[Lunatique]

It started doing that lately. I could be doing anything--doesn't make any difference--and it'll reboot instantly, always at the exact moment of a mouse click. I could be clicking on anything--makes no difference. Sometimes it happens for 10 times in a hour, sometimes not once in a day. Any ideas?

[[Shizo]]

I thought maybe it's overheating (is Malaysia really hot?) but since you said it happens only during a mouse click, it could be the China-hating Malaysian Ghosts!!! Or.. it could be a virus :0
Virus scan it baby.

PS: try updating the mobo chipset drivers if possible too.

[Al Ian]

Shizo is on the right track. Check temprature. Check for virus's. It could be a hardware failure. My machine started doing that when my old video card started to go in the toilet. Once I replaced it I was good to go. Course it only rebooted while in a 3D enviornment.
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[Nilwort]

try changing the "turn monitor off" field to "never" in power options under the screen saver tab in display properties, and if you're really pissed off, disable power managment from the bios. I was having this problem too and it hasn't hapened since...

(edit) ah shit, nevermind...my monitor was turning off, not rebooting...you could still mess with disabling power management settings and see if that does anything...

[Frost]

I heard of some virus that has such a feature as part of its arsenal. Check there first if this is new behavior.

Free online virus scans:
http://security.symantec.com
http://us.mcafee.com/root/mfs/default.asp

[wahookah]

could be the virus W32.Blaster.Worm did the same on my computer and use a weakness of windows, there is an official patch at microsoft.com also try http://securityresponse.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/w32.blaster.worm.html

if you use kazaa chances are really high that it s that one...

greetings from Russia
Wahoo

[Awetopsy]

My Brother in Laws machine started doing a similar thing. It ended up being the RAM. After he replaced the Ram it completely went away.

[B0b]

if it is MS blaster it should pop up a warning "computer will shut down in 30 seconds" or something like that..

if that happens - Start>Run> shutdown /a

[Lunatique]

It kinda just died--not even being able to boot up into the boot screen. Now it's being looked at by our IT guy at work. . ..

[Lunatique]

Ok, out IT guy did this weird trick where he pulled out the RAM, and took an eraser to it and rubbed it against the copper contacts. And it fixed the problem. He said some Chinese guy at a cafe taught him the trick.

Anyway, he then installed Norton System Works on my PC, but now whenever I use Explorer to navigate to my hard drives, it lags hardcore. It takes about 10 seconds for Explorer to access any of the harddrives, and while it's "searching" or whatever, the graphics for the folders just disappears during that time. What the hell could that be? We thought it might be Norton System Works causing it, but after uninstalling them, it's still the same. He says Service Pack 4 might be doing it, but it was fine at home, and only started doing it after I brought it in to work.

[Gort]

Rob -- I'm glad it wasn't anymore serious than that. Recently I too had a similar problem, but it turned out to be my MB. I had plunking down money, but it did give me an excuse to ramp up my machine -- a typical love/hate relationship.

Here's wishing you a Happy New Year!! Cheers all -- be safe!
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- Tom Carter

"You can't stop the waves but you can learn to surf" - Jack Kornfield

[B0b]

sounds like system works b0rked something in the registry..
or
could be a driver problem? re-install RAID drivers?
or
did he plug u into the network while u were there? could b ur computer searching for something on a non-existant network..

[Frost]

Lunatique; happy birthday btw.

[Awetopsy]

Gort, dont we all have love/hate relationships with our rigs...


Happy b-day Luna

[Lunatique]

Hehe, thanks. How'd you guys know it's was my b-day?

I think the rebooting is due to a bad sector in one of my harddrives. I still can't figure out why it's so slow to access my harddrives though. . ..

[Lunatique]

Heh, it turned out that one of my drive's partitions has mysterious become "unformatted," and all of its contents disappeared. Once I formatted it, the "seeking" of Explorer was gone.

I still have to find a way to fix the rebooting problem though.

[merlyns]

happy b-day too you!

-david
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[B0b]

i thought he fixed ur re-boot problem with a quick rub on the RAM?

[psipower]

Ok, one of our computers here had the same problem, it would reboot randomly. But it would crash even when no one was at the keyboard or mouse. We finally tracked the problem to a faulty stick of RAM. The RAM was replaced and it now has been running for a month without crashing.

I'd suggest you borrow someone elses RAM and test it in your rig for a couple of days.
Then again it might not be that
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[B0b]

well 1 way of doing it would b to take the RAM out and put 1 stick in @ a time.. if u can't track it down from that, then u need to take the testing further..

[Lunatique]

Yeah, the problem continued, and I've been suspecting it's the damn RAM. I have 2 sticks of 256mb, and I tried both individually, and they both crashed. What are the chances of both RAM gonig bad? I already did the memtest thing too on the RAM and nothing came up?

[Torstein Nordstrand]

First thing, check if something's overheating. Usually, there's a feature in your BIOS that can tell you what temperature the processor is at - go there right after it reboots. You don't want temperatures over... say 60 degrees celsius.

Secondly, a typical problem nowadays seem to be poor/outgrown power supplies - people stuff their cabinets full of multiple harddrives, cd(vd)-roms and -burners and powerdraining graphics cards. The supply can't handle the load = critical failure. If you have a lot of devices, check how much oompf your power supply has.

My final advice would have to be...

Save often

Hope that helps,
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[B0b]

motherboard monitor will allow you to keep track of your CPU and Mobo Temps at all times i have it running on my dual rig