could be a driver problem, or a hardware problem...did you recently install anything? (hardware or software)

i used to get random restarts all the time, and i found out it was because of FFDshow. i just switch to a different build (by a different person) and the problems went away.

 

turn off the "automatic restart" feature in the system properties > advanced tab > startup & recovery. if you are getting a BSOD, it might give you some info of what causes the restarts. But then it might not give any useful information. I have a feeling that your video card drivers are at fault or your video card is messed. Or it could be a RAM issue as i had random errors with bad ram. Run memtest86 to test your RAM

 

turn off the "automatic restart" feature in the system properties > advanced tab > startup & recovery. if you are getting a BSOD, it might give you some info of what causes the restarts. But then it might not give any useful information. I have a feeling that your video card drivers are at fault or your video card is messed. Or it could be a RAM issue as i had random errors with bad ram. Run memtest86 to test your RAM

I did that a while ago, does nothing... and I did install a new hard drive a while ago, I guess the problem happened a little bit after that (like a week) but I put my old send hard drive back in. I also unpluged my 2nd optical drive which is a burner. I might just reinstall windows soon, but even if I do that, why won't my computer turn on at all sometimes? that's why I feel it is a power problem

 

Oh, it doesn't power on sometimes? Then it may a PSU problem. I had a PSU do that to me before it completely died on me. It would usually not power on after shut it down for a while and when it did work, I had to flick the switch on the PSU a few times. This went on few about a few months until it just wouldn't turnon anymore. Once I replaced the PSU, it's been working great.

I don't think that your PSU isn't powerful enough, it just might be dieing. I would try and find a spare PSU if you can and see if that will help.

 

Yeah it's a psu that came with my cheiftek case...I mean it is like 3 years old now I guess. I hope this thing holds out a little long though, I'm trying to just sell it to get money for a new one, I just don't want to sell it if something is effed with it.

 

Well, I dont know if this can help, but back in the day when I used to have XP, I would get a problem that kind off sounds like that, the pc would shutdown without any warning and then restart. I turned out that XP has this thing that will shut your pc down if it encounters a critical problem. I fixed this by updating my BIOS, and turning off that option(I dont remember where it is exactly). Well I know its not the same problem but I hope this helps..

 

yeah, someone already said about that (up there) and I did turn that off but it never did anything, but just restart.

 

There are several problems to cause this. Incorrect timing, insufficient voltage to cpu/memory, driver conflict, virus.

I experience something like this a few weeks ago.

The absoluteure fire way to make sure your hardware is not the problem is by running prime95 torture test. http://www.mersenne.org/freesoft.htm

That test pushes your hardware to the max and if your pc can take several hours, then you can truly rule out a hardware problem.

My old computer can't pass the test 10 minutes in. It turns out the memory was bad.

 

Well it took me 20 mintues to be able to get into windows today. I first had to get into safe mode then load windows normally. That right there sounds like a driver problem, but I still don't understand why sometimes everything turns on, but the monitor won't kick on, or when I get the the windows load screen (with the bar at the bottom) after that it goes into stand by. One other thing when I click restart in the start menu, it just goes black and everything is still powered.

 

Get Linux...

 

Get Linux...

cheers to that :beer:

Might also be a video card/motherboard problem....but if strange **** happens on linux too, then it's easily a hardware problem

 

Why not light up a dubbie and watch porn while we are at it?

I don't wish to switch to linux, not just yet, but I must ask. How is Linux for working with sound? Running things such as Sonar, and what not. That's what I do anymore. I have a feeling it could be my mother board of video card too. I pray that it's just my PSU though, I've been asking people if they have them.

 

Why not light up a dubbie and watch porn while we are at it?

that plan is better than mine....I was about to stick aluminum foil in the microwave

It's called a LiveCD people....no installation, just runs from the CD

 

Alright, it just froze. The screen stayed where everything was, no mouse movement, and no keyboard movement. I would love to jsut reinstall windows, but I need to get some media to back up my files...that and I'm afraid my comptuer might freeze in teh middle of install, and never get any OS on this thing till I find what part is bad.

 

Sorta sounds like bad sectors on your hdd to me, That happens to me because some of my hdd's have bad sectors; So I fixed the problem by installing windows 98 on it, are you sure it's not bad sectors with your problem? do a full hard drive scan and see, you never know what you might pick up....

 

Well I would do a hard drive scran if it would boot...I'll try another hard drive and install winbl0ze on it...

 

Alright, it just froze. The screen stayed where everything was, no mouse movement, and no keyboard movement. I would love to jsut reinstall windows, but I need to get some media to back up my files...that and I'm afraid my comptuer might freeze in teh middle of install, and never get any OS on this thing till I find what part is bad.

You could put the HD in another system (which you know is 100% stable) and backup the data that way. If you end up getting errors that way, then it most likely is a HD issue.

 

I think that it's either my motherboard, or my video card. Since everything turns on ( I hear the hard dr ives move and make that noise) but the video is still on stand by, I have a video card I can try. So, that will be the next thing.

 

I think you should issolate the problem first, since in the first post you mentioned that sometimes it wouldnt even boot, try unpluging ewrything that isnt completely necessary, cards,floppy dirive CD drives, even the HDD. If ewrything is ok PC should be able to load the bios by itself atleast. Then add stuff and see what causes the problem. You have to identify the problem before you can find a solution, thats the best advice I can give you. Good Luck.

 

That problem could be caused by a great many things: RAM, CPU, mobo, HD, CD-ROM, hell - even ethernet. I've seen each case with similar symptoms. The problem is it's hard as hell to track down which specific component is causing this. I recently sent my laptop back to HP with similar problems. After scratching their heads for a couple of weeks, they replaced the motherboard, CPU, RAM, and wireless module (pretty much a new laptop with those internals) and sent it back. Good luck...

 

I just took everything out and tried differnt things and nothing. I tried the video card in another computer and it's fine. I believer it is the motherboard right now, since I tried both my ram chips separate. Another question if the montherboard did go, the cpu should be fine right?

 

A motherboard problem does not necessarily make the CPU be a problem. Then again, the CPU may be the problem, and the motherboard may be fine. And, though extremely unlikely, it may even be a combination of the two.

 

I have a leadtek borad, and there is NO contact email so I can ask them how to go about replacing the board, of if they have a solution, I'm lookin on thier very slow site, but if anyone else knows an email please let me know.