What Causes A Pc To Restart Itself?

DY357LX

<div class="IPBDescription">I'm Tearing My Hair Out</div> For some strange reason my Pc keeps restarting itself.
I thought it was my ATI drivers but apparently not.
Here's what i've done so far:

Installed 4.7 (latest) ATI Drivers - but still the same thing.
Formatted the damn thing - immediately after the format
and re-install of Windows XP Pro, I installed the critical
updates/fixes and Service Pack 1. Then I installed DirectX
9.0c, then I installed the fresh 4.7 Catalsyts.

I then installed Call Of Duty as my test game and managed to
play about 15 minutes of it before my Pc flopped and restarted.


Now, to the best of my knowledge, the Pc has only restarted itself
when I'm playing a game. Regardless of weather its, FarCry, CoD
or The Specialists... it'll restart.


At the moment i'm started to think it might be over-heating issues
because this room never seems to be cold. I'll have to find a way
of cooling it down somehow until I can get hold of a proper case-fan.



Can anyone offer some advice as to what might be causing this problem?
I've attached my DxDiag to save having to post my system specs.
I'm going to bed now because its like 2:30am here and my Doom 3
arrives tommorow (hopefully!).
Thanks in advance

Spooge

When all else fails, check your RAM.

Tequila

Try Service Pack 2. Also, make sure you disable the Windows 'feature' where it automatically restarts your PC instead of showing you an error message. You might be able to narrow it down: Go to the Advanced tab under System Properties of the Control Panel, and un-tick "automatically restart" under "System Failure".

Thansal

try taking off the case and pointing a box fan at it.

if it dosn't restart then you have the culprit.

Also, have you checked to make sure your not getting undisplayed BSoDs? (I don't remember how to make sure it showes em, but some one else will know <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)

CForrester

First, go to System Properties (Windows Key + Pause), go to the "Advanced" tab, click on "Settings" under Startup and Recovery, and uncheck "Automatically restart". This way, next time it errors, it'll display a blue screen with STOP error information. Write it down and show it to us, so that we can figure out what's wrong.

[EDIT:] Crap. I've been beaten to it.

Tequila

<!--QuoteBegin-Thansal+Aug 12 2004, 02:35 AM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Thansal @ Aug 12 2004, 02:35 AM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Also, have you checked to make sure your not getting undisplayed BSoDs? (I don't remember how to make sure it showes em, but some one else will know <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->) <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Read my post. <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif' /><!--endemo-->

sawce

I was having similar problems (though it wouldn't restart, it would lock while continually emitting a steady beep through the sound card). It would do this in CoD, and UT2k4, even in half-life (though very, very rarely).

I installed a <a href='http://www.thermaltake.com/products/heatsink/v9.htm' target='_blank'>Volcano 9</a> I had sitting around, and purchased an <a href='http://www.vantecusa.com/product-cooling.html#' target='_blank'>IceBerq 4</a> (click on "CCB-A4C" under VGA Card) for my video card, and it hasn't locked up since.

Chaos_Llama

If your CPU and mobo have a temperature sensor (most have), use this program to monitor the temps:

<a href='http://mbm.livewiredev.com/' target='_blank'>http://mbm.livewiredev.com/</a>

It's a utility that displays your case temp, cpu temp, fan speed, voltage usage, etc.

It's also freeware <!--emo&:D--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/biggrin.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='biggrin.gif' /><!--endemo-->

Also, what kind of CPU do you have?

Do the following tests and report the temperatures in this thread:

1) Check the temperature of everything the moment your PC is booted (preferably when it hasnt been on for a while, so everything cooled)

2) Check the temperature either during, or after you play a game or some other CPU intensive application.

3) Leave the PC on for a while and dont touch it (around 15 min), look what the temperatures are.