I'm having a few computer issues...
If anyone could shed any light or give me some ideas of finding out what's going on, it'd be appreciated, I expect to see this thread packed when I get back!
Basically, My computer, after being on for about 5-30mins will literally just decide it wants to restart. It freezes for about 1minute and then reboots itself.
Any ideas?
Scan came up clean, and currently doing another one, but the crashes are disrupting it. I'll do another boot scan and get back to you.
I'm having a few computer issues...
If anyone could shed any light or give me some ideas of finding out what's going on, it'd be appreciated, I expect to see this thread packed when I get back!
Basically, My computer, after being on for about 5-30mins will literally just decide it wants to restart. It freezes for about 1minute and then reboots itself.
Any ideas?
Scan came up clean, and currently doing another one, but the crashes are disrupting it. I'll do another boot scan and get back to you.
This might help. If you have your XP/Vista CD boot your computer from it. Then follow options to repair.
Bootscan lead to a freeze as well.
I'll give it a shot, thanks Phal.
EDIT: Trying to repair lead to a reformat. And I couldn't even get into the OS afterwards, so I didn't manage to get any backups.
We'll see if it fixes the issue?
Sounds like you may have a worm or trojan virus. To help determine the cause better, try holding the Windows key down and then pressing the 'r' key. When the "Run" prompt comes up, type in "cmd" (without quotes), then click OK. If your machine reboots instantly that is the culprit.
After that, I would hazard a guess and say that it's either to do with your processor, Northbridge chipset overheating or your power supply failing.
Take off the side of the computer and see if you can see the cooling fins under the processor cooling fan, also look and check if you can see a Mainboard under all that dust
. If you can't it's time to get the vacuum cleaner and a soft-bristled brush (not nylon!!), get in there and using the very end of the vacuum cleaner hose (no Extension), pretend you are an 'underwater archeologist', vacuuming centuries of sediment away from a find...
If you can't see the processor heat-sink cooling fins then chances are you will have to unscrew and remove the fan from the top of the heat-sink before you can remove the dust. If the fins are too choked it prevents proper airflow over the cooling surface and can cause the system to shut down. I doubt this is the direct culprit but I would check this out.
If it's your power supply, what is more than likely happening is that it's not maintaining a steady power stream and disrupting the 'power good' signal, basically doing the same thing as pressing the reset button on the front of your machine. This is tricky to properly diagnose and it may mean taking your PC to a shop so they can test the power supply with proper equipment.
That's all I can think of atm mate.
Well, after the reformat, it seems to be running fine.
I don't know what the problem was, but it was in need of a re-format, it's about 2-3 years old and hasn't been reformatted
LAY-ZEE!
I didn't want to resort to it, but I guess I had to in the end
Thanks for the help Vance, I may as well do that as well to keep my PC nice-ish, aside from what's actually inside it, lol. (Very outdated)
next time, open command and run "msconfig"
under the startup tab look for any sus programs and untick their box, this should stop windows from loading it up during bootup.
Take note of their names and do a virus scan, then delete them.
theres also a neat little program called hijackthis, its scans all programs running in the background and gives you a list in a notepad file, you can copy that list to
http://www.hijackthis.de/ and it'll tell you if anything that's running on your system is malicious. Best of all its FREE !!
if you're in need of a very good firewall, try Comodo firewall pro, its rated very highly among the tech community and its also FREE !!
http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/
I've got a Hardware firewall.. Not perfect, but I don't want to much running on my PC.
Using HijackThis now, and I'll have a look at MsConfig.
Thanks mate.
EDIT: Don't understand HijackThis, lol.
As for msconfig, all looks okay. The ones that looked suspicious I already disabled using Ccleaner.
Since the reformat (which I might add, was not a complete one) It's only frozen twice. Once during a Bootscan, and once normally in the Desktop kinda thing.
No BSOD's yet, so we're going good!
UPDATE: Constant freezes now. I think I'll need to do a complete format, which means I'll have to start backing stuff up..
Any further suggestions before I go ahead with it?
Not really mate, but I am a little confused about your previous statement regarding re-formatting and this one? Was the last one just a 'repair re-install'?
Have you gone into your bios and checked the CPU operating temperature? If this is an old intel CPU it may have been cooked to the point where it can't operate correctly any more. If this is the case, then I'm afraid no amount of reformatting will alleviate the situation.
Just check temps (Usually under heading like "PC health"), but leave the machine running like this for a while. It's not the best test as the CPU is not really under any load, however if it's running too hot at this point we may have just localised the problem.
After that? Well then full-format would be the way to go.
In the mean-time, it may be an idea to try and run some PC diagnostics software (like Si-soft Sandra), which should check everything out for you... After all, it may even be the Hard disk that's playing up...