BleepingComputer.com: My computer restarting or switching off anytime

Hi all,

To start with, previously, my computer wouldnt boot and would remain with no screen - in fact the monitor would show 'no signal'. this was 2 months back and so was serviced and another mobo put in (under warranty so am guessing not a brand new replacement). Also replaced the 512mb ram with 2gb ram (1 card). Worked fine for 2 months. Now the computer just restarts itself of would go off automatically at anytime. Tried to maintain a log to see a pattern, but am stumped now for the last 3 weeks. At the service workshop worked fine w/o any problem for 8 days. Took it home and the problem started after 2 days. IT just goes off and restarts from itself from cold boot, infact the whole computer goes off fans and all, and then in 3-5 seconds comes on again. sometimes goes off and on 4 to five times in a few seconds. Then again another time works fine for 2-3 hours till i switch off.
So whats the deal here, have the workshop replaced with an incompatible mobo?

cpu dual core 3gz, 2mbram, vista home basic.

Thanks
Alex

Go into control panel then Administrator tools and click on event viewer, look at what the viewer is showing during the time period tis started to happen. Fair chance it will get you pointed!

I would suggest you check the temps of your CPU and MoBoard. Speed Fan is a good program for that. It will also tell you the speed of your fans, which are also important. Some motherboards will shut down if the RPMs of a fan goes below a threshold.

You could also try removing the side panel and position a desk fan to blow air into the case. If that resolves the problem, then heat is definitely the culprit.

Heat can increase if the thermal compound is cheap or not applied properly. A stressed power supply can also increase heat.

I hope this helps.


DR

thanks guys, will do as advised and keep all posted

HI,
just got my computer back from the workshop 4 days back and the problem was that the ram card was the culprit which they changed and now my computer seems stable, at least so for the last 4 days.
Well I'm not entirely satisfied how things turned out since i upgraded my ram to 2gb from 512mb in end Sep09, and the problem started in dec09, (which began with the computer not booting), then after they changed the mboard in dec09, the restarteing began almost immediately for nearly a month till i sent it back to the workshop, and now they say the ram was bad? Seemingly so since the computer is stable now(at least for 4 days now). I checked the mobo specs with pcwizard2010 and it matches with the original mobo manual from the manufacturer.
Anyways, my real problem now is that my mobo only supports 533/667 mhz ram cards and the 2gb "problem card' was 800mhz. So they changed to the 533mhz ram card but only 512mb, since 1 or 2gb currently unavailable at the moment. So now , temporarily, can i use a usb flash drive of around 2gb with readyboost feature to speed up my computer, because its rediculuosly slow. Im using vista home basic. Please explain how to use and what to buy. Thanks