ANSWERS: 6
  • Excess heat is the most probable cause. Excess heat is usually caused by dirt. Usually the CPU cooling fan has become dirty or not running at all. Dirt prevents the proper airflow needed to keep the CPU cool. I have seen cooling fans so clogged with dirt that the fan operation is reduced or the tiny fan motor burns out providing no cooling at all. Clean or replace and see if this corrects the problem. If not you may have a heat damaged CPU. Replace it. I won’t explain how. If you are not comfortable or knowledgeable in doing the task, you probably shouldn’t mess with the insides. Unintentional additional damage can be caused by poorly placed screwdrivers, etc… Other possible causes; Dirt, bad power supply, bad or loose RAM, viruses, and possibly faults on the main board. Did I mention dirt? HINT: If the fan is dirty where the airflow comes out of the computer chances are that inside is a dirty too.
  • If the computer is only 1 month old, is running Win XP, and you do not have Service Pack 2 installed, or your firewall is turned off, it is most likely a virus/worm, or spyware. The Sasser (msblaster, basically) worm will give an "RPC" (Remote Procedure Protocol) error each time you connect to the internet and restart the computer. Get service pack 2, turn on your firewall, update your virus defininitions in your AV program, and scan. You will also want an Anti-spyware application. Use it often.
  • Buy yourself a quality UPS (Uninterrupted Power Supply) which will both regulate the power your computer is using and act as a battery backup. Most likely the wiring where you live isn't the best / power output isn't consistent if your old computer demonstrated the same issue.
  • Heat, Have a professional clean the inside of the case with compressed air. Add another fan.(optional) and replace the thermal compound between the processor and the heatsink. This should help the system to run a few degrees cooler.
  • At "Start" -> "Computer" --> right click on "Properties", and then tap "Advanced system settings". In the advanced options of the system context menu, click on "Settings" for Startup and Recovery. In Startup and Recovery, uncheck the "Automatically restart" for system failure. Click "OK" after unchecking the checkbox.
  • How exactly does the self-restart occur? Have you experienced any other mal-performances? This will help determine if it's an infection, a virus or worm. Or perhaps just automatic updates. In 2005, my HP desktop crashed after multiple accounts of self-restarting though always preceded by the blue screen of death containing the message "A problem has been detected and Windows has shut down to prevent damage to your computer". Until finally, it would just repeatedly go through the boot process without ever opening Windows. A cause was never actually determined but it was likely an infection. The computer hadn't officially turned a year old until just after it reached the looping stage. Here are some other possible causes and solutions: http://www.dummies.com/computers/pcs/troubleshoot-pc-restart-problems/

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