# PC trouble: Random restarts now no boot? **URL:** \ **Category:** NYSpeed Off Topic\ **Created:** [October 30, 2008, 9:14am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318 "2008-10-30T09:14:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Garick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8797f3/32.png) [@Garick](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Garick)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:14am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/1 "2008-10-30T09:14:27Z")
Things started out with a random reboot while I was away from the computer. Soon after the first reboot I was browsing the web and it did it again. This time I wanted to shut it down when it got to the log on screen so I hit shut down and it restarted again before it had a chance to. I hit the power button while windows was booting up this time around and it got to the log on screen and then displayed ‘windows is shutting down’ before it rebooted again. Thinking its never gonna shut down I turned off the power strip to shut it off. Things were pretty dusty so I blew everything out and cleaned it up thinking something was maybe overheating. Got everything back together and hit the power button and it ran for a few seconds and shut down, I don’t even think it got to post or the beeps. Tried again and it shut down even faster, noticed that the fan was not running on the video card so I disconnected the cards aux power connector and tried starting it again. It shut off as soon as the fans started to reach full speed. This is a 5 year old system that has ran 24/7 most of the time, it seems to be something power related. Should the video card fan come on immediately at startup? Its an ATI Radeon 9500 pro (agp). The fan seems to have too much resistance when turning by hand too. Any suggestions on diagnosing the problem? Its set to not turn back on by itself when the power returns after an outage so its restarting by itself makes me think its not the power supply thats killing it but rather something in the motherboard. its an asus nforce2 motherboard with an athlon 2500+ and antec 350W psu. ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Stevil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Dr.Stevil](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Dr.Stevil)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:30am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/2 "2008-10-30T09:30:10Z")
My guess is the power supply may be on it’s way out if it’s not even posting. I’d try swapping it out and see if that corrects any issues. ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:41am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/3 "2008-10-30T09:41:33Z")
Caps on motherboard blown/spent give the age and amount of usage, or power supply. Video card fan, really besides taking it off cleaning it, and spraying some wd-40 or something in it not much that can be done beyond replacing. ---
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:45am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/4 "2008-10-30T09:45:42Z")
run memtest? and Devin, I taught you about the motherboard caps! 🙂 Bacon is also \>\* White bread toasted, 2XMiracle Whip, 9 pieces of crisp bacon = the best. Note: Do not add bacon to computer. ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 9:49am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/5 "2008-10-30T09:49:55Z")
You have no idea what you are talking about bacon is good with anything. ---
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:05am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/6 "2008-10-30T10:05:14Z")
> [@Bacon](#): > > You have no idea what you are talking about bacon is good with anything. Bacon with peanut butter? Bacon with grape juice? Cream cheese and bacon? Bacon dipped in blue cheese? Dipping bacon in your morning coffee? Bacon, sour cream and onion sandwich? ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:08am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/7 "2008-10-30T10:08:57Z")
Tasty snack, scoop it on the bacon. Breakfast. Breakfast snack. Dinner snack, or a chicken wing substitute. Flavor adding edible stir stick. Lunch. ---
**Author:** ![Adictd2b00st](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/adictd2b00st/32/7625_2.png) [@Adictd2b00st](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Adictd2b00st)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:12am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/8 "2008-10-30T10:12:16Z")
powersupply is my guess i had same issue before, but i could be wrong listen to devin 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:13am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/9 "2008-10-30T10:13:24Z")
crumbled up bacon in your Dr. Pepper? bacon dipped in engine oil? cooked bacon freshly warm dipped into an ant hill? It can’t be good with EVERYTHING… ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:16am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/10 "2008-10-30T10:16:52Z")
It’s has every flavor already, it’s called perfection at that point. Adds nutritional value. Somewhere ants are most likely considered a delicacy, add bacon and it just sweetens the deal. ---
**Author:** ![Clean\_Baldy](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/clean_baldy/32/7308_2.png) [@Clean\_Baldy](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Clean_Baldy)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:22am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/11 "2008-10-30T10:22:44Z")
Where can I buy some Dr. Perfection? LOL I give up. Oil = Nutritional value? ---
