dirtfarmer wrote:
> i have a problem my  compter   reboot  one me with out  warning, i
> have a hard time some time  geting window to start up, it come up
> with error and i try last know  good  seting, and that most time
> work after 1 or 3 time, i also get the compter to reboot some time
> when i plug in a  USB, or play a cd in my  rw  cd rom  or  play a dvd
> in my  dvd cd rom
> 
> this problem is really  start to bug the day light  out  me, as it
> happen  so  fast or not at  all
> 
> i been told to change the power supply

The usual culprits are:

- Bad power coming into the computer.  i.e. brown-out situations or 
incorrect voltages coming in from outside (I've seen 130VAC on what is 
supposed to be a 120VAC outlet).  The solution for this is typically a 
power-conditioning UPS that will adjust the voltage to compensate for 
over/under voltage conditions.

Note: Poor power quality from the power company can cause marginal PSUs 
to fail where they would work fine in a cleaner power environment.

- Overworked power-supply.  Typically only happens if you add additional 
equipment to an existing case.  But could also happen if the 
power-supply was marginal to begin with (barely able to power the 
original equipment) and has now begun to fade.  A larger and/or better 
quality PSU will help with this.  You can attempt to troubleshoot by 
diconnecting non-essential equipment (CD/DVD, floppy, secondary hard 
drives, tape drives) and seeing if the PC is stable.  If it's stable 
with less of a load, then you probably want a new PSU.

- CMOS/BIOS battery is dying can cause odd issues sometimes.  This 
doesn't sound like one of those.

- Heat.  Is your CPU overheating and the thermal protection circuit is 
shutting the system down to save the CPU from damage?  Grab a copy of 
SpeedFan 4.28 from http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php and look at your 
CPU temperature.  Or some BIOS's have a screen where you can view the PC 
Health including CPU temperature.

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