Why does my system restart?

[Vedran]

I am using Xp. Where and how can I do that?

[Larry_OHF]

Control Panel / System / Advanced / Start-up and Recovery Settings / System Failure section. There is a box to uncheck, called "Automatically restart".

[Animal]

Originally posted by Larry_OHF: Control Panel / System / Advanced / Start-up and Recovery Settings / System Failure section. There is a box to uncheck, called "Automatically restart".

As Larry said. Now that you've got that taken care of, if it's a Windows error, a blue screen will pop up showing you a long STOP code. Copy that code down and head over to the MS Knowledge Base and do a search for it.

If it still reboots after you've unchecked that box (and double checked to make sure you did) it's either a heat, power or memory issue. There are several good freeware programs that can test your memory for you, as well as several programs that can monitor your system temps. If your memory and and temperature check out than chances are good that your Power Supply is not up to the task.

If you are running multiple hard drives, 2 or more sticks of memory, a high end CPU, and a high end video card then a quality 450W PSU should be a minimum.

[Bungleau]

Originally posted by Vedran: Other electrical appliances and lights work OK, so I don't think power is an issue.

*shakes head* What I meant, not what I said [img]smile.gif[/img]

Okay, we're talking about the power supply in your computer. Even though it's plugged in, you can almost consider it to be a battery for all the elements of your computer -- CPU, hard drive, memory, NIC, CD drive, vid card, sound card, and anything else in there.

I'm building up a new machine with an Athlon 2800+ (or thereabouts) CPU. AMD and the motherboard maker recommended that I have a power supply that can generate up to 350 watts (IIRC). The power supply that came with the case can generate up to 300 watts. That means that if I'm running everything, I could be trying to use more power than it has available.

When that happens in a city, it's called a brownout -- some things work, some don't. Or a blackout -- the system just shuts down. In a house, you can blow a fuse or circuit breaker.

When it happens in a computer, the power supply can also go through a blackout or a brownout. And then it reboots. And it does that without affecting the electricity in any other part of the house -- not even anything plugged into the same outlet. So you can't take your clues from the lights and stuff.

I replaced the power supply in my new PC with a 400 watt power supply. Take the suggestion, and add a little more room to it. If your machine is older, it may have as little as a 250 watt supply, and if you've upgraded your components, you may be doing the same thing and forcing a blackout or brownout. Hence the suggestion to see just what wattage your power supply can give you.

This first happened on one of my other computers that I had upgraded over the years. A new power supply meant the end of a number of frustrating crashes.

So... back to the original question. How big is your power supply, and how much stuff are you running? And I know that's probably not the original question, but it should be