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?
 
When the computer initially boots up it goes through at least two automatic cycles before it fully boots. Something that never sat well with me, but it has been happening for years.
 
Time for a new computer?

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

wow, that's about the most uncool computer thing i've heard of!!
 
LOL
 
 
cuz, you never know when it's gonna happen....
 
power supply would be my first guess as well....
 
 

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.

If its an Intel CPU and a heat problem, the CPU will slowdown before it finally crashes because of heat. 
 
As Jim says, run memory tests first.  Download memtest86, create an ISO disc and boot with that to run the tests.  If you don't have a program to burn an iso disc, download the free Imgburn as it will do it.
http://www.memtest86.com/
 
http://www.imgburn.com/
 
 
Be careful when downloading.  Many sites try to stick in other software, make your home page something else, a toolbar, etc.  Look things over carefully.

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.
 

 

Several things could be causing this.   Eliminate the easy cheap fixes first.
 
Be sure the cooling fins on the processor heat sink are totally clear of dust.  I work on some security systems that are computer based,  for hospitals. The very first thing I do on the service call is clean the air input ports, the exhaust vents and then blow backwards through the vents to see if dust comes out. If so, I disassemble and clean thoroughly.  One system at a major military hospital was crashing and it was only 9 months installed. The vents in & out were blocked the and processor was totally dust bunnied.  Cleaned it and it went back to working.
 
Next: check the memory
 
Next: check the drivers. A driver that is corrupted will cause issue like this as well.  Update the drivers.
 
Defrag the disks  and fix the registry. Broken registry links can cause dead ends and computers don't like that either.  I run a registry checker/fixer on a regular basis and it always finds dozens if not hundreds of things to fix in there.

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.

The description you gave of your problem does sound like a BSOD issue, and that you have your system set to automatically restart on system failure, which is the default system setup.
 
The first thing you should do is follow Jim Roseberry's instructions in post #4. This is less time consuming than other troubleshooting steps, such as checking for bad RAM, but could quickly reveal the problem.
 
Once you disable the "automatically restart" on system failure, you can narrow the cause down. If you get a BSOD after disabling "automatically restart," see if it tells you, at the bottom or top of the BSOD screen, what is causing it. And if the BSOD lists what's causing the problem, you can go from there.
 
Once you disable the "automatically restart" option, if your system reboots again and you get no warning, you can start looking at other possible causes such as a bad PSU or bad RAM.
 
Also, it helps if you list your system specs.
 
Goodluck with resolving the issue.

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.