Computer Restarting On It's Own

[troop18546]

What causes PC's to restart by themselves? example: playing a game - poof, restarts. What the hell??? :blink:

[Data]

isn't that an option of XP ?
reboot on fatal error or so ? you can turn it off somewhere.
Fortunate I don't have XP so I don't remember where to do that

[troop18546]

I'll check on that...

[_r.u.s.s.]

best way to solve problem is
FORMAT SYSTEM DRIVE and reinstall windows
-after it: don't forget to make "safe point" //i don't know how to call this in english
i have slovak windows =)
press F1 and choose fifth pointer from up
->
->
->
->
->
and restore it often!!!

[BeefontheBone]

System restore point is what you're talking about there in the English version.

[Rogue]

I don't like system restore points... They still kind of messy...

Go to 'System Properties' >> Advanced

Under Startup and Recovery, click on 'Settings' button.

There is a checkbox for Automatic restart, so uncheck it.

I believe that you have driver; problem, so I would recommend to update all drivers.

Also check Event View. (I’m not sure if Home edition has it)

[The Fifth Horseman]

Thanks, it will come useful to me too. :bye:

[troop18546]

Originally posted by Anubis@Jun 6 2005, 02:26 PM
I don't like system restore points... They still kind of messy...

Go to 'System Properties' >> Advanced

Under Startup and Recovery, click on 'Settings' button.

There is a checkbox for Automatic restart, so uncheck it.

I believe that you have driver; problem, so I would recommend to update all drivers.

Also check Event View. (I’m not sure if Home edition has it)
You mean that it has to do with me changing from 66.81 to 61.77?

[Rogue]

That might do it.

Why would you downgrade video driver? (if I'm not mistaken)

[troop18546]

Well, I got a game "FlatOut" and it only worked on the 61.77
When I finish it, I'll upgrade again. Maybe U know a way how to make it work on newer drivers? :blink:
P.S. Got "Painkiller: BooH", it works slow, if I upgrade the driver - would it work better??? :blink:

[Rogue]

It all depends on your computer specs, and on how much stuff you have running on computer at the time you play the game.

I recomment to shut down any AV software, and to use SpyBot to clean your startup settings (leave only NEEDED stuff, remove everything else). Also make sure you don't have any spy/ad software on your computer.

Defragmentation of drive will help to improve performance too, and lower visual system settings tend to help with performance.

Another issue users often have is fragmented swap file (page file). To create solid one-peace page file you have first to set it to 0MB, rebote your computer, defragment drive, and then set page file to whathever you like to (usually 2-3 times RAM). and then rebote your computer again.

Also make sure you have no tons of uneeded services running.

If you have laptop, this all should also help to make your battery last longer.

[troop18546]

What's AV software? :blink:

[Rogue]

Anti-Virus software

[troop18546]

Oh... :D
Anyway, I'll try that. Anything for games to work good. :ok:

[xoopx]

sometimes new video drivers break things.

this is why i have quite an old video driver

[troop18546]

What do you mean "break things"? :blink:

[Rogue]

Latest driver supposed to fix things, as far as I know. I always run latest drivers, as they mostly include original drivers and a lot of fixes...

[xoopx]

Originally posted by Anubis@Jun 6 2005, 04:38 PM
Latest driver supposed to fix things, as far as I know. I always run latest drivers, as they mostly include original drivers and a lot of fixes...
well, what they intend and what can happen dont always match up. or they havent always. maybe they check them harder these days.


not that its even necessarily a software problem you have here.
when i had a similar problem it turned out to be a hardware problem each time.
once it was the cmos bios settings were corrupted (this always causes WEIRD problems) and clearing the cmos and redoing the bios settings fixed it.
another time it was a bad powersupply.
another time it was a bad mainboard (i think it was bad capacitors, from that time when they put pirated faulty capacitors on them)

[Caged]

Originally posted by troop18546@Jun 6 2005, 04:44 AM
What causes PC's to restart by themselves? example: playing a game - poof, restarts. What the hell??? :blink:
wow, you guys disappoint me for not venturing this idea. :blink:

I doubt its wrong, but if he's playing a game and it just up and shuts down. Thats gotta be a heating issue. Most systems are programed to auto kill if the temp goes over a certain limit.

