Pc re-start

[cryptic1]

My pc has been re-starting on its own for a while now, the screen blacks out and after a few seconds the log-in appears. Once in a message appears advising that system has 'recovered from a serious error' and prompts the file to be sent. This seems to occur only when i'm on the net.

AVG and Microsoft Spyware up to date - no viruses found. P4 3.0ghz,915GAV board and the rest to make up a basic system.

Any ideas guys? please help

 

[playkiller no.2]

Check memory,if you have two,take one out and test the pc.

 

[Silent_Bob]

restarting on its own is 99.99% a hardware error, if you baught the pc prebuilt, take it back to shop you bought it from and report a fault

if you built the machine then try testing each piece of hardware, it will most probably be motherboard/ram/graphic card related

check when the system is starting up if there is a error when starting up (many MB's will have an error code if something is wrong during startup)

 

[Merrigan]

yeah, I'm with S_B on this one. Also check on your motherboard itself if there are error LED's. If it has, then check the manual and see if there is any error with the related LED "code"....

also if this only happens when on the net, that means it happens when using network card (if you use network card) or whatever other piece of hardware you use to access the internet...

Try testing that as well, if you have a USB adsl modem, pop it onto another PC and test, if it is through an ethernet card, put the card in another slot, or try another card...

Good luck, and shout if we can help

 

[cryptic1]

Thank your guys, will check as suggested.

 

[MrG]

Does it happen when you are doing certain things, if its random it can be RAM. In my case that I had a restart with 3DMark06, it was a conflict between the program and my VIA Southbridge IDE controller, now I havnt done anything about that except disconnected my 3rd CD drive when running 3DMark06 but I dont do that often, so its fine.

However I believe if I went into it I could probably update the firmware on my CD-Drive if thats the problem, or update the VIA drivers. You get my idea. System restarts are usually your software not understanding the hardware responses, or a software conflict, like in my case with XviD and DivX 5 months ago