Computer Restart?

Question

My computer has been restarting for the past week and I am wondering what the problem is.
This happens usually when im on the web either watching videos or playing online games. It has never restarted when I play Counter Strike Source or Maple Story.
I recently updated my video card driver, cleaned out my computer of dust and even put on new thermal paste on my cpu heatsink.

I check the heat on my cpu using SpeedFan and it says that my cpu is idle at 69C and Core1,Core2 are at 80C. I am using the stock fan for Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 1.86GHZ and I have an Nvidia Geforce 7600 GT Video Card.

I am using 1 Gb of ram as well

Answer 1

Your 80C sounds a bit hot to me. Were these the same temps before you changed your thermal paste?

When you changed your thermal paste did you thoroughly remove all of the previous paste? The metal atop your CPU chip has very fine cracks that get filled-in with the previous paste so you need a very good cleaner to remove the old paste.

I use "ArticClean 1 Thermal Material Remover" and also "ArticClean 2 Thermal Surface Purifier" when I change thermal paste as it really cleans well the old paste. Visit their website to learn more: http://www.arcticsilver.com/arcticlean.htm

Is your power supply at least 450 watts? Also, does your Nvidia Geforce 7600 use a heatsink or a fan? I forgot now even though I just replaced one.

I highly recommend you add another chassis fan and even add some extra cooling protection.

I often use "Zalman" fans and I really enjoy their "side bracket" for about $4.95 that allows you to mount their fans sideways blowing right onto your video card, or other PCI card slots and motherboard without using a PCI slot.

You can find Zalman fans and side brackets at Tigerdirect.com, NewEgg.com and even some good deals at eBay.

The Zalman ZM-F1 fan is ideal to aim direct air-flow to your components and really brings down the temp a few degrees.

Accordingly, I would redo your thermal paste but after you get the ArticClean products (less then $10.00 for 2 bottles that will last you a long time) and really clean and prep your CPU chip and heatsink area and then add some more cooling fans and check on your power supply too.

Lastly, it would be wise also to run a scan on your computer for any viruses, spyware or malware. Use Trend Micro's free Houscall program. You can use your PC while it runs. http://housecall.trendmicro.com followed by doing a Disk Clean and Disk Defragmenter in your Start + Accessories + System Tools section.

Good Luck!

Answer 2

heyya dear........ Baby, It's Hot in There Sometimes this can be caused by an overheating situation. Itunes, RealPlayer, Windows Media player, etc. require a lot of processing power to decompress and decode music files, which can cause the processor or hard drive to get hot. If your CPU is running at over 60 degrees (C) you might be at risk of burning it out. Some systems shut down automatically when the temperature reaches an unsafe level. Every few weeks I open my system unit and clean the fins on the heat sink that sits under the CPU. When they collect dust it restricts the airflow and prevents proper cooling. You can use a can of compressed air (look at your local office supply store) or an old toothbrush. I just did that on my system and the CPU temperature dropped by ten degrees! Download the free Speedfan utility and it will tell you the temperature at which your CPU and hard drives are running. Memory Fails Me... If you determine that overheating is not the problem, the most likely suspect is bad memory. Trying to access a bad spot in your system memory (RAM) can cause the computer to freak out and restart. The best way to find the culprit is to pop open the system unit, remove (or replace) one RAM stick and see if the problem is solved. Run your system for a while and if the problem goes away, you win! If not... lather, rinse and repeat for each RAM stick until you find the one that's misbehaving. Don't Do Me Any Favors There's a setting buried in Windows XP that tells your computer to restart when a system error occurs. If you turn off that option, you may solve your automatic reboot problem. Click Start, then open Control Panel Click Performance and Maintenance Click System Click on the Advanced Tab Click Settings in the Startup and Recovery section Uncheck Automatically Restart in the System failure section Note that this may prevent the system from restarting, but it can also mask the true problem. As an alternative to this measure, consider what has recently changed on your system. If you have installed new hardware or software, remove it and see if the annoying restart persists. Sometimes downloading the latest driver software from the manufacturer's website will fix hardware incompatibility problems that cause restarts. Computer Restarts After Download? Some folks have written to me complaining that their computer automatically restarts itself after every download. And interestingly, most (if not all) mentioned they were using the Firefox browser. If you are using a download manager or download accelerator, this could be causing the problem. Check all the settings in the download manager and tweak if necessary. Or get rid of the download manager and see if the problem remains. This can also be a virus or spyware problem. I suggest you go through your Control Panel / Add or Remove Programs list and remove any programs you don't need, then run thorough anti-virus and anti-spyware scans. It could even be your anti-virus program fighting with the browser or download manager. Switching to a new anti-virus might help also. See my recommendations for the best free anti-virus software for help with that.

Answer 3

Your cpu is way too hot. Get a good cpu fan/heatsink and use artic silver 5 heatsink grease. Put 80mm case fans front and back with air in the front and out the back. Usually an overheated cpu will shut the rig down and not restart as restarting is the last thing you want to do with a hot cpu cuz thats when it works the hardest but it shouldn't be running 69C even at heaviest load after an hour of intense gaming let alone at idle. You do know that you apply heatgrease differently on a dual core than you do a single core?
A single core you just put some AS5 in the middle as thats where the core is at but on dual cores you apply a very thin layer across the whole heatshield to cover both cores.
I just hope heat hasn't taken it's toll on your cpu. Here's a nice fan/heatsink that has heat tube and a 92mm fan that is quiet, has great air flow and you dont have to take your board out to put in.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835103001
This may not be why your puter keeps rebooting but if your cpu isn't already damaged(which then could be causing your prob) you're gonna lose your cpu if you don't get those temps down!

Answer 4

Your CPU is pretty hot, my e6600 is only ~45 centigrade. I would guess that is it. I have found the HSFs that Intel provides with those chips to be quite difficult to snap firmly in place. I would guess that you are having the same problem. Here are some tips:

Take your motherboard out of the case and put it on your lap (I actually didn't do this, but people told me to).

Try snapping it in and out a few times without the thermal past for practice. Make sure all four plastic things are in firmly.

Do not overdo the thermal paste. All you need is one dot, about the size of a grain of rice, right in the centre. There is no need to spread it out.

Clean the top of your CPU with rubbing alcohol before installing the HSF.


You could, of course, also grab a better heat sink. But I think you will find that your current one does work. As I said before, I have had the same problem.

Answer 5

the temp is very high for what you have... that is usually the shut off times and you will want to open the case up to let cool air in and invest in fans or other components to keep things inside cool...

that will also help expand the life of everything in there.

how much ram do you have?

it sounds like a ram issue... you should have at least 1 gig to be playing games like that.

Answer 6

This is sure a virus or spyware, since you did all of these tests, it's impossible to be other than a virus or spyware.
My advice to you is to download the Following, and I'm telling you this after a long-time test(I'm A Computer Professional):
-NOD32 Antivirus.
-Trend Micro Anti-Spyware.
And don't forget to update them.

Answer 7

Right click on MY COMPUTER and go to properties. Under the ADVANCED tab click the settings button in the START UP AND RECOVERY area. Uncheck the AUTOMATICALLY RESTART option and next time it happens you will get the BSOD (blue screen of death). This will at least give you a better clue as to what is causing the problems. Post back with your findings.

Good Luck

Answer 8

i had the same problem you did it happened when i was playing games. I went to get it repaired, the problem was that the game corrupted a file that caused this to happen they charged me .fifty bucks for it.

Answer 9

Check your computer for virus and if you don't have any try restoring the driver to the last one that you had that gave you no problem.

Answer 10

ouch thats too hot. you need to buy a fan for the pc