Help with friends computer (random restarts)

[brad211987]

This has been an on going problem for about a year now. A friend of mine is running windows xp pro SP2, and his computer restarts at what seems to be completely random times. We have tried....

3 different hard drives,
2 sets of memory,
2 PSUs,
3 fresh installations of windows,
upgrading all of his drivers,
removing un needed parts such as sound card,
2 different CPUs,
swapped cables inside the case(such as IDE cables, SATA cables)
and 2 different Motherboards.

He is using a UPS so power shouldnt be an issue. Nothing shows up in the event viewer, and heat is not an issue. All parts we have tried together have been checked and double checked as compatible.

Needless to say, I'm running out of ideas, anyone else have any?

He is doing an upgrade to vista right now just as another test, not optimistic about that one though.

The restarts he is having seem completely random, sometimes it restarts shortly after loading the desktop, sometimes he will be in the middle of a game, sometimes surfing the internet etc.... It is a hard restart, just as if you had pressed the reset key on the tower.

[daniel_g]

I started to have that problem on a Gateway computer rigth after I upgraded it's Hard Drive. I tried to go back to the old hard drive but the issue was still there, so I took it to a repair center, at first they told me it was probably related to heat, but then they figured out the problem was in the network card. They replaced it, and never had a problem with it again.

[Spookster]

Had a laptop that was doing that and it turned out to be the cable modem somehow causing issues with the wireless card and causing it to reboot through the wireless connection. Changed to a different brand cable modem and the problem went away.

[Jeroentje]

Both posted problems / sollution looks like some power-interfearance, like if your computer is not grounded, it gets grounded by a cable modem, which sometimes can be a bad issue if it's not grounded correctly.

Did your friend Overclock the system ? Like, at any time at all? even if it's not oc'ed right now... but hardware might be damaged, after this OC process.

Try to play with drivers. Try to remove hardware that's not really relevant (yet) to it's operating, and try to exclude every possible way why it's rebooting. Good luck.

[brad211987]

I never thought of the issues with the cable modem, will give those a shot. My first thought was power/heat issues but his temps are down and hes using a UPS that kicks in if there is a break in the power.

Did your friend Overclock the system ? Like, at any time at all? even if it's not oc'ed right now... but hardware might be damaged, after this OC process.

He hasn't overclocked anything on this build, it hasnt been stable enough to think about that yet.

[Jeroentje]

I have my doubts on the UPS device too. Is it a new one or is it a Used UPS? Try to remove it between the computer (might sound stupid also) but if an UPS fails for some reason ans does'nt give power long enough your computer might be resetting for this.

Also the temps: Check wether CPU, Northbridge & VGA (be very carefull on the last one) that coolingpaste is enough of that. Like a small rice should be enough. It will not improve cooling, but it will improve the contact between the CPU & Heatsink.