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PC resets by itself

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by rudi-claassen

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I have a P3 800 when you are busy working on it,
it will just go off then come back on. Sometimes the keyboad doesn't work after that.I thought it could be the cpu running hot but it sometimes hapen when I switch it on for the first time.
Is there a way to see if it is the PSU without actualy getting another one ? Please help

11 replies

by thechas

Actually, the easiest way to check the power supply is to sub in another one.

You should also check the power supply connector, the power cord, and the switch on the front panel.

Sometimes, the switch fails and can cause the power supply to shut down.

If this is an ATX system, you can disable the shut down option for the power switch in the power management section of BIOS settings.

As to the power supply itself;

Check the cooling fan. Does air flow free, is it very hot?
Use a DMM to monitor the power supply output voltages. If the 5 volt or 12 volt varies a lot, then the power supply is apt to be going bad.

Chas

by kwduke

I had this very problem about 3 weeks ago,

system would turn off at various times.. sometimes in the morning somtimes at night.. somtimes while backing up.. very frustrating...

and I tried everything before I went out and bought a new PS..
if I had only bought the new PS 1st I would have saved myself a lot of time and energy

go get a new one.. it will fix your problem

by stan

You should check the wattage of your PSU. You should probably use a minimum 300 watt PSU for a P3. Using a smaller wattage PSU can also damage the motherboard.

by bckurd

Hi!

I think your PC got effected by a virus. Some Viruses have such characteristic to re-boot your pc for many times. My suggestion for you is to use system floppy disk to boot your system from A drive and then try to check your FAT file on yourharddisk. It might be damaged some how. If it is, transfer new FAT to your local hardrive and then re-try to load your PC.

by computerbabe

I had a client's computer do the exact same thing. We replaced the power supply, reseated the processor, and nothing helped.

Since all computers require 3 things for bootup: video, RAM, and a processor, I decided to systematically troubleshoot the basic items.

It wasn't the video, since it didn't instantly freeze the computer. It wasn't the processor because the temperature was fine, and I had already reseated it. It wound up being the RAM -- the RAM was going bad.

Find a free RAM testing utility on the Internet. Since my client had a Compaq computer, we used the "Compaq Intelligent Manageability" program. We used the Diagnostics, and tested 'memory'.

If replacing the power supply doesn't help you, you should try replacing the RAM.

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