Irritating Reboot Problem

I built a computer for a friend. It has a pentiumD dual core processor which i think may be causing the problems i have.

The problem is basically that the machine will reboot without warning.

Firstly, ever since I built it, any time that flash/shockwave player loaded, the machine would reboot. I assumed this was something to do with a bug concerning dual core and flash. Uninstalling flash seemed to fix this problem for a long time.

Until the other day when she was using powerpoint. When she was viewing a powerpoint presentation, the machine rebooted again. Does powerpoint run flash?

Has anyone had experiences like this that knows a fix? Or does anyone know what is likely to be causing this. All parts are still under warranty if it turns out its likely to be defective hardware.

I would get a hardware monitor that logs information and start logging the internal temperatures - random reboots are often caused by overheating kit..

I forgot to mention, the temperature of the cpu, ram and hard disk are always normal.

I should also point out its unlikely to be power as ive already replaced the power supply. And i gave the cpu a new heatsink and fan.

Edited by wrtpeeps (Wed 13-Jun-07 12:56:39)

Have you tried looking in the event viewer see if an event was logged at the time of the reboot. Also turn off automatic restarts, Right click my computer, click the advanced tab then click settings under start up and recovery now take the tick out of the box that says automatically restart.

At least then you will probably see a blue screen which may point you in the right direction of the problem.

Check out the following possibilities:

1. BIOS update - does the bios have an update available if so update it
2. RAM Check - download a boot disk based RAM checker RAM causes all sorts of stupid niggly problems
3. Check the voltages in the hardware monitor in the BIOS (if available) I knwo you said you tried a new PSU but worth a look
4. RAM timings - is it currently set by SPD? If not set it to do so, if it is set it manually but knock the timings back a bit

My money is on RAM or BIOS update, good luck let us know how you get on

Would a reformat be too much trouble? I doubt the problem is hardware based, may be a dodgy driver.

I don't think powerpoint runs flash, but it may be the same thing causing the problem, perhaps try reinstalling drivers first, it cannot do much harm..

lol where do you see that? personally on a fault like this I wouldnt put money anywhere near it if I had to hazard a guess then memory not necessarily faulty but might be minor incompatibility with the board or incorrect timings in SPD seen that many many times hence my suggestion to drop the timings back if possible.

Not discounting software by any stretch but there are obvious things to do first to help narrow it down before potentially wasting time with a format/reinstall like I said earlier turning auto reboots off so you stand a chance of seeing a blue screen which you can then google on for a start.

Sound suggestion but a little extreme at this stage you dont work on a helpdesk for currys/dixons/pc world do you just joking

already done a full reformat and reinstalled windows, every driver etc.

Check in ya BIOS to see what the shut-down temp is. Could be set lower than needs be.

If thats ok then check all cables are plugged in correct,Also resit ya grafix card as it may just not be sat in the slot right { i seen new shop-floor machines with cards not fulling in the slot}.