The following is a general troubleshooting guide for reboots if you already have done it or does not apply the pls skip and move onto the next section.
Microsoft says whenever a computer freezes or reboots (crashes) you need to run chkdsk
Start, my computer, right click on your hard drive, select properties, select tools, error checking click "check now"(chkdsk).
(General maintenance can save alot of headaches, see link below for general maintenance)
Hard drive
Download the diagnostic tool and check your hard drive
Hard Disk Drive Diagnostics/Utilities
Overheating
Description
When your CPU overheats, it will usually cause your computer to reboot. Video card overheating causes artifacts to appear on your screen, and usually wont cause reboots.
Diagnostic
Enter BIOS upon powering on your computer. Most BIOs have a hardware monitor. Use this to check your temperatures and fan speeds.
There is also hardware monitoring software that can check your temperatures from Windows. Your hardware monitoring software should have come with your motherboard. If you have no monitoring software, you can go to
www.cpuid.com and get PC Wizard.
PC Wizard is an easy to use program that will let you know what kind of temperatures you have, and what your fan speeds are at.
Causes
CPU overheating is usually caused by a failing CPU fan or improperly applied thermal paste. Fortunately, these 2 causes are easy to fix. If the CPU fan is dead, buy a new one and install it. If the thermal paste is improperly applied, remove the old paste off and apply new paste.
Another method is to take a house fan and open the case blowing the fan on high into the case.
if this helps we know its heat.
Goto radio shack buy a can of PCB cleaner (printed circuit board) unplug computer for an hour, open case spray everything starting from top working down to the bottom make sure you get the cpu heatsink and video card really goods.
Power Supply (PSU) Problems
Description
It is important to have a functioning, proper size of PSU for your computer. Having an underpowered or failing PSU is often the cause for random reboots. To get an estimate of how powerful a PSU, use this
PSU calculator and add about 50W to the minimum power the calculator gives you.
Diagnostic
The easiest and best way to diagnose a faulty PSU is to swap it with another one that you know is in good working order.
Flowchart for ATX Power Supply Repair
Causes
PSUs just die after a while.
RAM
Description
Faulty RAM and RAM slots can cause random errors/reboots.
Diagnostic
The best way to determine if RAM is your problem is to run your computer with one stick at a time, and see if the problem occurs for either stick. This obviously doesn't apply if you only have one stick to begin with Also, try the RAM in different slots. The actual slots might be causing RAM-failing like problems. The next step is to run
memtest86 to determine if you have faulty RAM.
Drivers
Visit the manufactures website and download the latest drivers for your hardware.
