Spontaneous rebooting

[Ink]

Hey there, everyone. Not sure if this is a hardware problem, but I'll just post it here. My computer spontaneously reboots from time to time. I'll be using it, and suddenly the screen will go blank, and then it will go through the rebooting process all over again. It does this quite frequently now. Sometimes instead of rebooting the screen will just go blank and be stuck there, and i have to manually hit the restart button. This is a fairly old system, P2 350mhz with 64 megs of RAM, and I'm using Windows 98 SE, if that means anything.

 

[The Helper]

Open up the case and make sure that all your fans are still working. You might want to leave the side panel off your case and set up a little box fan blowing on to it for a while and see if you still have the problem. The thing that jumps out on me on this problem is heat problem.

 

[Ink]

Oh yeah, one thing I forgot to mention... I noticed that this spontaneous rebooting typically happens within the first 30 minutes or so after the computer is turned on. If I get beyond that point without it happening, I'm usually in the clear. Just wanted to add that little piece of information in case it's important.

 

[AWS]

Right click my computer.
Select the advanced tab at top.
Look for:
"Start up system, system failure and debugging information".
Click settings and make sure "automaticaly restart" is unchecked.

Once you change that setting the next time the box goes down it will give you an error. Once you catch the error post it here.
It is more than likely a driver problem.

 

[Ink]

Hmm... I can't seem to find that tab you mentioned, Bob. After right-clicking and entering the Properties, the only tabs I can see are General, Device Manager, Hardware Profiles, and Performance. I don't see "Start up system, system failure and debugging information" anywhere within these tabs. I tried searching for "Start up system, system failure and debugging information" in Windows Help, but came up empty.

 

[AWS]

Check under Performance.
What OS are you using?

 

[Ink]

Windows 98 Second Edition.
Nope, not under Performance.

 

[AWS]

I see that now in your original post. My mistake for missing that.

This could be a heat issue, but, I highly doubt that it is heat related. The old p2s don't get hot.
It could be a power issue.
Have you upgraded the video card lately?
If you did is this when the problem started?

 

[Ink]

Well, no. The last thing I replaced in this machine was the CD-ROM drive, and that was back in 2001. This problem didn't start up until about one and a half months ago.

 

[BigMontana]

Hey there, everyone. Not sure if this is a hardware problem, but I'll just post it here. My computer spontaneously reboots from time to time. I'll be using it, and suddenly the screen will go blank, and then it will go through the rebooting process all over again. It does this quite frequently now. Sometimes instead of rebooting the screen will just go blank and be stuck there, and i have to manually hit the restart button. This is a fairly old system, P2 350mhz with 64 megs of RAM, and I'm using Windows 98 SE, if that means anything.

Spontaneous rebooting is can be caused by a number of issues, one being bad memory - if you have a spare stick laying around swap it out with what you have and see if the problem stops, two, overheating/poor air circulation - this is one of the major causes rebooting/blue screens/hard freezes, three, bad power - your power supply can be going, being this is an old system it wouldn't surprise me if this is the culprit causing the problem. Check to see if all your fans are working (including the one in the power supply), reseat your memory, if you have extra ram replace them with and see if the problem ends, clean the dust bunnies out of your case as this will inhibit proper air flow and cooling, make sure your heat sing is firm to the processor and there is no movement (wiggle), if there is you will have to reseat the heat sink using arctic silver 5 (see thier web site for directions on how to clean your processor/heat sink).