Computer Reboots With No Warning

power supply
bad stick of ram
heat issues
then possibly mobo issues.
 
you dump file would give a hint usually.
and yeah 5 yrs is getting long in the tooth

Starise
I just noticed this a few nights ago. My computer will reboot in the middle of something for no reason. The computer is around 5 years old. I lost a project because of it last night.
 
From a cursory search online it looks as if it could be capacitors on my MOBO or it could be  an overheating condition. I had the MOBO fan running but I usually leave my case fan off because of the noise. I have never had an overheating problem with it before...but there is always a first time. The only other odd thing that happened was that I was in the middle of a software update last week and the update failed so I reverted back to the old program. The program is not recording related....I'm wondering if my system was corrupted somehow.
 
Any ideas on what might be causing this to happen?

Most likely a BSOD... and the machine is set to Automatically Re-start.
You can disable the automatic re-start.
Control Panel>System>Advanced System Settings>Startup And Recovery>Settings>System Failure
Uncheck "Automatically Restart"
 
When the system crashes again, it should stop at the BSOD.
The BSOD might give you a clue toward the bottom.
If it happens numerous times... and it always reports the same driver as the culprit, you've found the problem.
If the error message is more random (slightly different each time), I'd guess RAM.
 
First thing I'd do is test the RAM.

The power supply is usually the first place to look for this kind of thing. What exactly is your power supply? There's a world of difference between an excellent one and a generic piece of junk that's more often than not lying about it's wattage.
 

 

I really appreciate all of the suggestions here guys!! There might be more combined brain power here than I can safely take in in one post :)
Scott- Thanks for your suggestions.
Bat- Thanks!
 
In trying to pin this thing down I plan to look at the overheating you mentioned first. Jim I haven't actually seen that dreaded BSOD yet...or maybe I somehow missed it. It seems to reboot to a healthy system, slightly unusual? I plan stop the automatic restart on BSOD as you say...thanks!!!
 
Other things to do- Download memory test.Thanks Fireberd!
Acey- I made sure I bought a nice dual rail high output supply when I built this computer. Still though...it is 5 years old.
Herb- I leaning heavily in the direction of overheating at this point, but I'm slightly paranoid to blow out my computer with air because the last time I did that I needed a new Firewire card...not sure what happened as I had the computer off...I took it outside and blew it out good. When I put it all back together I had no firewire :( I know that this is the next step though.
 
Strangely it hasn't happened for a few days now ???????????? I have no idea.
 
The computer is built in a case with a refrigeration heat sink cooler...a pretty nice case. I just seldom use that capability because of the noise.The regular cooler did it most of the time.I know...duh.

I had the same problems on a 5 yo PC and for me it was the CMOS battery on the motherboard.
Appaerantly it can dry up and replacing it (0.99 euros) fixed the issue for me.
 
BUt it's aobviously a longshot and your dumpfiles could give you a more accurate direction to look for.

fireberd
I've never heard of a CMOS backup battery causing BSOD or system reboots.  The only purpose for the battery is to retain the memory (BIOS setup) when the PC is powered off. 

Configuration data (ESCD) is also held in CMOS and so is date/time. If there are any processes depending on this it can cause boot errors or BSOD's. I know it's not the first thing that comes to mind but in my case it was the culprit.