My computer will reset itself at the worst times.
For example:
When 3d game engine executes.
When realPlayer attempts to play a stream while an mp3 is being played.
Occasionally upon final stages of win3k boot.
Other almost random times.

What could cause this to happen?
How can I make it stop?

Please help... this is driving me (((IN*SA*NE)))!!

mostly when I play online games (like WOE and RO) it usually the monitor turns black and still i can hear the sound effects of the games then after few seconds the computer resets...

"Same problem but through the process of elimination;

- Take the hard drive and put it into other computer,
--Does the system reboot? -NO?
--Then its not the software or hard drive--yipee.

--If it does? Then it is your software or hard drive.
--Buy a new hard drive
--Install software and then attempt to work it out if your harddrive or software WAS causing it. BEST EASIEST WAY

Chances are 9/10 it is your stinking motherboard. Chances are its the southbridge crumbling under the stress of all the new gadgets we plug into it.
Graphics problem -- your screen will break up before restart [northbridge]
Ram problem -- could be, but if the crash is random chances are it aint your ram [northbridge]

If your Southbridge is on its way out, it could be 5 mins or 5 months. You may want to buy a new motherboard."

I would like to add something to that affect as well.

- There may be a problem with you memory stick. Sometimes when you are passing large amounts of information through a semi-bad RAM stick, it could cause the computer to automatically reset because of information overload.
- Another possibility would be your power supply not having the right amount of amps to power all your periferals or the PS might have a heat short.

These are all symptums of automatic restart/reset while try to use the machine. But always start with the Hard Drive like "zark" said.

I am also facing the same problem "system resetting often". when ever i boot the computer it directly goes to the page which contain menu like safe mode, Last known good configuration mode. when i select safe mode it is going to the XP S3 but with in 1 or 2 min its resetting itself and when i try for another boot, it does not work, its really annoying me. Please any one can explain what kind of problem is this and what could be the cause of that problem . Pls assist me.....

Regards

take hard drive and put into other computer

Does the system reboot? NO?

Then its not software--yipee.

It does? Its your software or hard drive.

Buy a new hard drive -- install software and then attempt to work out if your harddrive or software was causing it. BEST EASIEST WAY

Chances are 9/10 it is your stinking motherboard. Chances are its the southbridge crumbling under the stress of all the new gadgets we plug into it.
Graphics problem -- your screen will break up before restart [northbridge]
Ram problem -- could be, but if the crash is random chances are it aint your ram [northbridge]

Southbridge is on its way out, could be 5 mins or 5 months but one day that box will not work and you will cry.

We're missing some crucial details in these posts. I posted some of those details below in CRUCIAL DETAILS. I definitely think the problem is software related. The post suspecting virus software is exactly on-line with my thinking. I've performed a system restore on XP-2 to just before when I installed CA Anti-Virus, and the system is working.

Other times the PC works:
- On the initial XP Acct Login screen
- While in Safe Mode

CRUCIAL DETAILS... Even though instant/random shutdowns usually point to a hardware problem, that may not be the case. Here's the difference that has not been discussed below: If your motherboard that has LED lights on it(like my ABIT TH7-RAID) and any stay lit after the computer instantly shuts down, then the power supply can nearly be ruled out because it didn't fully stop functioning. Also, this detail is important: On my ABIT TH7-RAID, I have to turn off & on the power-supply's power switch, then depress the front PC power button to get the computer to start rebooting. That probably says something about the motherboard's reaction to the software problem with CA Anti-virus I think I've isolated. What does this mean?

Any clues? could there be something wrong with the service pack?

I have had this problem for probably close to a year- unsure when exactly started.
The computer will restart randomly from playing a game to just using notepad to doing nothing at all. Before it would reboot when trying to close down-that seems to have stopped.
On average once a day (8h).

Thanks for all the suggestions and the knowledge that I'm not alone on this.
colin

My VGA Card is onBoard, there's no big GeForce whatever.
it started doing this out of nowhere, because It had been working perfectly for more than 3 months.

Omg, when I read that, I've got a little smile ... not 'cause it's funny to crash, but because there's a LOOOOT of people having this problem ... I tried to do as someone said to turn the "Automatically restart" in Advanced system properties and for now, it's working, I didn't crash yet (2 days since I turned that off) and I don't see any errors messages neither ... so it sure was the problem...or a big part of it.

If anyone has any other good suggestions, just let us know

'cause if it continues this way, I'll soon smash PC just behind Bill Gates' head :P

Just remove the Blaster worm!

www.symantec.com

I had the same problem as all of you. My computer would reset during games and connection etc etc.

To fix I did the following:

Goto Control Panel -> System
Click on the Advanced tab
Goto Startup and Recovery
Turn off the Automatically reboot option

Then instead of resetting the computer would display the 'blue screen of death'. The blue screen reported that a problem had occured in pcc_sys.sys (or something like that). This file was part of the virus checked. So I simply turned off the virus checker and the problem went away.

It turns out the problem was the virus checker was turned off at startup but it was still turned on in the services window.

Hope that helps,

I seem to have the same problem, except for my computer only seems to reset when I'm connected to the internet - it has never done it during a game, and usually happens when i move the mouse! Any suggestions?

(I have a Duron 1000, 256ram, 128mb radeon 7500)

isnt 300watts enuff?

the problem with me was the powersupply was not adequate i had to take out my network card until i got a 400w psu

take out any unnesscary stuff like sound card second hard drive and add the pieces in one at a time after testing if it doesn't carah with only 1 hard drive and video card add the sound card and test vigorisly then add network card and so on but to me it sounds very similar to my problem

to me it would either go blank or reset itself.

My roomate has the same problem w/ his computer. Its usually 1 of 3 things.
1) bad power supply (mainly the switch)
2) bad motherboard
3) bad video drivers (try an update)

Sorry I can't help, but I wanted to let you know that you're not alone.