Computer Spontaneously Rebooting???

[HemiRam]

My computer has decided to suddenly reboot itself over and over for no apparent reason. It will boot up fine and log into Windows as it normally would. After a minute or two the computer will reboot itself and the cycle starts over. I've got the computer running in safe mode right now so it's functional but handicapped. Anyone have any idea what might cause this? Everything seems ok otherwise. BTW, I'm running Win XP.

I hate computers. :(

[davidj]

Blow all the dust out. Use an air compressor. Blow out from all tight areas in the computer.

[suicideblonde]

Exorcist.

[easilyobsessed]

Blow all the dust out. Use an air compressor. Blow out from all tight areas in the computer.

x2. Make sure to blow out the heat sink over the processor really well.

You could also try running a windows repair.

[Whatawookie]

If it's not overheating from a bad/dirty fan, it might be a bad stick of RAM.

[FORGED346]

hmmm it seems to not be an overheating problem, if it is running in safe mode and not shutting itself off.....

Could be a number of things. Do you get a blue screen of death or something? Installed any malicious software or visit a website you've never visited before??

if you get a chance, download HijackThis and post up your scan....


http://www.spychecker.com/program/hijackthis.html

[Whatawookie]

hmmm it seems to not be an overheating problem, if it is running in safe mode and not shutting itself off.....

Not necessarily true. Safe mode drops the load on it, so a borderline component might run within operable temperatures.

[sigurd]

My guess is a virus of some sort.

My computer was doing the same thing a while back. Would load up to windows fine and anywhere from 1-5min it would reboot. I checked everything. Im an avid overclocker so I figured my chip was finnally going out or my overclock was becoming unstable or something. I took my overclock out and put everything back to stock settings. Still did it.

In the end I decided to reformat. Been fine since. I ushually make a habit to reformat every 6 months. I absolutly HATE ati-virus software as it makes so many power robbing background processes and makes bootup slower. My pc will go from pushing the power button to ready to click on things in about 28 seconds, and its an older 754s amd platform.

I know its a pain sometimes to back your info up and do a reformat. But if you do that and it fixes it thats great. If it doesnt then you know its a hardware problem.

[Grimey]

I even go as far as to go to my HDD manufacturer's website and d/l their utility that over-writes (0's/1's) the HDD. Then I remove all power to the system and press power to remove any memory resident viruses.

Paranoid much??:stare2::lol:

Oops, I almost forgot...

I know it's been awhile, but it almost sounds like the Sasser Virus from years ago. I don't remember all the symtoms but reboot was one of'em!:D

[Hayate_Gekko]

Does it have a countdown pop-up right before it reboots?

[FORGED346]

Not necessarily true. Safe mode drops the load on it, so a borderline component might run within operable temperatures.

Then you must have one wierd computer. My CPU temperatures stay the same in safe mode vs. normal mode.

[Cannon Fodder]

I'm guessing maybe a driver fubard or something of the sort, anyway format and reinstall. It probably needs it anyways.

On another note I have a fresh setup on my desk that ran extremely fast until I installed .NET framework on it, oh well.

[ssman]

my computer did that and it had win32 virus and it would do just like that re format might fix it i took it to a place and had a new os installed.

[Whatawookie]

Then you must have one wierd computer. My CPU temperatures stay the same in safe mode vs. normal mode.

Many modern components (and almost all modern CPUs) can throttle down, when they have low load or high heat. If your indicated temperature never changes with different loads, I would consider a more accurate thermistor.

I don't have one weird computer. I have a bunch of weird computers :lol: .

[tooslow]

My PC did this about 3 years ago. I thought for sure it was either a virus or some driver glitch. After weeks of research, I replaced the motherboard and that was the end of the random reboots.

[spicy taco]

overheating is not your problem, i've been building and modifying/overclocking computers since I was 12. In safe mode, windows only loads the components it needs to function. It does not load any of the 3rd party background applications that are loaded in the "normal" mode. Any time i encounter a computer that is restarting randomly, without first displaying a blue error screen, it is almost always caused by some kind of virus, worm, or spyware.

When did it start doing this? You may be able to restore to a previous date .

what kind of computer is it?