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PC Keeps Restarting
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| DJ Mikey Mike |
I've got a PC that keeps rebooting itself. It just about gets past the stage of being prompted to enter the BIOS, and sometimes gets to the stage where it tells me Windows didn't start correctly last time, but then it just automatically reboots in an endless circle of fun.
So far I've cleaned out the dust with a can of compressed air and I've replaced the Power Supply. Still no joy. Next I took out the CPU and saw that the thermal interface material is really badly worn down. Is it likely that this is the source of the problem? I don't want to buy any of that thermal crap if there's other things I should be troubleshooting first.
Cheers. |
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| Sunsnail |
| does your bios have a temperature gauge? see how hot it gets just sitting there |
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| Capitalizt |
| Clean off the paste with alcohol and put a fresh paper thin layer on there. Hot CPUs = computer death |
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| Cloudburst |
Could be a lot of things.
Faulty RAM for example usually gives a wide variety of problems. You try and download and run memtest (http://www.memtest.org/). You have to burn it on a cd and boot from it.
Another thing would be to remove any parts that aren't needed. Remove all but one memory stick at a time, remove sound card, or whatever pci extension cards is installed. |
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| Capitalizt |
It could also be a bad power supply.. Do you have an old computer sitting around you can use to swap out parts to find out what's wrong? Try new ram and a power supply..
And you need new thermal paste regardless. Don't put the CPU back on as it is now. |
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| Frenkieee |
| As everyone said, it could be a lot of problems, but high CPU temperature can indeed be the problem. I've had the same problem, only with my pc the fan would just start to blow at its hardest. I can imagine that if the temperature would really be too high, the pc would shut down/restart. |
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| DJ Mikey Mike |
| quote: | Originally posted by Sunsnail
does your bios have a temperature gauge? see how hot it gets just sitting there |
I don't really know what the norm is supposed to be.
At startup it's:
Processor Zone Temp: 54 degrees C / 129 degrees F
System Zone 1 Temp: 31 degrees C / 87 degrees F
After 15 minutes it's:
Processor Zone Temp: 55 degrees C / 131 degrees F
System Zone 1 Temp: 32 degrees C / 89 degrees F
| quote: | Originally posted by Cloudburst
Could be a lot of things.
Faulty RAM for example usually gives a wide variety of problems. You try and download and run memtest (http://www.memtest.org/). You have to burn it on a cd and boot from it.
Another thing would be to remove any parts that aren't needed. Remove all but one memory stick at a time, remove sound card, or whatever pci extension cards is installed. |
Will try this next. I'll see if I have any spare RAM I can try - There's only 1 stick in there anyway so it should be pretty quick to troubleshoot. If I don't have any spare then I'll run the memtest instead.
| quote: | Originally posted by Capitalizt
It could also be a bad power supply.. Do you have an old computer sitting around you can use to swap out parts to find out what's wrong?
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Read the first post - First thing I tried.
| quote: | Originally posted by Capitalizt
And you need new thermal paste regardless. Don't put the CPU back on as it is now. |
Will do. Providing I find out what the issue is that is. |
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| Sunsnail |
| It's sitting on the hot-side of things but not hot enough to cause your problems in my opinion. My old one got in the high 70's before causing restarts. |
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| pkcRAISTLIN |
unlikely to be a heat issue. booting up is hardly intensive.
have you tried booting in safe mode?
and, good to see you back mikey mike! |
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| basd |
Another possibility is that your Master Boot Record (MBR) has gone up.
Is it Windows XP?
Get the original CD (or any semi-legal copy), boot off it, start Recovery Console (see Google on how to, it's easy enough) and try whether any of these commands fix the problem:
FIXBOOT
FIXMBR
CHKDSK |
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| DJ Mikey Mike |
| quote: | Originally posted by pkcRAISTLIN
unlikely to be a heat issue. booting up is hardly intensive.
have you tried booting in safe mode?
and, good to see you back mikey mike! |
Thanks!
Yeah, I've tried in safe mode. It has the same effect - 3 seconds later after selecting it I get another reboot.
| quote: | Originally posted by basd
Another possibility is that your Master Boot Record (MBR) has gone up.
Is it Windows XP?
Get the original CD (or any semi-legal copy), boot off it, start Recovery Console (see Google on how to, it's easy enough) and try whether any of these commands fix the problem:
FIXBOOT
FIXMBR
CHKDSK |
That's a good idea. It's XP Pro. I don't know why I just instantly assumed it to be a hardware fault. What a dick head. I'll run the recovery console in a bit.
I don't mean to keep you all waiting on the edge of your seats in anticipation but I'm going on lunch now. Will report back later when I've tried some of the above.
Cheers for the help. |
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| leebates1986 |
| quote: | Originally posted by basd
Another possibility is that your Master Boot Record (MBR) has gone up.
Is it Windows XP?
Get the original CD (or any semi-legal copy), boot off it, start Recovery Console (see Google on how to, it's easy enough) and try whether any of these commands fix the problem:
FIXBOOT
FIXMBR
CHKDSK |
happened to me last week when i made a dual boot. hung at verifying dmi pool, fixing the mbr sorted everything :) |
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