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In need of a little tech support
 

Hello.

About a week ago my PC started having this issue where it would instantly restart itself suddenly and without any warning, no BSOD, no windows just snap restart. I didn't know what was causing this but I've since changed the Power Supply Unit, added some more RAM, upgraded the GFX card and switched from a 32 bit OS to a 64 bit OS. The problems have been getting worse, occuring approximately once of every hour or two and it is a tremendous bother.

Originally it would only do this if I was playing something beefier then Starcraft or Dota but now it'll do it when it's just installing windows updates, let alone starcraft (tried it once snap restarted before it loaded).

I don't know what the problem could be and really would like to know before I go **** it all and buy more shit I probably don't need.

Thank you in advance.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

Ensure all your drivers are up to date for everything.

Check if your motherboard has drivers too~

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

Fadey needs a signal like batman.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

Doing that now.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

try changing the harddrive i had this problem years ago

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

I would guess either motherboard related or even virus related

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

If you did a full format and re installed windows and the problem persisted then its like problem with hardware
As you have pretty much changed everything else it sounds to be problem with CPU / Motherboard

Could potentially be a cooling issue as some motherboards will shut down your computer to avoid heat damage
It sounds consistent with your issue. Maybe CPU fan is slowing down or heatsink clogged with dust or heatsink sitting uneven on your CPU

First try getting canned air and blow as much dust out of your computer
Then try thermal paste - make sure you spread it evenly as possible and when you put heatsink back on make sure its flat
Both those are cheap things to test first
Next you can try new heatsink and fan
And if problem persists you will need new motherboard and CPU TT

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

As meatex said, but before spending money, turn on the overheat warning in the bios, and make sure your pc actually has a system speaker installed, so you will find out if it is the case.

Alternatively, just see how hot things are just after it's reset... pretty much everything will work fine up to 80 degrees or more, so if it's not far too hot to touch, it's not a temperature issue.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

I didn't do a full reformat, I installed windows over the top of the previous one. I don't think it's a virus issue though. Running virus checkers just to be sure.

It could actually be a heating issue. I've installed a PC temperature monitoring utility. It seemed to be in range of 40-60 when the last restart hit (I was looking at it when it struck, which was fortunate) though afterwards it shot up to ~90 for a second or two before dipping back down. It was very strange. I shall keep monitoring it.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

OH you really should do a full format whenever you install windows to prevent issues
Additionally not all antivirus will pick up all viruses and certainly not once you've been infected - I had a virus that did all sorts of nasty things including render my antivirus unable to detect anything though it appeared to work fine

First thing I would try would be format everything and reinstall

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

When dealing with a clients computer at my work that have viruses that need clearing.
I generally download the free version of malware bytes http://www.malwarebytes.org/products/malwarebytes_free/
it does a thorough scan of ur entire system and if theirs anything thats been detected will give u the option to quarantine those items
does a pretty good job for a trial version

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

Ok I'll do that. Chucking a few files on an external Hard drive before we go.

Huzzah for installing Windows and updates and drivers THREE ******* times in one day. I really hope this fixes it.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

Check your case. My last case had a short on the power switch circuit. It would turn off any time I plugged something into a USB port (because the power cable ran behind the USB ports) as well as other occasional/random times.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

I'm doubtful that is the issue since it will restart itself without me touching the case at all. I

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

If your computer is getting hot maybe you should think back to the last time you cleaned all the dust out :P

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

maybe its about time u buy a new compute rson

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

I've already got half a new one in there T_T.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

Yeah, that doesn't rule it out. That would happen to me. Metal expanding/contracting with changes in temp, etc I'd say.

I'd still recommend you test it best you can (maybe unplug the power switch from the board and keystart it or something if your mobo doesn't have an onboard power button)

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

To check for shorting etc I'd personally just take the system out of the case entirely..Put the motherboard on a cardboard box or similiar, with the edge of the mobo at the edge of the box so the GPU's bracket can hang off the edge, bridge the power switch jumpers with a screw driver to turn the pc on without a power switch. If it all works then it's likely there's a short issue in the case somewhere, probably on the stand-offs;

Depends how comfortable you are with pc building, but there's billions of youtube vids on how to assemble a PC

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

I have replaced the motherboard with a new one (incidentally one I'd won from GESC last year proving that Team Immunity is actually good for something, thanks guys), and reformatted and installed windows. If problem persists (I'll find out soon enough) **** it I'll just buy a new hard disk + processor and pretty much have a whole new PC (heh). Convinced it is not a software issue at this point.

Winter, that sounds ******* bonkers. No way, lol.

thanks everyone (except mafia) for the helpful responses.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

did you try changing hard drives?

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

No I don't have any spares, the closest one I have locks up whenever I boot it. It's well fucked.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

From my past experience with such case, prob overheating causes it.
check the cooling system and clean it if needed.

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

is your computer restarting inbetween you making replies in this blog?

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

What winter's suggesting is something like a basic boot with jsut the key components (motherboard, cpu, hestsink, gpy, ram, and monitor).

Anyway considering you temperature monitoring error it's either your motherboard is misreading you temperature and forcing a reset even though the temps only ~30 (which im pretty sure is still kinda high).

So yeah de_dust that shit, if that doesnt fix it there may be something wrong with the motherboard

Re: In need of a little tech support
 

check to make sure that your power supply is connected, a wire here or there might have been pulled off or not connecting fully.

edit: forgot to add, don't be tinkering inside the actual PSU because then you will most likely end up le dead!