a new one. Also consider replacing the PSU if you are technically skilled enough. (This is not an operation for the squeemish or uneducated)
 
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Cucumba said:
While I have heard of the random driver crash/reset problem, I never saw anything that lead me to beleive it was correct. Heat may definately be a problem. Tell me how many fans you have, and which way they point (in or out), please include the PSU fan(s).

More often than not, the mysterious reset issue is an underpowered or unstable/"dirty" power PSU. They can cause some freakish errors that are difficult to troubleshoot on symptoms alone. If your PSU is 300 watts or less, consider a new one. Also consider replacing the PSU if you are technically skilled enough. (This is not an operation for the squeemish or uneducated)

Personally. I am inclined to agree with Cuc's assessment. We had the similar trouble with a faulty fan. In fact you could HEAR the thing screwing up. Listen to your machine....watch your machine with the insides exposed.......see if you see anything physically wrong.
 

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switch on bluescreens (my computer - properties - advanced - boot and repeair settings - some option in there)

this should show you the famous BSOD when you crash, write down the code (for example: 0x0000008 ... etc) and do a search on google on that code, thats how i fixed all of my problems last year, never had any problems since


ps: PSU problems (not enough power/watt) causes the system to freeze, not reboot..
 
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Cucumba said:
More often than not, the mysterious reset issue is an underpowered or unstable/"dirty" power PSU. They can cause some freakish errors that are difficult to troubleshoot on symptoms alone.
As Cucumba stated... it could be your PSU, you can check the volts with this program:

Animatrix said:
MBM http://mbm.livewiredev.com/download.html
3.3v 5v 12v needs to be just that or as close as possible.
The V rails needs to be some what stable, meaning plus minus 0.500v more or less. It may not be 100% correct.
Or you could check the volts in the BIOS
 
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Bolteh said:
ps: PSU problems (not enough power/watt) causes the system to freeze, not reboot..
Incorrect, I speak from 5 years of compsci education, and personal experience. While freezes, memory errors, read/write errors on the HDD and CD/DVD-Roms or writable optical drives, and random reboots are all common symptoms of PSU failure, not all of them appear at once.

Anty, I wasn't talking about under voltage, I was talking about outright noise failure, where the voltage fluctuates constantly. The voltage may be set right on the mobo and in BIOS, the PSU might be sending poor quality power signal. This causes the very delicate logic traces to behave erratically.
 

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Sorry for not being to respond is so long guys. Anyway, I really don't think it's heat. I have a thermal meter installed and my average tempature is 33 degrees Celsius. When I'm playing games such as Farcry it only gets up to 43 or so. On the thermal meters instruction manual it says you shouldn't worry until it reaches 50 or so. My psu is an Orion 420watt powersupply that came with my computer. Personally, I've never heard of the brand Orion so I dont know wether its any good or not. At the moment I dont have enough money to get a new one. BUT if it's a HORRIBLE brand then I may have to find a way to get some. BUT if it's decent, then why change it? Now about the updating. Well I am seriously thinking of updating my ATI drivers(downloading 4.9). I haven't updated the motherboard and sound card drivers since I first got the computer. I for one don't know which drivers to update. I heard that I should always run Windows Update? But everytime I want to update it wants me to download something called "Update for Backround Intelligent Transfer Service and WinHTTP5.1. A friend of mine told me that that wasn't a neccesary update. So apart from that update mentioned above I don't see any other critical updates. Although I've been thinking. What If I have to download that update mentioned above before I can download any other updates. Your opinions? Now about the fans. Well my computer currently has 2 Case Sleeve Fans(8x8) I don't know wether the psu has a fan or not. Finally about the Virus/Trojan Possibility. Well I currently have Ad-Aware, Spy-Sweeper, and AVG(BY GRISOFT). I'm currently worried about my antivirus though( AVG by GRISOFT) because I heard there were 2 AVGS. One made by Grisoft and another one called Anti-Vir supposedly made by Germans. I've heard alot of cases when people mistake one for the other. I don't know wether or not I have the one that everyone thinks is great. I have the one made by Grisoft btw. Anyways I really appreciate all this help guys. It's great that I can count on you guys for help.
 
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Bolteh said:
switch on bluescreens (my computer - properties - advanced - boot and repeair settings - some option in there)

this should show you the famous BSOD when you crash, write down the code (for example: 0x0000008 ... etc) and do a search on google on that code, thats how i fixed all of my problems last year, never had any problems since


ps: PSU problems (not enough power/watt) causes the system to freeze, not reboot..
^^^ do that, but its my computer/properties/advanced/start up and recovery/setting/ uncheck automaticly restart, on my 2 last comp i had that problem, first time it was my usb modem (it said the brand of my modem before the numbers) when i plugged it with ethernet it stopped reseting, and this comp dont like PCI gfx card, it was giving an error like "IRQL_LOW_OR_EQUAL" or something like that, on microsoft website it said that it was a memory problem or something like that, i did a memory test but it wasnt that, but when i changed my PCI gf4 to my friend AGP gf4 my comp stopped reseting

for the windows update thing u should update, start/run/services.msc and search for "Update for Backround Intelligent Transfer Service and WinHTTP5.1." and put it on automatic

i got about the same thing he got (amd64 3000+ k8v se deluxe mb, 420psu that came with my case, 3 case fan ,radeon 9550) so i dont think its a psu problem, and amd64 are really cool, some ppl overclocked the 3200+ by 600mhz with the fan that came with the cpu, so heat is not a problem here, but u should search on google about ur case/psu and see if other ppl with ur psu got problems, thats wut i did when i had the error, and most ppl who had the comp reseting problem, they changed the psu/memory but it was still reseting
 

T0t

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Thanks there Buu. Any other suggestions? I really want to get as much opinions on this as possible. I'm pretty sure I already provided you guys with all the info you asked. If theres any info that I left out about my computer needed, please let me know.
 
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After restarting did it give you information about what went wrong... like a watchdog event?
(C : \WINDOWS\LogFiles\Watchdog )
 

T0t

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Well no, not really. It just reboots by itself. Also, I currently have AVG by GRISOFT. But it seems that alot of people confuse AVG for another antivirus called Anti-vir which is German, I think. Anyway I want to know which is the "oh-so-great" antivirus that everyone likes. The one made by Grisoft, or the German one?
 

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