Computer keeps rebooting

B

BigJavy

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Jan 18, 2004
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So my cousin's computer (which used to be my computer) recently started having problems...

The monitor goes from getting a signal to not getting a signal off and on (so black screen, video, black screen, video, etc). I thought maybe the vid card was going bad... but now, the computer is randomly rebooting. He started up in safe mode and everything worked perfectly fine. Any ideas?

As best as I remember, he's got some kinda p4 (2.4ghz) a ti4200 (he's planning to upgrade soon, but wants to leave this computer for him mom to use), a gigabyt 8SG667 (i think), and that's all I remember.

Thanks!
Jason
 
What you should do is reinstall windows to see if it is just a software problem.

What I would think would more likely be the problem is the power supply...possibly the motherboard. Either of these could account for the video going on and off. I'd think may'be the motherboard...it may not be regulating the voltage correctly going to the video card.

But definately try a reinstall (it could be a driver problem, that can make it reboot...that has happened to me before) and if you have another power supply lying around then swap it in.

...Dan
 
Zorgonatis said:
Hold CTRL while booting. Let us know how it works ;].

[NON-safe mode]
Click to expand...


Like, to keep it from overclocking the vid card? I actually had him do that and there was no difference. I'm pretty sure he's not oc'ing anything



Dan17 said:
What I would think would more likely be the problem is the power supply...possibly the motherboard. Either of these could account for the video going on and off. I'd think may'be the motherboard...it may not be regulating the voltage correctly going to the video card.
Click to expand...

I was hoping it was the PSU. When he first got the PC (from me), the PSU died within a week. This kid really has bad luck w/ pc's. Everytime he uses one, it breaks. What confused me was that the problem doesn't happen in safe mode. Does a PC use more power when it's not in safe mode? I always expected hardware problems to happen whether it was in safe mode or not.


Jason
 
Sounds like a problem with Windows. Are the reboots completely random, or when running something?
 
Completely random. Usually what'll happen is he'll start up the pc, once in windows, the screen flashes on and off for 30 secs or so... and then it reboots.

Another little tidbit of information - I'm not positive if it's still doing it, but there were a few times when nothing would open. He'd be clicking on shortcuts and nothing would happen. I don't know any more details (like, maybe something else was using up resources and making everything just open really slow)... but maybe it's related somehow?
 
not to insult you but a virus scan would be in order if you havn't tried yet.

 
Insult? I'm up for any suggestion (even the most obvious). He ran a virus scan, spyware check, etc etc in safe mode (because he can't stay in normal mode long enough to do anything). Everything came up clean.
 
Just do a complete reinstall of windows. :eek:

That's the only way to see if it is a software problem or not. If he needs to backup stuff, put the hard drive in your pc, copy files over. Then he can reinstall windows and then just transfer the files back over.

If the pc works after that it was windows if not then it's hardware, most likely one of the parts i stated previously.

...Dan
 
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