Computer problems

[Jester983 0]

Ive been having this more frequently.

My computer restarts for no aparant reason. I know this will happen when it over heats.

Every time its restarted all of the sudden ive put my hand right in the back to feel how warm the air is. Usually its not that warm. Maybe a bit warmer than room temperature.

One time i had it restart on me not even 3 mins after i had started it up for the first time that day.

Could there be a problem with my power supply or would it be overheating?

Or is it something else? Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

[blackdog~ 0]

Could be soundcard or overheating - I've had this same thing happen to me before but never decided between the two. Get a better heatsink, more fans, and a new soundcard

And reformat.

[Baron von Beer 0]

Are you getting any beeps (you have to have the internal speaker hooked up of course)? If not, than it most likely isn't heat. Do you overclock? It could be something just being pushed past what it can handle. Could be a PSU on the decline, or even the CPU or Motherboard starting to give up the ghost.

Is the CPU under load when it reboots, or is it totally random?

To determine if it is the soundcard, simply remove it. If it continues to reboot, that wasn't the cause.

Also, try removing/reseating the CPU and heatsink. Sometimes the contact becomes poor. I've known people who had that happen, but got no warning from the thermal sensor. Try the same with your memory, if you haven't already. Again, sometimes the heat loosens the dim. Not common, but it does happen.

[ralphwiggum 6]

it is the divine sign that you should study...

i think there might be some BIOS setting or OS setting?

[shadow 6]

Try what Baron say;remove/re-insert cpu and ram.

However, this sounds very much like a faulty power-supply.

[Rhodite 3]

So as not to assume anything... is your OS fully up to date?

If not I suggest u up date it.

Un patched Windows boxes are vulnerable to a variety of attacks *STILL*

There was a nasty little worm a while ago (the name escapes me) that exploited a bug in IE that rebooted your machine.

Just a possibility

if everything else fails.

[PAPABEAR_1985 0]

you have a proplem withe youre power supply it was happen withe iwas thinke that it a virus or somthing

[Badgerboy 0]

Well the problem could be explained by your restart symptoms. Does it only fall over in windows, or have you booted into the BIOS, and left it to see what happens?

A good method is to boot into the BIOS, and go into the 'system monitor' page and watch your temps. When your PC is in the BIOS screen, the CPU will be going 100%, and you will be able to see if its overheating. Anything over 55c should be looked at.

Unplug your CD-Rom, remove the soundcard, and any thing else that is feeding of the power supply, and cold boot into windows using safe mode. (Hit F5 when windows begins to boot). Leve the machine running and see what happens.

This could also be down to your RAM, which has a lovely habit of restarting your machine when it duff. If your running two sticks, take one out and swap them round to see if that helps. This Memory tester is the best out there, and will beat your RAM to a pulp to find if there is anything wrong with it. Follow the instrucations, and you can make a bootable CD-ROM, which is ideal for trouble shooting. (Rules windows out of the equation).

Mostly it's trial and error. Try the above and report back to us.

[GoOB 0]

My computer reboots at times when I have been playing games for long stretches. For example I played H&D2 for a two hour period, then left it running for half an hour. Only to return to see my computer reboot when I fired a round off with my Bren gun. It also reboots sometimes whilst running FDF mod, but that seems to be a "valid" reboot since the computer doesn't prompt me to perform a scandisc as it did with the H&D2 incident.

[turms 0]

I had these symptoms, and after a while my processor burned So check the temperatures to avoid buying a new processor. in some bioses there is this option to automaticly shut down computer if the temperature goes over certain value that you can adjust.

[Postduifje 0]

Isn't this just MSBlast many people were troubled by some time ago? I know I was. Your pc tells you to shut all programs down because windows will restart in 60 sec, and a counter pops up. If that's it, it's MSBlast...

[Acecombat 0]

Yes its that blasted Blaster Worm virus i just got it yesterday , it gave a RPC error and retsrated the PC whenver you connect to the Internet and give a 60 sec timer.

However a patch from microsoft's website fixes it up

[Badgerboy 0]

Yes its that blasted Blaster Worm virus i just got it yesterday    , it gave a RPC error and retsrated the PC whenver you connect to the Internet and give a 60 sec timer.

However a patch from microsoft's website fixes it up

Tut tut, I was amazed how people this virus effected, considering the patch for it had been out for MONTHS before the virus started causing havoc.

I reccomend this program to rid yourselve of a pointless service that no-one uses.

(Also, run the Shields Up! program on that site. Its very usful and will give you a detailed explanation of how vunerable your PC is to attack. (Everyone should be running Zonealarm, the bloody thing is free! ) )

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

I give you a good advise. Dont put your mobile next to your computer. I makes it crash and restart.

Happened to me and I realy was scared that something expensive was damaged

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

I have a bad problem too. I did an Bios update and I wasnt aware that it might not be as harmless as changing the screensaver. Well the consequence is that my screen now stays blank! The fan is runing but the computer sais nothing (except trying to access a:) Any solution?

In case I give it to a shop can they still recover some of my data?

