Computer keeps restarting every once in a while

Hi guys, I have been having an issue with my computer restarting randomly. It has worked fine for about 2-3 years now but today it started acting like this. I first noticed the problem when I got home and turned on the computer to play Medieval II: Total War, it restarted my computer after only 1 min of playing. So I tried to play the game agian when the computer had finished rebooting and it rebooted agian when I launched the game agian before it even finished loading.

I thought the problem might be the game so I tried to play a different game, so I played Battlefield: Bad Company 2 for about an hour and had no issues. Then I was browsing the internet and it restarted randomly agian....

its been restarting randomly all day today. Do you guys think my power supply is dieing? whats a good program to monitor Cpu & GPU temp? I dont think its a temp issue though because my hard drives are running 30-35 degrees.

I also havent re-applied the thermal paste I had applied on the cpu since i built the pc because its really difficult to remove the aftermarket heatsink, could that be an issue too?

Does your system reboot when it's idle or only under load?

What Nvidia drivers are you using? There was a problem with the 196.75 set.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=7551

Speedfan can monitor system temps. Rivatuner is good for Nvidia cards.

it reboots when its idle also, im using the latest drivers for windows 7 x64

Quote:

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Originally Posted by _Mystical_Night

it reboots when its idle also, im using the latest drivers for windows 7 x64

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So what set number is it? The current set on the Nvidia site is 196.21.

It's possible that the PSU is going bad. I'm guessing you don't have a spare to swap, but that's another thing you can try.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Midknyte

So what set number is it? The current set on the Nvidia site is 196.21.

It's possible that the PSU is going bad. I'm guessing you don't have a spare to swap, but that's another thing you can try.

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yeah that was the version that rivatuner said my computer had, i managed to uninstall the previous drivers that my computer was using (after several attempts & computer rebooting itself)

Im ganna leave it on idle for a while to see if it reboots itself agian then ill post back


Edit: Yup it just rebooted agian about 2 min after I posted this message with the previous drivers uninstalled and the 196.21 drivers installed. I think either the video card got fried or the power supply is dieing because the computer wont stay on more then 5 min. I was using Rivatuner before to keep the video card runnin at a constant 80% fanspeed so I dont think that the video card got fried.

Can you guys recommend me a good power supply to future proof my system for when I decide to upgrade the video card in the future?

I havent shopped for parts for my pc in a couple of years so I dont know which brands are good right now


Sorry about the double post, my time to edit the previous post expired, also sorry for the typeos :p im typeing from my laptop and im not used to the small keyboard

I wanted to get this Antec but some reviewers said it doesnt fit in Antec 1200 cases so it might not fit in my Coolermaste Stacker 830 Case

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371036

maybe i should go with this one ?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817171049

SPCR Recommended Power Supplies

eXtreme Power Supply Calculator Lite v2.5

I ended up going with the Antec Quatro 1000W Continuous Power PSU

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817371012

it seemed like the highest rated PSU with at least 4 +12V rails, SLI, and 80% efficiency from the Well-known manufacturers like Antec, Enermax, Corsair, and OCZ. I wanted something with at least 1,000W because graphics cards are starting to have higher and higher energy requirements over the years, with anything lower it probably wouldnt lasts me very long.

installed the new power supply today, been running it for about 30 min and all seems well so far, as suspected the power supply was at the end of its life cycle.

Thanks for the update. Do you have a UPS? Now that you have a new PSU, you'd want to protect it with a UPS.

thats definately my next investment :)

thank you guys for your help in resolving my problem :)

Just to add.. yeah, congrats on getting it fixed we hope. Only reason i'm rsponding her is i also had that issue before this current new build i have now, and i also had a bad PSU, but did not suspect that as the issue at the time. MY hard drive also immed. took a dive at about the same time, and now tht i read your ost it dawned on me that might have been my problem also.

Computer restarts can also be found with viruses on your machine,corruptions, and or other installed software. I realy think since my HD went out first, a bad hard drive going out could also cause this... just thought i'd relate that lol