My suggestion is to download a system monitoring program like Everest Home Edition and checking your temps. Or even just feel a fan port while playing a game. :ok:

[Evad]

I agree, that's what I would say too. Windows restarting is not the problem, it is actually saving your computer. May I ask if you have overclocked your system at all? Also a detailed list of your computer specs would help anyone trying to help you. Also you might want to look for any forums about that game you are playing to see if anyone else playing it has the same problem. Most motherboards today have system sensors that monitor heat. Programs like Everest are programed to read that data and show you. If you get Everest, look in the left colum under "computer" at the very bottom is "sensor". Find out the voltage and maximum heat your components can handle. On the other hand, your computer might be restarting becasue you don't have enough power to supply your components. If you have an oem computer chances are you got a cheap psu with little watts. 250-300. What you buy is what you get in computers. There are cheap psu's and expensive ones. The price reflects the consistancy of the volts supplied by your psu and the max ammount available. generally more is better as you probably already know. one way of checking this is to find out the watts your psu(power supply unit) has. Then make a list of all the components you are using. the usual are processor, graphics card, rams chips, hard drive, sound card, net working card..etc... find a computer component power consumption list on google. Now these lists usually give you a range, example hard drive 10 - 25 watts. This represents different loads. like idle vs heavey workload. I always use the max number when calculating watts used because its just safe IMO. You could use median in wich case just add the two and devide by 2. Add up the power your components use and subtract that from your PSU's Watt capacity. Also a good program for testing your computer in a controlled manner is Prime 95. Hope this helps.


here is a program you may want to look at.
http://dblsys.ca/sp2004/download.htm

[Danny252]

yes, also if its a hot day, open windows and get yourself a desk fan. The only use for a desk fan in this house is computer cooling. and as it's been so hot, I just leave the window open. Left it open last night, and it still got pretty warm in here.
also, keep pc's outta the sun. we didn't quite manage that one. this one is in the sun from when it rises until its due south.

[Caged]

generic power supplies suck, hence why i am looking into an antec

Dan, just how do you position your fan. I have one and would like your advice on the matter

[Danny252]

well, I have the window on my left, computer in front of me and fan on the right. when turned on, the fan moves the hot air towards the window keeping it cool.
earlier I didnt have the fan on or window open and it overheated, so I just left it with the fan on and window open for a bit and it was fine afterwards.

remember, if you feel hot, the computer is hot.

I wonder how often school pcs overheat

[Tulac]

Mine is always reading the temperature wrong, It's set to autokill on 110°C, it would be destroyed by that...
Heh my current temperature (processor is 78°C, but system temp. is 38°C), I know I have many problems with my PC, but don't we all?

[Danny252]

yours has some bad problems :P

[Caged]

Originally posted by Tulac@Jun 9 2005, 02:09 PM
(processor is 78°C, but system temp. is 38°C)
:blink: wow...its hot @ my house (85+ F) and my system still maintains a temp much lower than that. I only have 1 exhaust fan so maybe you would want to look into getting your system down a few degrees :whistle:

[xoopx]

my system shutdown is set at 70C ... and that would only happen if the fan stopped.

it might not be a proper 'shutdown' but flakiness caused by heat.. especially if there is any overclocking, of main cpu or graphics card, ram etc
or maybe even just heat expansion with some not-fitted-right ram or card. etc

its impossible to diagnose it over the internet, it could be hardware, software, a thousand things. picking the right thing isnt possible.. we can suggest things and the user can test for them.

so yeah we couldve mentioned overheating, but there are also several other thing we havent mentioned yet either.

[Evad]

If anyone here has an ati gpu, get atitool, it has a fan control menu that kicks royal behind. I have it set to go at 60% if heat goes above 45 C. 75% if it peeks 50C. 85% if it gets to 55C and finally 100% if it gets to 60C. From what I've heard it is not possible to bake your hardware if you keep it under 70 C so I stay pretty conservative under 60.
You can set it to display either your gpu temp, gpu environment temp, or alternating in tool bar...very handy little program. It can also find you max core and mem settings, and also control gamma and force "unsupported" refresh rates.

[Danny252]

I think minegoes down about 40-45*c, I tend not to test... But hard/cd drives get veeeeeray hot..
ouch.. extremely hot..