Computer restarts on its own.

A

andrewanimation

New Member
Hello,

Two days ago my computer restarted on its own, and then it happened again tonight. The only specifics I can give thus far is that the system freezes for 1 second, then restarts. No blue screen. I only notice it freezes because my music keeps repeating the last note for 1 second, then, boom, restart. What might it be, or how might I start narrowing down the issue?

Thanks,
Andrew
 
Both times it restarted, the computer was on for most of the day, for about 11 or 12 hours, but I think that's about all I can match up between the two occurrences thus far.
 
the message shows a kernal or, much much more often, a driver issue.

Have you recently updated drivers, installed new hardware or software or removed/changed some drivers?

It can also be a memory issue, they can throw up nearly every blue screen message
 
I haven't added or changed any drivers or hardware recently, so if it's a new software, is there something I can do or check to narrow down which one?
 
Uninstall the last program you installed or driver. If that dont fix it, then time to make a bootable memtest cd to test the memory while you sleep/
 
I went ahead and uninstalled every single program I installed that I don't use at all.

The most recent program I installed that I didn't uninstall because I use it, is ZoneAlarm Extreme Security.

I downloaded memtest, skimmed the instructions, and will run it tonight.
 
I just got another BSOD (the 4th or 5th so far, I think) and it looks different this time! A photo:
http://i212.photobucket.com/albums/cc273/AndrewAnimation/AA/100_5755.jpg
Also, another important piece of info may be that I think the BSODs only happen upon rebooting, like maybe after that "Windows" loading screen appears (I have Windows XP). The other times I saw the BSOD, they probably happened after a sudden reboot, when I wasn't in the room at the time, and then I come back to a BSOD that shows up at the start of a reboot, and stays on the screen until I manually restart the computer, and then it reboots correctly, without a BSOD. But the BSOD can appear even after an intentional and normal Restart.
Anyway, does any of this help narrow it down now?
 
have you run memtest yet and did it come up clean.


If yes, put your windows disc in and try running repair, see if it fixes anything.

If it doesn't, format your drive and reinstall wwindows, it may fix a problem the repair didn't find.

If you still have issues i would first say it is hard drive, then possibly CPU then memory ( i say memory last even though it would seem obvious because look at the first if, memtest should say it is aaaall good)
 
I wanted to run memtest that night, off an A: floppy, but it didn't start at all upon rebooting, so I figured it might be too difficult and gave up thus far.

I don't have my Windows XP disk because I lost it a long time ago.

Plus, reinstalling and reconfiguring my entire computer is only the last resort, as I'm a heavy user and have had this particular setup of programs and so forth for years, so it would be the last thing I'd be willing to do to fix the problem.

I've had a hard drive fail on me before, but it didn't give me a BSOD, and it kept making "clicking" noises because it was failing, whereas this one doesn't "click."

I'm most interested in finding the cause of the problem first, but so far it seems all my attempts at showing clues don't really pinpoint anything at all?
 
I'm trying to run memtest in an attempt to see whether or not that suggests that any of my RAM sticks are the problem. I tried both the bootable A: floppy version and the bootable DVD-R (no CD-Rs around) version, and even both at the same time, but neither boots when I restart. I entered my BIOS with CTRL+H, but I don't see any options for booting from Floppy or DVD. Should I buy a CD-R to try booting from that? Or is there a way to force a boot from Floppy or DVD? Or should I just try removing one stick of RAM at a time (4 x 1GB RAM), hoping that the absence of one of them will eventually keep the BSODs away?
 
I noticed a BSOD happens often when I print something, as it's happened three times so far, on different days, when I print. If it can be a power supply issue, what should I do? I'm not good with the inside of the computer, so I'd like the easiest fix.
 
It doesn't happen every time I print, but the BSODs happen often, especially upon a reboot, after the computer barely enters Windows. Printing just seems to be one of the ways the BSODs tend to happen, but far from the only way, so I don't think it's the printer itself.
 
I'm trying to enter BIOS to make it so that the computer can boot from Floppy or CD-ROM, by tapping DELETE when the BIOS beep happens, but doing so only seems to reboot the system back to the first system info screen. There's always a message for my unique system that tells me I can enter the "BIOS Setting Utility" with CTRL+H, but there's no way to request Floppy or CD-ROM as a boot option in there. I want to be able to run memtest before I go through the effort of testing out each 1GB stick of RAM one at a time, to make sure it's fruitful to do so.
 
when running computer suddenly restart, it can be caused of lack of memory in ur memory usage...u should add memory (RAM) or u set the system to run in performance mode or u have to use application based on the recomend requirement...

i hope it useful...thx
 
Trouble...

It could be:

*Overheating: When was the last time you cleaned your computer. You said earlier that you arent so good at the "inside" of the computer. Have you neglected cleaning?

*RAM: Maybe your RAM is failing. Run MemTest, and/or buy some new RAM and replace what is already installed stick by stick. This may be too expensive, or it may provide a great reason to upgrade the amount.

*Recent Software: Remove all recent software and see if that changes things. Its a pain, but worth it if the problem is solved. Then you can determine which program was at fault.

*Bug: Are you free of infections? Bugs can cause all kinds of problems like this. Try running Malwarebytes on your machine, it can catch things other programs miss.

*Power: Is your power supply failing? A faulty power supply can be the culprit in these cases. I'm not sure of how to test this unit, but I bet there are TONS of people in the power supply section that could, eh?

AND, If you arent already backing-up your hard drive... now sounds like a great time to do it. Just in case your computer goes belly up.
 
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