Desktop

Ask something
Discussion Locked

PC random reboots

0 helpful
12 replies

by Member 28350584

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.
I have installed Win98 on a hybrid Duron 800mHZ PC. Everything has installed OK, but now on occassion the PC just reboots itself. This does not seem related to any particuler application. I have tried repositioning the memory chips (and even different memory chips) but no change. Could this be related to BIOS settings or some other hardware issues. Thanks in advance for any help.

12 replies

by ratcatcher

It sounds to me that you may have a problem with overheating.

A simple test for overheating is remove the casing and then see if the problem still occurs.

If it works ok with the casing removed you can install a fan, it's quite simple to do and not very expensive.

by blairma

It could be a overheating problem if it is then the easiest fix would be to add another fan or to buy silcon gel to put betweent your CPU and heat sink to increase heat transfer

by tkhunwane

Yes it could be an overheating cpu that is causing the problem,but the PSU might be the cause.Use a different PSU if CPU over heating is not the cause.

by alien_engineer

Ok, there are already some replies but they all focus on one thing: heat buildup. This is the #1 reason why a pc reboots without any apparent reason, but there still are some other reasons:
a) The mainboard might lose the "Power Good" signal. Either you have a crappy/old power supply or the motherboard has a problem.
b) A hardware malfunction on one of your cards, especially SCSI controllers or VGA cards, might result in the same symptoms.
c) Some virusses do this too

I suggest you boot your machine with a DOS disk and write a small batch that generates disk activity e.g.make a loop that lists all subdirs and files to a file, rename the file, repeat the dir, remove both files and start over. Leave this running and see if your machine reboots. If it does, you're down to overheating or loss of power good. If it doesn't, I suggest you remove all extra peripherals from the pc (printer, soundcard, scsi and so on) and work a bit. If it doesn't have the problem it's a broken card. If it does reboot without the cards it's on the software level.

Hope this helps you out a bit...

by wyldchilde

You might check with your motherboard manufacturer for chipset updates. In some instances via chipsets have had some problem with IRQ routing, and the system reboots when a device is accessed.

This discussion is closed to new replies.