Computer keeps restarting

[razext]

Hello everybody, my computer recently randomly restarts while reading VN's. Sometimes I'll manage 30 minutes and sometimes less than 2 minutes before it decides to restart itself. The dumb thing is, when it restarts it's alright for maybe another 20 minutes before it reboots again.

My specs are:
Intel P4
2GB RAM
80GB WD hard drive

Please help, vn's are hanging in the balance, Thanks!:)

 

[Yee199]

Check your computer for potential viruses!

 

[DvorakUser]

In my experience random restarts are most likely due to overheating. Does your PC restart only with VNs or is it a common occurance?

 

[Selvaria Bles]

if its turning off I have to agree its overheating, my suggestion is to let it cool off or open it up and clean any dust of the cpu.

edit: if that doesn't solve the problem one of the computer parts may be faulty and needs replacing

if you can't pinpoint I recommend bringing it to the repair shops for diagnostics but they can be pretty costly and sometime unnecessary

 

[Kubi]

Check the Windows Event Viewer for error messages on or around the time that the computer crashed.

 

[razext]

Thanks for the replies, @DvorakUser I wouldn't know about any other occurrences as I only use it to play VN's :D

@Selvaria Bles I'm trying to pinpoint the problem right now, turned off auto restart so that I can actually read the error report. Just ran disk checker and hard drive sentinel, doesn't appear to be HD problems.

 

[Decalcomania]

It is likely due to overheating. Try not to force anything 'intense' on your computer, such as running too many programs, etc.

Some solutions vary but with what I have experienced, I suggest having a few short breaks even now and then or checking the cooling fan to see if it is jammed or broken.

 

[t3nk3n]

You may need to use compress air to clean all of the dust inside your PC, if you haven't see that resolve your heating issue. Dust is one the biggest enemy for any electric device besides heat.

 

[razext]

Thanks guys, I will watch my temperature and watch for heating issues. Cleaned up the dust, now to see if heating was the issue.

 

[FinalPyre]

If you want to look at how everything is running I would suggest using a tool like CPUID (you can monitor heat as well as fan speed). Make sure your fans are working properly. Overheating is a possibility, but I would still be suspicious as for me overheating just tends to shut down, not restart, and if it was overheating, you would expect it to shut down pretty fast again as soon as you started playing again. I'm assuming that VNs are the most taxing thing you do on the machine, right?

Another guess might be a power supply problem (not giving quite the power you need to components could cause this, I believe).

 

[HatoriTakaya]

^If you had your computer more longer than 3 years, your capacitors may have aged and requires more Watts to keep the PC running if it is actually a power problem.

Other have mentions solutions which you should go through before resorting this option.

Do not do a Stress Test unless you're confident your computer system can handle it. Or have enough money to just replace your PC tower.

If you feel that all the hardware is working properly, PC components are cleaned from dust and that your PSU is producing sufficient amount of power. Consider running a stability check on your PC for a hour to 24 hours to see if your PC runs into any problems. The main purpose of stability tests is usually to force stress on your PC components and see it can run in a stable manner for hours end without crashing due to overload.

Although, if anything, please do a RAM test with MemTest 86. This will test if your RAM has any errors. If there is any, please replace them since it only costs about 50 USD now days. Which is probably more than enough to get a good 8 GB for that price. Although if it is still in warranty, you could try and get it covered by the warranty.

 

[Kubi]

Have you checked your event viewer as I recommended? You'll likely find very specific error messages related to your problem in there....

 

[V­a­n]

I'm with everyone else here. There are two extremely likely possibilities here.

The most likely: Your PC is overheating. Use a program to monitor your PCs temps. If they seem a bit high, open up your PC and see if there's dust build-up.

The very possible: You've got a virus.

 

[razext]

Sorry for the late reply, I had to check and recheck every part of the computer.

@kubi it says NV4.DISP.DLL is the cause of the problem, so I checked updated BIOS, updated graphics card and it still crashes.I have run the pc for 8 hours straight and scanned for viruses twice, no problems whatsoever.

I have tried a few vn's and they seem to work, so I tried a few more games, and the ones that are crashing are called TVP(KIRIKIRI) 2 core / Scripting Platform for Win32. Googling around seems to imply I need to set it to non unicode - Japanese, but I have and it still crashes, any ideas? I'm starting to give up hope :(

 

[FinalPyre]

Have you tried monitoring your heat and fans yet? I think it is unlikely that this would be a program/firmware based problem.

