computer keeps shutting off

lildeezul

Hey hows it going.

i having a problem with my comp. Whenever i load programs, or plays vidoes, the comp will be fine, and then it will all of a sudden freeze and restart. i dont know why it does it.

if i leave it alone and dont touch it, the comp will stay on, and be fine.

but if i go on the interenet run prgrams, and it will take like 10 min it will freeze and restart.

why is this.

i tried reloading my OS sytems. I thinking its the ram, becuase it only happens when i active. waht do yall think. right now 512mb is intalled. do you think my ram is failing

Webmaster

Could be RAM indeed, could be faulty drivers, could be your CPU is getting to hot, but you might want to run a couple of anti-malware/spyware/adware tools first.

royal

Well, first of all, what operating system, what hard drives and how old, etc... If it's an operating system like Vista, it requires 512MB for home basic and 1GB+ for the other versions. You can see the minimum requires specs here. One possible thing is that your RAM is filling up and you have a slow hard drive that is thrashing constantly from Vista requiring more ram than you have.

I would try a few things:

1. Go to Start > Run > Type sfc /scannow. Make sure you have your Operating System CD inserted when doing this. The reason I would do this is because you might have a corrupted system file that is causing Windows to freeze. Running an sfc /scannow will repair corrupted system files.

2. Try running a chkdsk /F. This will do a 3-step Chkdsk. If this does not fix your problem, try a chkdsk /R. This will do a chkdsk /F as well as add 2 more steps to the process which will try to find bad sectors and recover readable information.

3. I would try doing a memory scan. Windows Vista has a built-in memory checker. You can learn how to use the built-in Windows Vista memory diagnostic tool by reading the article at the following url: http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/test-your-computers-memory-using-windows-vista-memory-diagnostic-tool/

4. You might have a driver that is misbehaving. What I would do is, update your Windows Operating system via Windows Update. I would also go the manufacturer's site of the PC you are using. If you built your own system, then go to the manufacturer of the individual parts in your computer and update accordingly.

I would also say that an updated driver might be malfunctioning. What I would do to test this is re-install the operating system and update 1 driver and then do some tests. After it works fine, I would then update another driver for a different piece of hardware. I would then test again. Rinse and repeat until you figure out what driver is causing the issue. This of course, is the last resort as it is a tedious and time-consuming process.

5. Do some antivirus/anti-spyware scans.

6. Check the cooling in your case. Did a fan die? Is there too much dust which results in temperature rises? Hardware components might be getting too hot. Check your bios for temperature readings. Generally, around 50 degrees Celsius is the average. Is the heatsink on your cpu properly fitted? If you built your own computer, did you use a thermal paste/pad to allow for proper contact between the heat sink and cpu?

7. Your BIOS might have a bug that is fixed in a later release.

lildeezul

how can i run a memory test for free on windows XP

royal

Oops, I was going to include that but completely forgot about that. Go to http://www.memtest86.com/ and you can create a bootable floppy or create a bootable cd with an iso they provide. Make sure your bios is configured to boot to your cd-rom or floppy before your hard drive. You can then exit your bios and your computer will boot into the cd-rom or floppy. Let it run through a series of tests. You can let the test run over and over, which I advise you to do. I've heard of several people who have not found any errors through 10 minutes of tests and then they let memtest86 run overnight and found several memory errors when they checked in the morning. So my advise to you is to let memtest86 run overnight.

lildeezul

k kwl thanks, i will try this

Sie

Definetly check RAM as mentioned as this can be cause this fault (I had one stick that showed 100 errors in one min!! ) but dont forget to check the video card also (ie getting hot, has current drivers)

Also check CPU as said, you may have temp setting in your bios for this so have a look.
Best to check when you first boot and straight after a crash.

lildeezul

to tell you the truth, i think my power supply also going bad.

It wont give enough power to my interfaces. The video wont show up on the onboard video or the video card. the monitors are O.K (i checked them on my other comps)

i going to order my a thermaltake P/S first, then go from there ( to the memory)

blackmage439

Whoa, hold on a sec. Can you possibly test the power supply in another computer first? Preferably one that can be trashed, if worse comes to worst. Bad power supplys can easily fry a motherboard, let alone cause RAM errors up the wazoo. Your video problems could stem from a bad motherboard, which could have been caused by a bad PS. Don't rule anything out!

Megadeth4168

Depending on the OS....

Go into System Properties (Right click "MY Computer" Select properties)
Select Advanced
Select Startup and Recovery Settings
Under System Failure uncheck Automatically Restart.

This might shut you down to a blue screen with some error codes instead of restarting the computer depending on the issue.

One other thing to check about a heat problem is, if you have a regular old house fan, take off the sides of your case and have the fan directed to blow across the guts of your PC. I've done this once when I was having overheating issues with my CPU.... My games worked perfectly as long as I had the fan running... All it took to fix the issue was to pick up some thermal grease and apply it properly to the CPU/Heatsink.

lildeezul

my cpu runs at 34 degrees celcuis. I will test my power supply on a junk computer. but i really think it is.

i ahve a spare biostar p4m80 motherboard, witha celeron D 315 processor, if all goes bad, i will get a new P/S and put in my other motherboard

ally_uk

Download Memtest and test your Ram!