My Pc Boots Up Loads Then Reboots Again

[romanfarm69]

I run WinXp pro, whole new system athlon 2400ghz the usual nvidia fx5200 128bit.

You boot your system up everything loads icq, msn messenger aol im yahoo im and then for some unknown reason my system just cuts out and reboots then u could use it for say 2 hours and u go to do something and the system just reboots

Anyone got an idea why this is happening?

Please help would be much appricated

Iain

 

[lowman]

Welcome aboard romanfarm - you should post your questions in the proper forum, where it will most likely get quite a few replies quickly.

 

[Mictlantecuhtli]

Have you checked Event Viewer logs? It's in Administrative Tools. Random reboot reasons are quite difficult to pinpoint, in my opinion. It could be software, hardware, overheating, solar flares, ....

 

[Hodsocks]

I have come against this problem twice, the first time it was PSU and the second was a faulty motherboard.
I agree with Mictlantecuhtli, it could be anything, you just have to slowly work your way through things and eliminate possible causes.

 

[g0nads]

I agree that random reboots are sometimes hard to diagnose, however, I have personally dealt with this type of problem on numerous occasions in my job and generally it has been the PSU that has created this problem. Overheating is probably not the problem with new/newer CPUs because of their heat-safety programming that SHOULD initiate a system shutdown... not a reboot. Rebooting a system that has a steaming CPU [because of a cooling prob] would make absolutely no sense at all.

With this said, my advice would be to replace the power supply... they are generally inexpensive when compared to most other hardware [cpu, ram, mobo, etc]... if this does not resolve your problem, then you can take the PSU back or keep it... at least you have eliminated one of the major problem variables [from my experience anyways].

Note: PSUs are generally generic and wear out like most electronics... voltages can 'spike' with a failing PSU initiating a system reboot [like a power surge during a storm].