I tell ya, I've had the worst luck with this computer.
It does this random shut off and restart.
I mean, out of blue and it doesn't matter if a certain program is running or not. It'll just randomly restart.
If you actually send an error report, it says there's a device driver problem...but gosh, there's a lot of device drivers.
So, anyone know what causes the random rebooting or how to fix it?

I had a problem similar to this but my computer just randomly froze. Really, really froze. No three-finger salute, no Caps Lock light, nothing. Fortunately there were a lot of spare parts sitting around. So I just started taking stuff out of my computer and replacing it (or just leaving it out if it wasn't necessary, like modem, sound card) until it worked correctly. In my case the mobo was fucked (yeah, proper fucked), so I used it as an excuse to upgrade all the key performance parts in my system, mobo, proc, and gfx card.

Summary: Replace random parts till it works.

Right click on My Computer, and then left click on Properties. Under the properties screen, click on the Advanced tab and then click on the Settings button under the "Startup and Recovery" section. On the next screen, remove the checkmark in the box that is labled "Automatically Restart."

The next time this happens, windows should display blue screen with an actual error. If you can't figure it out from that, post the error.

Good luck

Wasn't there a Virus out there about a year ago that made computers restart? just a thought

yeah but that one had a popup that said "your computer will restart in 10 seconds" or something...

this isnt caused by a virus...

Checklist
check device manager to see if there are any non working comps
run windows update
update and run antivirus
update mobo bios to latest official
update mobo and video drivers
update and run adaware 6
update and run spybot

get back to me after all that

Hey that's actually pretty cool how that works. Anyway, so...I did it and yep, I'm stuck now.

MEMORY_MANAGEMENT

Why do I have the feeling this isn't good? heh.

It says to make sure any new hard/software was properly installed and updated and then to disable or remove it if it's still causing problems or to disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing.

In other words...I don't think I've installed anything that isn't updated and everything as far as I know is properly installed...so that leaves us with the BIOS...in which, I'm a bonehead when it comes to that and I'm sitting here going "huh"...so uh, help?

Your RAM might be bad. If you can, try replacing it.

You can try changing the CMOS settings if you want.
Go into your bios setup by pressing a key during startup. Try the delete key first, if that doesn't work try F1, F2, or holding down the ESC key.

Memory Caching loads frequently used instructions into your cache memory (not ram) so your CPU can process them faster. Turning this off may slow your computer down, but you can always turn it back on.

Memory Shadowing loads instructions from ROM chips into RAM so they can be accessed faster. If you have a newer version of windows, turning this off should be fine. Windows likes to use its own optimized code.


I'd guess that your RAM needs replacing, but you can experiment with those cmos settings.

Let me know how things work out...

Format it.

Sledge Hammer it!!!! and take video and pictures... people might want to pay to see!!!

My comp was restarting itself also. And when it did, I had the device driver B.S. I did what DiTsHiP said and I will see what that leads to.

Run Linux, shitty memory? Linux doesn't care...it just keeps on running, like a girl at UMR from a swampy...Linux just keeps on keepin on.

Edit: Guess I should say that I've also never run Linux on bad memory, just seemed like it would be able to handle it better...I'm a fucktard, don't listen to me.

Say screw it to Windows, and your life will just be better off.

~ Krientle

Kudos on the analogy!

Umm, wrong. Without the special bad RAM patch, linux will blow chunks just as badly as Windows XP,9x,2k etc. does with bad memory.

Just try compiling Gentoo Linux on a box with bad ram sometime and you'll see what I mean.

There's a memory tester available from MS (I forgot the link) and one on the Gentoo 2004 LiveCD. Just hit F1 or F2 (I forget which) and it will list a memtest option. Run that and you can isolate which stick of RAM is bad.

Also, don't you mean "it just keeps on running, like a girl at UMR from ~/* ..."?

I don't know where you got that idea. Certain patches aside, Linux dies on bad memory the same as any other operating system. No OS will survive very long when a critical system component lands on a bad block. The only difference is when a decent protected memory system tells you it's encountered a GPF, it more than likely is bad memory.