Spontaneous Reboot

[garyprud]

Anyone with an idea why I get frequent spontaneous reboots? It happens mostly when I'm browsing (IE5.01) but occasionally when I'm in mail using OE 5.0. Everything works fine, then suddenly my screen goes black and system starts rebooting. Thanks!

[condor]

There can be any number of problems causing that.

Please give us the Hardware and software specs of your system.

if I had to guess I'd say you check your RAM, CPU and Power supply fans as well as remove the Video card driver and reinsatll.

but this is really like shooting in the dark without more information..

When did it start , the specs etc...

[garyprud]

Sorry, should have included this.
W98se running on a PII-350. 128 Ram, ATI Rage video, AMI BiOS. HD at about 52% capacity. Resource monitor says I have around 30% free phys memory, and resource utilization runs between 8 and 80%. I defrag and scandisk regulalry.

[condor]

Okay..

1. check for any fans not working..2

2. check parts for overheating (if you can't hold your finger on it more than 5 secods it's too hot..)

3. run a memory check http://www.tweakfiles.com/diagnostic/docmemory.html

4. uninstall your Display adapter driver (leave it in VGA) and check to see if it happens..

5. Check for any IRQ conflicts in Device manager..

- Does it happens only when you're connected to the internet ?

if so check with Anti-Virus (updated) for any Spyware..

reinstall you modem (get the latest drivers..)

Use SFC.exe to check for any damaged or deleted files..

[3fingersalute]

Condor's list is a good place to start!

My first guess would be RAM!!

[garyprud]

Thanks, Condor. I dnloaded the ramtest and everything passed...so now I'll start the hardware search. Glad about the ramtest, was afraid I might have a memory leak of bad module.

[garyprud]

Well, I finally got around to checking my hardware, and immediately found that my power supply fan was shot! Getting pretty hot in there.
Found one locally, went to get it and the tech found that my CPU cooling fan was also not doing well...so for $23 in parts and about 30 mins at the shop I've been running for 6 hours straight w/o problems. Many thanks for your suggestions!