[WhoCares 0]

I have a bad problem too. I did an Bios update and I wasnt aware that it might not be as harmless as changing the screensaver. Well the consequence is that my screen now stays blank! The fan is runing but the computer sais nothing (except trying to access a:) Any solution?

In case I give it to a shop can they still recover some of my data?

First of all, the content of your harddisk is not affected by a BIOS update. Connect it to a different machine and you should have free access to its content.

Depending on the motherboard, there might be a shadow memory containing an old BIOS version. Check your manual or the manufacturers webpage, if there is such an option.

With the access to a:, I guess you mean a short blinking of the of the according LED at the very beginning (in this case it is just a standard Power-On Self Test routine). In this case you are in trouble

Or do you see a prompt on your screen with a: ? In this case you should have seen all the other standard start-up messages, like the Harddisk or Video initialisation. In that case, you should enter your BIOS and choose as start-up device the C: drive. Alternatively you could put a boot disk in your floppy drive. Or a OS-Installation CD in the CD drive, as those are usually also bootable.

[bn880 5]

Albert, Try removing all components from your PC and then installing a PCI video card and A: drive to see if you can boot to flash again.

Otherwise you are finished until you can somehow reprogram the bios or get an already programmed chip.

EDIT: It tries to access a:! Great, get that a: boot disk going with the proper .exe and BIOS code, boot up with or without anything on screen and from memory you can type in what you want to do. Of you have no keyboard access it might be a challenge.

[Baron Hurlothrumbo IIX 0]

I think I've melted my onboard network card. One day my PC suddenly shut down right in the middle of a game (Not something it has done before)

Then when I restarted, it could not browse my LAN or connect to the internet. (Which isn't surprising as I connect to the net through a router PC on my LAN.)

Now my PC can't detect any network connections, although it knows it still has a network card in it (and the cable and the ports on the switch are working fine, tested)

So I'm going to have to get a USB network card - No more free slots in my case.

Until then, no internet gaming for me

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Thanks for the answers. I start to see the logic of this issue. But...

Problem 1: I did not bother creating a boot disk

Problem 2: The screen remains blank. It (the screen) doesnt even get a signal from my computer to turn on (it stays in sleep mode).

Would a computer shop be abe to fix it?

I have windows XP AND Windows ME on my system (I keep ME cause in case one of the two versions is damaged I can still access the other. It helped me out a lot of times in the past). So for which do I need a bootdisk (silly question I guess). Can a bootdisk from a different computer help.

I am realy not a king when it comes to understanding BIOS and how it works. So I suppose the best solution would indeed be to bring the whole computer to a shop (or just the harddrive?).

   Damn it I live in Malta right now and I dont realy believe people here know what they are doing, not even the neirdiest computer neirds here!

AND dont laugh I know my computer skills are realy realy limited and I should retreat in shame!

[Badgerboy 0]

You can make a boot disk on another machine, without a problem.

If you take this problem to a computer shop, they will charge you through the nose. If you know the make and model no of your motherboard, a quick call to the manufacturer will furnish you with a new bios chip. You can then replace the duff one.

The fact that your machine isn't posting, or botting at all sounds to me like you have killed the BIOS chip. Give the MB maker a call, they get loads of incidents like this.

Or

1. Have you tried reseting the CMOS yet? (It's in the manual)

2. Hit the MB makers forums. I'm sure there will be people able to help you there.

Quote[/b] ] am realy not a king when it comes to understanding BIOS and how it works. So I suppose the best solution would indeed be to bring the whole computer to a shop (or just the harddrive?).

Let this be a lesson! Don't mess with the BIOS unless you know what you are doing! I dislike doing it, and I'm pretty specced up on PC's. Unless the new BIOS provides fix to a problem you have, don't bother, and always follow the instructions on the web page. They usually tell you how to recover from something like this.

[Albert Schweitzer 10]

Good proposal. I think I will give the manufacturers a call first. At least then I will know what the computer shop actually have to do (and what they could charge me for). And yes, I agree, I wont fool around with my Bios anymore, I think it is indeed a risky thing. As Risky as fooling with the hardware itself!

I heard a different solution which proposes removing the battery from the motherboard and the pins and then putting a bootable disk with the new bios. After two peeps I should then turn off the computer and reboot. Sounds very adventurous... I will take a few nights of carefull considerations and then take the important decision!

I will declare war on bios-teror! Smoke the badbiosboys out of their caves and kill all hardware-pockets of resistance!

AND ALL THIS BECAUSE I JUST BOUGHT CALL OF DUTY AND IT CONSTANTLY FROZE...

I learned my lesson! ......mmmmmmhhh hopefully

[bn880 5]

Well you did not kill your BIOS chip it's perfectly fine, probably just not programmed properly. Giving the manufacturor a call might be a good idea as they may give you instructions.

Basically you did not follow proper BIOS flashing procedure, you never flash from a harddisk, always from your primary floppy, and preferrably after a boot from that floppy.

Your HD data is safe, remove your HD right now. (unplug it)

Create the proper dos boot disk, go to your manf website and get the procedure for flashing the bios. (and files) See if you can borrow a PCI video card, or get one for $1. then you can either flash the BIOS or you can't at which point you get a programmed chip from somwehere.