**Author:** ![Bacon](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/bacon/32/7230_2.png) [@Bacon](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Bacon)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 10:27am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/12 "2008-10-30T10:27:48Z")
Oil by itself is like corn, useless. The bacon adds to the oil, I could also make unsubstantiated claims similar to the oil additives at autozone saying that it could easily make your car get 11ity+ more MPG and that the chunks of bacon will physically break up any carbon buildup. So either a tasty super laxative. Or a super oil, with no science to back such up. ---
**Author:** ![Gus](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/gus/32/5112_2.png) [@Gus](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Gus)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:06am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/13 "2008-10-30T11:06:18Z")
I have a psu rated at 350watts out of a dell that works fine. PM me if you need it cheap. ---
**Author:** ![boxxa](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/flex034/user_avatar/forums.speedlife.net/boxxa/32/5045_2.png) [@boxxa](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/boxxa)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 11:36am UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/14 "2008-10-30T11:36:55Z")
To see if the PS is failing or completly gone, try to take out a bunch of the PCI boards and extra hard drives. My old desktop had this issue for a while when if only the one HD was plugged in it would work but any more devices and it would not start. If that doesn’t allow it to turn on, try ot find someone with a similar PS and try it. ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 3:09pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/15 "2008-10-30T15:09:17Z")
Could be the PSU, but it still sounds like something is overheating…possibly the CPU. Have any thermal paste handy? It’s always good to reapply some. IF you do, make sure you clean the old thermal paste off the heatsink and CPU. I used one of those lens cleaning towelettes. They contain a little bit of alcohol, make sure you dry them off really good with a polish cloth or I used a car shammy. ---
**Author:** ![Garick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8797f3/32.png) [@Garick](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Garick)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 6:20pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/16 "2008-10-30T18:20:13Z")
it took a couple of tries to get it going but currently running with only one hd, cpu fan, mobo and video card plugged in. the +5 V supply is averaging 4.93 with a low of 4.87, can’t remember what it was running before. Is this out of the ordinary? I’ll try plugging more in to get it to fail again. edit… haha while in the process of shutting down it restarted again. I think it actually did it several times really quick. ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 7:37pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/17 "2008-10-30T19:37:05Z")
swap out the PSU as soon as possible and report back ---
**Author:** ![Hass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/51bf81/32.png) [@Hass](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Hass)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 8:27pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/18 "2008-10-30T20:27:31Z")
> [@BillysRevenge](#): > > swap out the PSU as soon as possible and report back It wouldn’t say that windows is shutting down if it were the PSU. It would just shut off, or restart. (most likely restart) Overheating is my guess. can you just get it to POST and get in BIOS? 5V Rails? that’s pretty shitty imo. Even for 5 years ago. but if it were, that’s within norm. Silly question, but have you checked for viruses? Or can you not even get in to safe mode to check it? If you let it idle in BIOS and watch the CPU temps (and any other temps your BIOS lets you monitor) you can see if something is overheating… Then if it borks up while you’re in BIOS, most likely not a virus. ---
**Author:** ![BillysRevenge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@BillysRevenge](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/BillysRevenge)\ **Post date:** [October 30, 2008, 8:29pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/19 "2008-10-30T20:29:50Z")
My guess is overheating too…probably the CPU, maybe the Graphics card…but he said that he was able to boot with limited hardware connections…which led me to believe he’s got a bum PSU. ---
**Author:** ![Garick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8797f3/32.png) [@Garick](https://forums.speedlife.net/u/Garick)\ **Post date:** [October 31, 2008, 1:16pm UTC](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318/20 "2008-10-31T13:16:25Z")
I’ll try to get a new psu over the weekend… It could very well be the graphics card since its fan is not running. CPU temps are fine in windows with the cpu loaded and in the bios monitor. everything seems pretty stable until I try to shut down with limited stuff plugged in. It shut down before it even got to post a few times so I think that leads me away from a virus. [Next page](https://forums.speedlife.net/t/pc-trouble-random-restarts-now-no-boot/57318.md?page=2)