Windows XP Home keeps restarting.

My computer keeps restarting. I can not find anything in the event viewer
that would give me an idea as to what it is. It might not do this for several
days then all of a sudden it will start. It might shut off every 10 mins. to
every hour. I have cleaned out the dust. I have not added any new hardware.
No blue screen comes up even though I disabled it. Any help???Thanks

Ron
Mon May 05 19:39:00 PDT 2008

gjohndonna <gjohndonna@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

>My computer keeps restarting. I can not find anything in the event viewer
>that would give me an idea as to what it is. It might not do this for several
>days then all of a sudden it will start. It might shut off every 10 mins. to
>every hour. I have cleaned out the dust. I have not added any new hardware.
>No blue screen comes up even though I disabled it. Any help???Thanks


Sounds like a hardware related issue to me, in which case there will
very often not be any error message. Overheating is the prime suspect
although a power supply voltage problem could cause similar symptoms.

Check the cooling fans and heat sinks inside the computer to ensure
that the heat sinks are properly latched in place and that the fans
are spinning freely.

Try running the computer with the case cover removed and see if that
makes any difference.

Good luck

Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
has never been in bed with a mosquito."

gjohndonna
Mon May 05 19:55:00 PDT 2008

The fans is working and with the cover off it makes no difference. It will do
this for a few days then stop. I only hear one fan working and I only see one
on the heatsink. I applied thermal paste to heatsink but that did not help.

"Ron Martell" wrote:

> gjohndonna <gjohndonna@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >My computer keeps restarting. I can not find anything in the event viewer
> >that would give me an idea as to what it is. It might not do this for several
> >days then all of a sudden it will start. It might shut off every 10 mins. to
> >every hour. I have cleaned out the dust. I have not added any new hardware.
> >No blue screen comes up even though I disabled it. Any help???Thanks
>
>
> Sounds like a hardware related issue to me, in which case there will
> very often not be any error message. Overheating is the prime suspect
> although a power supply voltage problem could cause similar symptoms.
>
> Check the cooling fans and heat sinks inside the computer to ensure
> that the heat sinks are properly latched in place and that the fans
> are spinning freely.
>
> Try running the computer with the case cover removed and see if that
> makes any difference.
>
> Good luck
>
> Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
> --
> Microsoft MVP (1997 - 2008)
> On-Line Help Computer Service
> http://onlinehelp.bc.ca
>
> "Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference
> has never been in bed with a mosquito."
>

w_tom
Tue May 06 20:25:50 PDT 2008

On May 5, 10:29 pm, gjohndonna <gjohndo...@discussions.microsoft.com>
wrote:
> My computer keeps restarting. I can not find anything in the event viewer
> that would give me an idea as to what it is. It might not do this for several
> days then all of a sudden it will start. It might shut off every 10 mins. to
> every hour. I have cleaned out the dust. I have not added any new hardware.
> No blue screen comes up even though I disabled it. Any help???Thanks

If heat is causing failure at room temperature, then heat may be the
perfect diagnostic tool to find that defective hardware. After all,
all computers must work just fine, with dust balls inside, when room
temperature is at 100 degrees F.

A short list of items can cause your problem. For example, your
power supply could have been defective months ago. The defect finally
causing failure. Best is to take two minutes with a meter. This will
be the only procedure that can confirm power supply 'system'
integrity. Access (multitask to) all peripheral simultaneously. Then
measure voltages on any one orange, red, yellow, and purple wire.
Only when the computer is playing complex video graphics, while
downloading a from the internet, while playing music, while searching
for a file on the hard drive, while reading a CD-Rom ... only then are
voltage numbers relevant. Those numbers must exceed 3.23, 4.87, and
11.7. If yes, then move on to other suspects and don't even look
back.

Those other suspects include CPU, some memory, sound card, video
processor, and some motherboard functions. Other devices such as disk
drive, keyboard, mouse, display, etc are not relevant to your failure.

Next are comprehensive hardware diagnostics provided by your
computer manufacturer (if responsible). Execute these diagnostics.
Then repeat same diagnostics with selected hardware heated by a
hairdryer on highest settings. Good hardware will all but thank you
for such ideal conditions. Intermittent hardware would be detected by
diagnostics.

If your manufacturer was not so responsible, then download
diagnostics from each components manufacturer (video processor, sound
card, etc) or from third parties (ie Memtest86).