PC keeps resetting it self

[emurozii]

My computer radomly restarts. I've no idea what it is. Sometimes it'll last about five hours with restarting it self, and sometimes only ten minutes. It doesn't matter if I'm on a game, or just on the desktop, it's just random timing.

-I've checked all of the connections and they're fine.

-Tried two different power cables

-Run several virus scans with two different programs (AVG and Malware Bytes)

-The power supply unit is fine, because I can even fill up every slot in the back (including all seven usb slots) and it won't change a thing

-I've cleaned the fans, and the computer in whole. It's all dust free.

-It can't be overheating. I've tried putting clip on fans inside and it doesn't help. I run Everest to see what the temperature is and it's all fine. I don't know how I could check for error issues though, just incase it thinks it is overheating.

-I tried setting the chip speed lowest in BIOS

-Fans are all working

What else could I try? And would you guys need any more info?

[Ziggy]

Check out this very recent thread.

http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... verheating

In my opinion, you did NOT rule out overheating and the power supply. Just because you checked the temps doesn't mean a thing. If something starts overheating and the computer shuts down, you can't see that the temp spiked. As far as the power supply goes, that's not really a thorough test. There could be a failing/failed component in the power supply that will spontaneously trigger a shut down. Only real way to rule out the PSU is to swap it with another (known good) or use a power supply tester.

As for the overheating, right-click My Computer and click Manage then go to event viewer. There you can see the error logs and whatnot.

[Hobie-wan]

Could still be memory issues or bad caps on the board or in the power supply.

[presicion25]

The laptop im on right now (ASUS) had the same problem last week, but I had the Blue Screen of Death. My drivers got corrupted and I had to do a complete wipe and re-load of Windows 7. I don't know how it happened but I was told it can happen on any OS. It sucked, I lost all my Favorites and emails and a few other things.

So yeah, re-check the overheating issue or whatever else you need to. You dont want the BSOD and have to re-do your whole computer.

[bacteria]

If your motherboard has a female plug for a molex plug, add a male plug to it from the PSU, it might be starving of voltage and causing resets; same true for the graphics cards, some don't need the 4 plug power supply (normally the black square ones?), some cards need one and some need two however, again, they need to be fed or when the computer works a bit harder, your system may reboot. Other thing is swapping some of your plugs from one rail to another rail, not all rails are of equal amperage, it might be changing which feeds to what will provide more juice.

[emurozii]

Turns out it was over heating.

I pressed F2 whilst starting up the computer to access some menu (I don't know what it's called... a bios menu or something similar to that?) From there it showed the temperatures. I left it for half an hour to see how the temperatures changed: the motherboard was fine and wasn't rising, but the other one (the other was labelled as 'CPU temperature', I think) went from 22 degrees to 53 degrees in about 20 minutes.

On that menu I activated a quiet fan - I didn't know there was another fan that wasn't even being used lol. Is there a quiet fan on all computers? And if so, why isn't it enabled automatically? It seems silly to not have it on. Anyway, when I activated it, I had a choice of choosing it's speed to: 'slow', 'middle', or 'fast'. I put it on fast. I then saved the changes and then turnt the computer off.

From here I opened the computer and had a look inside. It all looked fine, but I'm no computer wiz whatsoever aha. There were a few wires hitting one of the fans, so I moved them out of the way. I removed any dust I found, and completely cleaned the fans of dust (there was very little dust on them anyway). One of the fans was attatched to the motherboard. It wasn't connected by screws or anything, I'm not sure what they were that connected it. The fan looked like this: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=h ... 80&bih=828

I took that fan off and looked to see thermal paste dodgily applied onto the two bits. By the 'two bits', there was one on the bottom of the fan and one on the part of the motherboard it connects to. I'm not sure what they're properly called, but they're two sqaures and I've seen someone applying thermal paste to things that look exactly the same from a PS3. I wiped and cleaned off what was on them, and then applied my own paste. I used a really thin card to make sure it was a nice thin layer.

I subsequently put it back together. On the side of my computer, there's holes where two of the fans are. I guess the holes must be for ventilation allowing flows of air to go in and out. Or something like that aha. Anyway, I have an ordinary fan and decided to use that. I plugged it in to the wall and then placed the fan directly near the holes, and facing towards them. I hope that's been helping.

I've now left my computer on for six hours, and there's been no restarting

Instead of the computer reaching 53 degrees within half an hour, here's what it's at now. I'm not sure if it's any good or not, but it's not restarted so it can't be bad. I'm not sure if there's any other information than the temperatures and fan speed that could prove useful. If there is then I'll make a new post with them included, too.

This is after being on for about six hours, and it's copied off Everest:

Sensor Properties:
Sensor Type Winbond W83647HF (ISA 290h)

Temperatures:
Motherboard 25 °C (77 °F)
CPU 25 °C (77 °F)
Aux 42 °C (108 °F)
Seagate ST3320820A 40 °C (104 °F)

Cooling Fans:
CPU 2109 RPM
Chassis 1854 RPM

[Hobie-wan]

Turns out it was over heating.

I pressed F2 whilst starting up the computer to access some menu (I don't know what it's called... a bios menu or something similar to that?) From there it showed the temperatures. I left it for half an hour to see how the temperatures changed: the motherboard was fine and wasn't rising, but the other one (the other was labelled as 'CPU temperature', I think) went from 22 degrees to 53 degrees in about 20 minutes.

Yup 53 C is pretty high unless you have an early hyperthreading P4 dual core. The new temps look much better. You're saying there's holes in the side (maybe with mounting spots for fans) that aren't in use, are there any spots on the back of the case where you can put a fan? If so I'd put one blowing outward in the back spot and you won't need to worry about your desk fan pointed at the side.

Glad you got it cooperating now.

[emurozii]

Yup 53 C is pretty high unless you have an early hyperthreading P4 dual core. The new temps look much better. You're saying there's holes in the side (maybe with mounting spots for fans) that aren't in use, are there any spots on the back of the case where you can put a fan? If so I'd put one blowing outward in the back spot and you won't need to worry about your desk fan pointed at the side.

Glad you got it cooperating now.

I did what you said with the fan blowing outside in the back spots and the results have proven to be better!

Thankyou so much dude. And thanks to everyone else who replied aswell
It's really appreciated you guys. You're all awesome!