Computer Restarting on it's Own

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Sometimes my computer will just reboot itself.

I'll be going along, doing my stuff, and my computer will restart. When this happens it breifly shows a message that says something like 'Power Save Mode'. It then starts up windows again. It usually only does it, maybe, once or twice a week.

Quite annoying.

First, I looked at the power settings in the BIOS and made sure that any sort of power saving items were disabled. It still happens.

My other thoughts were that it may be related to being on the internet since that alwasy seems to be the case when it reboots (but, then again, the computer is usually always connected to the internet).

Any other things I should look at?

I'm using Windows XP Professional.

Any other info you may need, let me know.

 

[Jeratain]

Right click your desktop, and click properties. Check your power settings under the screen saver tab and make sure there aren't any options enabled that you don't want. (You can also find it by going to control panel and choosing "power options."

I don't know your exact problem, so I also recommend making sure you are up to date with service packs and other updates provided by Microsoft. I'll see what I can find regarding the issue.

 

[Hurricane]

Random restarts are usually a sign of overheating. If the CPU gets too hot, the system will become unstable, and will eventually reboot. It might be the Windows XP tries to cool things down by trying to go into power save (to stop the cpu from generating heat), but that it happens too late to stop the computer from crashing.

I would download a hardware temperature monitoring software (you can get shareware versions from download.com) or just install a better heat sink and fan right away. It doesn't cost much anyway.

 

[Turner]

Found this nifty little one at www.webattack.com Download SpeedFan Here. It's a freeware program.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

That's the next thing I'll check.

 

[dannyevilcat]

My guess is you have it set to "wake on LAN".

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

If it continues, replace your power supply, but don't drag it out, as a dying power supply can kill your computer.

I've had this happen 6-7 times over the years, each time it's been the power supply.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

I had to replace two power supplies in the past 5 years myself. However, the loud bang that sounded like a GLOCK 45 discharging in my case kinda gave it away

Strangely, it did not damage any other components.

I would also wager its a power supply thing. But, unlike other people here I am not convinced it is a faulty one, but rather one that is not strong enough to handle the load. Windows is probably reading a power drop (because the power supply can't keep up) but is unable to finish its thing before the hardware resets. Hence the "Power Save Mode" messge.

Either way, faulty or underpowered, you should get a new one that has a little more wattage. The 350W units are not cutting it anymore (if that is what you have) with the new fast processors and large number of drives. Computer manufacturers tend to skimp on this part to make their computers cheeper.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Well, it hasn't crashed since I last posted.

But, here's the info from the Speed Fan program.

Does that help explain anything?

 

[gonzo_for_civ]

You look healthy enough. I'd say try replacing the PSU with a 500+ watt unit.

As CC said, it's probably too weak, not faulty, and if that's the case then you could have a big problem. As that can cause big problems for certain components if they can't get power when needed.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

It did it again. I looked at the power supply and it looks as if I only have 250W (assuming I read the right rating, DC power output).

The day before it happen my processors got up to 115 degrees and Speedfan showed a little 'fire' symbol next to them.

I'm also not sure why Speedfan doesn't show that the processor has a fan on it?

Right after the latest reboot, I realized something wasn't right and found I have this virus.

I wonder if they are related?

 

[Thunderfall]

My computer used to restart very often (4 or 5 times in 2 hours) also after I installed Win XP a week or two ago. In the event viewer it logged a "ACPI" error like the one below:

"AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address (0x71), which lies in the 0x70 - 0x71 protected address range. This could lead to system instability. "

I visited the Microsoft Support website and the error info page suggests upgrading the motherboard BIOs. I did that and it's running fine ever since.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
It did it again. I looked at the power supply and it looks as if I only have 250W (assuming I read the right rating, DC power output).

250W is too low unless you don't have much in the computer. A 250W would be OK if you only have one hard drive, a DVD-ROM, and a non-top of the line video card.

If you have any extra stuff, that is really pushing it.

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
The day before it happen my processors got up to 115 degrees and Speedfan showed a little 'fire' symbol next to them.

Make sure your computer room is not hot. I keep mine below 74 degrees at all times

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
I'm also not sure why Speedfan doesn't show that the processor has a fan on it?

There may not be a speed sensor on your CPU fan.

Originally posted by Duke of Marlbrough
Right after the latest reboot, I realized something wasn't right and found I have this virus.

I wonder if they are related?

Fix that ASAP. That is a extremely serious problem. Microsoft has a fix for it. And get a firewall if you don't have one. The majority of people infected with that do not have adequate protection.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Originally posted by CrackedCrystal
250W is too low unless you don't have much in the computer. A 250W would be OK if you only have one hard drive, a DVD-ROM, and a non-top of the line video card.

If you have any extra stuff, that is really pushing it.

I have one harddrive, a CD-ROM (no DVD capabilities), a Matrox G200 AGP video card, and a 3.5 floppy drive. That's it.

Make sure your computer room is not hot. I keep mine below 74 degrees at all times

It's kind of hard to avoid that to a certain degree. In Temecula (where I live) it typically gets up to 90+ degrees in the summer months. My computer is in the room that gets the sun first thing in the morning and gets it all day. We do have a ceiling fan in the room that is always on. To keep the room at 74 I would have to leave the air conditioner on all day (and even then it probably wouldn't get that cool).

That's why I'm guessing it's the heat that's doing it. I've had this system in this same room for about a year or so and this is a new occurance for it. What's weird is that some of the reboots have happened at 1 or 2 in the morning so I would think the heat would have subsided a bit by then. But it also means I was on the thing all night as well.

 

[Duke of Marlbrough]

Originally posted by Thunderfall
My computer used to restart very often (4 or 5 times in 2 hours) also after I installed Win XP a week or two ago. In the event viewer it logged a "ACPI" error like the one below:

"AMLI: ACPI BIOS is attempting to read from an illegal IO port address (0x71), which lies in the 0x70 - 0x71 protected address range. This could lead to system instability. "

I visited the Microsoft Support website and the error info page suggests upgrading the motherboard BIOs. I did that and it's running fine ever since.

My system has only restarted about 8 or 9 times so far. I'm not even sure what type of motherboard I have. This is a used system that I salvaged from my brothers work.