I need some help because I’m not too computer savvy. Sometimes my computer will just randomly restart. It gets rather annoying because you could be in the middle of something then bam, nothing, it’ll restart. Any ideas what this could be? I would hate to have to waste my money buying a new computer if I can just fix this one.
What operating system?
You could have a virus, or you could have Windows Updates installing automatically and restarting your computer after install.
virus.
check your c:\windows\system32 folder for any DLL’s that are less than a month old… if there is any new files in there with a suspicious name, rename the .dll to .bak, restart and see if it happens again.
:drinkers:
Could also be overheating…
Run a virus scan as well like they said.
Theres like a bajillion of those things in there. It would take forever to go through them all.
Also, could it have something to do with my windows not updating? Apparantly our version of windows is genuine so I dunno. Also, I’m not sure if it could be overheating, because I can start my computer and as soon as it gets to the desktop it will restart. Other times it may take an hour, or not restart at all. Its really random. Oh yeah, the OS is Windows XP Professional I think.
You can sort them by date, and check only the most recent ones. But yes, it could potentially be a lot of work.
That might’ve been a joke, but it’s possible that the machine COULD be overheating. Some machines will shut down if the temp gets too high as a safety precaution. You can check this by looking in the system log.
Microsoft DID just release an update that’s supposed to verify legal versions of Windows XP, but it doesn’t make your computer restart randomly.
There’s a million things that could be causing it, from a failing power supply to a virus or spyware. You have to try to narrow it down. First, check the system log and see if there’s anything in there that will give you more ideas. (right click “My Computer”, select “Manage”, then “Event Viewer”, then look in the System log, and probably check the Application log as well.
Then run any one of the many free online virus scans. The first one is the one I usually use.
http://housecall.antivirus.com/
http://www.coledata.com/virusalert.htm
http://www.cybertechhelp.com/html/misc/av.php
http://www.ravantivirus.com/scan/
After you’ve done that, you should have a better idea of where the problem is, and how to fix it.