 

[razext]

Thanks for sticking around all this time guys, really appreciate it! The heat readings go from 40~50C, all fans spinning and working. Also I forgot to mention that I replaced my power supply but it still crashes. Googling seems to show that TVP(KIRIKIRI) 2 core / Scripting Platform for Win32 causes bsod, but I need to dig deeper to find why it crashes, every other vn is fine.

 

[wren2012]

40-50C is like 180 degrees o.O its overheating..you need to find a way to keep it cool or cool it down faster or you'll fry to motherboard and it'll start eating hard-drives like my old laptop did...

 

[Kubi]

40-50C is like 180 degrees o.O its overheating..you need to find a way to keep it cool or cool it down faster or you'll fry to motherboard and it'll start eating hard-drives like my old laptop did...

Not even close. 50 celcius is 122 degrees F. This is still within the operating threshold of most hard drives. On most drives you won't typically notice issues until you exceed 65C. But this depends on the make/model of the drive. Processors can handle this temperature, but ideally they would be between 25-35C. Graphics cards naturally run hot. Mine is at 56C idle, which is normal. It is abnormally for a hard drive to operate below 20C and can actually increase the failure rate. Might want to check your facts. Your "fry to motherboard" comment is hilarious. I don't think he indicated whether or not this is a desktop or laptop, but since when do hard drives on a desktop touch the motherboard? lol. Also, it's not possible to determine the point of failure by one temperature reading. We need to know the temperature of the individual components in the computer. Proc, graphics card, hard drives. Download PC Wizard 2012 to get that info.

 

[FinalPyre]

What temperatures did you read? It will be easier to tell what is going on if you give for CPU, graphics card, mobo, etc. Get an idle reading, and then try running your game/whatever off to the side and see how high they get (especially if you still crash, how high they get before crashing). As Kubi mentions, 50C is virtually nothing for a CPU or graphics card (CPU is only in trouble when you start getting around 90C).
@Kubi, he replaced the PSU, so this is most likely a tower.

I personally use CPUID's HWMonitor for fans and heat, but you will tend to get odd readings every now and then, so using something else too can't hurt.

 

[Kubi]

What temperatures did you read? It will be easier to tell what is going on if you give for CPU, graphics card, mobo, etc. Get an idle reading, and then try running your game/whatever off to the side and see how high they get (especially if you still crash, how high they get before crashing). As Kubi mentions, 50C is virtually nothing for a CPU or graphics card (CPU is only in trouble when you start getting around 90C).
@Kubi, he replaced the PSU, so this is most likely a tower.

I personally use CPUID's HWMonitor for fans and heat, but you will tend to get odd readings every now and then, so using something else too can't hurt.

Actually, most CPU's have a built in mechanism which will turn off your computer between 85C-90C. Although, it depends on the model of the CPU. Hardware manufacturers provide the max operating temperature of their parts. We need to know exactly what type of hardware he is running to know what the actual threshold is. He may need to apply more/new thermal paste to the CPU if it's over heating, which, if it's 50C, is not the case.

 

[FinalPyre]

Actually, most CPU's have a built in mechanism which will turn off your computer between 85C-90C. Although, it depends on the model of the CPU. Hardware manufacturers provide the max operating temperature of their parts. We need to know exactly what type of hardware he is running to know what the actual threshold is. He may need to apply more/new thermal paste to the CPU if it's over heating, which, if it's 50C, is not the case.

Indeed. I thought the auto turn-off feature was what we were considering (overheating). I just haven't heard of a function like that which reboots your computer afterwards, but maybe that is possible if you have your BIOS set to reboot after failure or something? I've never really looked into that myself. I know that I have run my CPU mid 80s without a problem before, but I like to keep them around mid-to-high 70s while at max load.
If it is overheating after all, then yes I would probably say re-do the thermal compound, and get a good heatsink (hyper evo or something).

 

[Kubi]

70C is still running hot. I've got an i5 Ivy bridge OC'd at 4.2GHz and it runs at 32C. I'd check your cooling.

 

[FinalPyre]

This is when running full load though. I'm OD'd currently to 4.7GHz on i7 Ivy bridge (will probably change it soon, there are some things I want to tweak with offset... might scale back to 4.6GHz). With normal use it is around 30C.

 

[razext]

This is for a desktop pc, and I was talking about the highest temperature. I tested it by running 彼女と俺と恋人と ( what I'm currently playing) VN's aren't very taxing on the CPU I think. I will check the temperatures tomorrow when I have access to it.

 

[Batman]

Check the program running last time one didnt have auto shut down ticked.

If closes on end of same program look in preferences or options you may of accidently turned on option were turn pc off when you close the program runing or set in preferences on you pc to turn on at set time check all setting of windows running and programs just to make sure.

If not a virouse that is hope you can fix it soon.