A bad power supply can induce random restarts because it doesn't supply
consistant voltage. Surges can damage components and cause overheating, and
sags can cause memory modules to reset or clock generators to skip cycles or
slow down. A bad mainboard, particularly the capacitors that regulate
voltage and current for the CPU, can also cause random restarts. It is still
a good idea to reseat memory sticks, peripheral cards, and cables, and to
observe and record any STOP errors by diabling automatic reboot within
Windows. A good virus scan is also not a bad idea as recommended by the
previous poster.

-----Original Message-----
From: Personal Computer Hardware discussion List
[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Don Penlington
Sent: Monday, January 28, 2008 7:08 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Bad power supply or MB?


Kathleen wrote:
>I have recently had an issue with my computer shutting down in the middle
>of minor activity.>>


Most likely causes:

1. There's a family of viruses which can cause this.
2. Overheating
3. Faulty RAM. Reseat RAM sticks, run RAM tests, try removing one if there
are 2 RAM sticks.
4. Stop error. Set computer to not reboot automatically on stop errors.
Then you can see what the error is. It could be hardware-related.

Power supply and mobo are less likely causes.

Don Penlington


 From the Beach at Surfers Paradise in sunny Queensland.
Computer tutorials, local scenery,  and other things at my website:
http://users.tpg.com.au/deepend/index1.html

         PCBUILD maintains hundreds of useful files for download
                     visit our download web page at:
                  http://freepctech.com/downloads.shtml

                         PCBUILD's List Owners:
                      Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
                       Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>