lawp
never let a cow get matches
 
eta: "In 1893, Michael Ahern, the Chicago Republican reporter who wrote the O'Leary account, admitted he had made it up as colorful copy.[3] The barn was the first building to be consumed by the fire, but the official report could not determine the exact cause"
 
;-)

The reporter's admission came FAR too late for the cow, which had been sentenced to burgers 2 years earlier.  :)
 
Bob Bone
 

never trust what you read in the press :-)

Reboots can also be a result of driver level crashes.  So, have a look in the Event Viewer (Windows Logs, System) for any Critical errors (sort by Level).  Or, if you have Startup and Recovery (System Properties -> Advanced) set to create dump files in cases of system failure, have a look in the Dump file: path. Typically it's %SystemRoot%\MEMORY.DMP.  aka C:\Windows\
 
If you didn't find any dumps or event entries, then go to Control Panel, System, Advanced, click Settings under Startup and Recovery and verify that you have the options configured under System failure.  If you have sufficient disk space, I'd recommend unchecking the overwrite option.  That way, if there are multiple failure points, you can actually collect all the dump files for analysis.
 
If you're curious what's in the .dmp file, check out NirSoft util, BlueScreenView.
Lot quicker than downloading WinDbg, learning the commands, etc.
 
http://www.windeploy.co.uk/blog/index.php/2009/12/minidump-viewe/
 
direct link:
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/blue_screen_view.html

Of course your PC has to produce a crash dump (with NVidia drivers failing or overheat that might not happen). This is great advise however.
Last time I used bluescreen view it failed dismally for me (clearly half baked). Latest version works brilliantly thankyou for pointing this out...

CBJ
Here's what I use for a Computer system in my studio
Intel based computer

• RAM : 16gb
• CPU : Intel Q9650 Dual Quad Core @3.0 ghz , with 12mb Cache
• Motherboard : Gigabyte EP45T-UD3LR motherboard with LA775 Socket
• Heavy Duty Power Supply : Anatec modular 1200 watt power supply
• Video Card : Nvida GE Force 210 (Dual Head) with 2gb ram

4 Internal Hard Drives with 4 different operating systems accessed via a boot menu listed below

• Boot Drive #1: 120gb Corsair SSD (Win 7 64bit OS)
• Boot Drive #2: 2tb Seagate 7200 rpm (Win XP 32bit OS) Partition #1 (Used for Sonar 8.53 32 bit)
• Boot Drive #2: 2tb Seagate 7200 rpm (Win XP 64bit OS) Partition #2 (Used for Sonar 8.53 64 bit)
• Boot Drive #2: 2tb Seagate 7200 rpm (Win XP 32bit OS) Partition #3 (Used for Office & Utility Norton image software)
• Data drive #3: 2tb Seagate 7200 rpm to store additiional items other than recording projects
• Data drive #4: 2tb Seagate 7200 rpm to store image backups of all the Operating systems.

2 External Drives on Esata :

• External Drive #1 :2tb Seagate 7200 rpm (streaming VI back to Sonar)
• External Drive #2 :2tb Seagate 7200 rpm (used to store wave, wov and Sonar sequences files)

Video

• 2 x 27" HP LCD with LED high resolution monitors

Audio

• Maxio 032 PCI based 32 channel audio card with MIDI I/O
• Presonus Firewire 24.4.2 mixer
• Samson Rubicon 8 monitor system with Ribbon tweeters & 10 sub

This system was created about 5 years ago and has steadily been updated due to equipment needing to be replaced. The entire system was used with Sonar 8.53 and then upgraded to Sonar X1. After X1 was installed I tried it for 1 month but reverted back to Sonar 8.53 due to several issues that I was not willing to sacrifice by dropping sonar 8.53.
 
Ok here's where it gets nasty!
 
I upgraded recently to X3 and now I've got problems. While playing any song I go along and after a few minutes the computer simply starts re-booting. No warning, no message, no anything, not even a message requesting to create *.dmp file to analyze what was being processed when the issue happened. This has never happened in the past. Never!
 
Anyone have this happen? I need help because I use the machine 7 days a week for 10 to 16 hours daily.
 
Thanks guys!

I bet this isn't a Sonar issue.  Rebooting can be because of a faulty power supply (that was the case for me last year) or, as someone mentioned in this thread, if the CPU paste gets thin and the CPU overheats, that could also cause it. 
 
The other night, my computer started rebooting itself.  I closed Sonar and it rebooted without Sonar even in memory, so I know it's an OS, driver or hardware issue, not Sonar.  Probably hardware, my DAW is in the shop so I'll know in a few hours what the problem is.  
 
JG
www.jerrygerber.com
 

It wants u 2 install x3d!

Please test your memory with this: http://memtest86.com/
Memory goes bad and causes this exact behavior.

Just scanning the thread top to bottom, I conclude that everything is wrong with your computer!! It may be haunted :) I know a good exorcist.

My five year old seems intent on rebooting my computer, but I don't think this is related..
 
On the other hand, where do you live?

Hey CakeAlexS! Does Cakewalk let you live here? Seems like your here 24/7 and replying to everyone! I wonder, do you actually get any recording done, or are you the Merry Christmas Dabbler?
Anyway guys, thanks for all the help and insight to my dilemma that has been re-solved thanks to SteveC. Since X3 was able to handle a lot more plugins it probably taxed my system more than V8.53 and caused my computer to work much harder which in turn made the CPU overheat and thermally shut down.
I followed the suggestion from SteveC to re-apply new thermal paste to the CPU which in turn reduces the temperature of the CPU. By keeping it cooler not only does it save it from self destructing but keeps it from reaching the temperature where it turns off the entire computer.
Once again thank you to all of you for the help. It is nice to have everyone take the time and respond to all the issues we all have on this forum.
 
Merry Christmas to everyone, and if you want your 5 year old to come over to my place that's OK. He'd probably be able to fix this faster than we can.
 
Thanks!
CBJ