OT: Comp problems: Spontaneous reboots

[Dim]

ok.. today I've been starting to get spontaneous reboots.
Scanned for viruses with newest definitions (using Norton Antivirus 2003) .. didn't find a thing.
Ran a mem-checker.. that didn't find a thing.
Checked my cpu temp.. wasn't particularly high afaik (53 degrees C)
I'm fresh out of ideas atm, so I thought I'd just throw it onto the forum.

Some info about the comp:
Mobo: Abit KX7-333R
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+
Other info: 512 MB DDR RAM, Asus GeForce 4 Ti 4200, 6 Gig harddisk and 60 Gig harddisk.. both Maxtor.
I've built the comp myself less than a year ago.

I hope someone can help me, coz I ran out of ideas.

Edit: doh... OS is Win XP Pro

[Omnituens]

missed a serious piece of info: your OS

EDIT: thats better :p

[Ormy]

I get this like once every few days, usually when im doing something thats quite resource hogging. I just put it down to Win XP (home) being a microsoft product lol. If you cant find anything just reformat/reinstall windows, that fixes a surprising number of things.

[Dim]

I'll probably end up doing that.. and if I still have problems after that, then there's always that magical tool called 'sledgehammer'...

[Xian]

I get this, and it's due to my processor overheating.

Go into your BIOS and check if it has a certain setting that tells the computer to reboot when the processor gets too hot - it could be set too low or your processor is just getting too hot.

[Vampire222]

yah, check ur vents, prolly filled with dust or not working proper

[Scikar]

Just remembered what to do here.

Control Panel --> System --> Advanced --> Startup and Recovery --> Settings --> Unselect the 'Automatically Restart' box.

Now wait for your computer to break and presto, one Blue Screen of Death telling you what the problem is (hopefully). :)

[Omnituens]

my bet:

BEGINNING DUMP OF PHYSICAL MEMORY

[INSERT MEAINGLESS COLUMNS OF NUMBERS HERE]

[Scikar]

Yeah but you might just get lucky and see "Windows has encountered an error. It appears to be a problem with your graphics drivers." Then you update them and get a message about your sound card. :p

[Omnituens]

Most useful WMP EVER:


Originally from a Window Media Player Error message
Window Media Player has encountered an unknown error.

WTF?!?!?!?! IS THAT THE BEST THEY CAN DO!?!?!

I put Bill Gates on KOS.

Best POST error message:


Originally from a P.O.S.T. Error message
Keyboard not detected. Press F1 to continue.
errrrr ¿Qùe?

[darknessfairy]

lol i had that yest for about 5 hours every 20mins or so... You havent just downloaded planetside? Cos thats what broke mine

[Dim]

I admit my comp needs a bit of cleaning, but I don't think it's overheating (that was my first guess). After every reboot I checked the temp and I've had it at 45, 48 and 53 degrees. One time I was just turning the computer off and I thought I'd just check the temp and at that point it was at 56 degrees and I was doing fine. Also... the automatic reboot at a certain temp is disabled in the BIOS.

Scikar: I'll try to do that.

Btw: I've been running for about 4 hours straight (no weird reboots) though I haven't done anything particular after the last one.