You’ve had your machine switched on a while, and you’re in the middle of a project. –‘Time for a break; so you go out to the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. When you’ve made coffee and grabbed a biscuit you return to your desk to find your computer’s displaying a Welcome screen and waiting for you to log in.

- For some reason it shut down and restarted without being told to do so. Maybe this has happened before, at random times; and you’re furious about it. Why could it be happening?

It could be a number of things: -

1) RAM issues

2) Overheating due to too much load

3) Dodgy or corrupt programs

4) Dodgy, old, or corrupt device drivers

5) Bad Windows XP setting choice

Or maybe something else.

Let’s take a look at the 5 we’ve listed so far: -

1. RAM issues

If a fault has developed in one of the RAM chips on one of the sticks, such as even a single transistor failure, which causes it to not work as it should, then Windows or whatever operating system you’re running could well become confused when it attempts to access that piece of physical memory, and go into a tizzy, resulting in a BSOD.

How would you discover if this is the cause of the fault? Simple answer = change your RAM sticks. If it works normally with new RAM then target neutralised.

On that point; I do realise that RAM isn’t as cheap as it used to be: At the time of writing, DDR2 is going up in price, when not long ago it was dirt-cheap: Less than £10GBP for a 1MB stick. DDR3, on the other hand, is coming down in price; but it’s still not as inexpensive as DDR2. – On that basis, you might not want to shell out and change all your RAM, especially if you have around 8GBs on 4 2GB sticks, for instance. (That much DDR2 cost me about £80GBP when it was dirt-cheap.)

- If that is the case then the answer is to buy a single stick, the same size and designation as the others, and try swapping just a single stick at a time with the new stick in all cases of RAM sticks on your motherboard. If the restarts stop totally at some point, leave things as they are and bin the faulty RAM stick, which is already uninstalled from your computer.

2. Overheating due to too much [processor] load.

Some programs use a lot of processor resources. The more processor resources used, the more wattage is burned up and the hotter the processor gets. This is true with all processors; single and multi-core, (I’ve had my AMD Athlon 64 x 2 shut down on me for this very reason before now.) although generally, multi-core processors can bear more load than a single-cored processor. The capability, age, and fabrication technique used in manufacture can all have a bearing upon how hot a processor gets under certain working environments. To use an extreme example of this; if you were to attempt to do video-transposition, editing, etc, on a Pentium 1 processor, (Which can barely run XP, incidentally.) along with various other programs, you’d probably get a system shutdown with a BSOD due to overheating. (- And possibly fry the processor in the process too.)

Keep your fans and cooler clear of dust and dirt: This, also, will help avoid overheating issues. A utility called Speedfan will tell you the current temperature of your CPU and hard drives at any time.

3. Dodgy or corrupt programs

As a computer user, especially in the case of those who use Windows, you need to be careful what programs you download and run on your machine: Some programs are just badly-written – free ones and paid ones, and can screw up your operating system eventually. Other programs may have a hidden payload of adware, spyware, or even malware, in the code, which executes when you run it, and causes all kinds of trouble.

Hint: If the program looks like it does too much for the price, or it is claimed to solve all issues perfectly, then it’s probably full of crap and should be avoided.

Run an offline scan using your usual antivirus/antimalware program, and also run an online scan using an online scanner. – You might be surprised at what’s uncovered.

4. Dodgy, old, or corrupt device drivers

Since device drivers are magnetic data just like programs, they can become corrupted over time just like programs. If you suspect a driver is causing a shutdown issue, look in Device Manager and check that all devices are functioning correctly. If a driver isn’t right, note the details written about the device, remove it, and download and install a replacement driver.

Every now and again a new device-driver version is written for any particular hardware device: This is done because there may be issues in the previous driver version that need addressing, or because an emerging technology requires an extra set of functions to be added to a particular driver for whatever reason. If you’ve not downloaded new drivers recently then your shutdown issues could be due to old drivers on your disk.

Check for new versions of drivers regularly; particularly in the case of graphics cards. Microsoft Update have a driver update service; which I’ve found to be unreliable, behind the times, and often gives you the wrong driver for your hardware. – The individual hardware item manufacturer’s website is always the best place to go for a driver update.

5. Bad Windows XP setting choice

There’s a setting in Windows XP that instructs  your computer to restart if a system error occurs. If you turn off that option, you may solve your automatic reboot problem – But then you’ll not see the resultant BSOD screen, if one occurs, which might well assist you to diagnose the issue.  – So in short I don’t suggest that you switch on the “Automatically restart” setting. To check whether or not it’s already on, do the following: -

Click Start, then open Control Panel

Switch to classic view if not already selected.

Click System.

Click on the Advanced Tab.

Click Settings in the Startup and Recovery section.

Uncheck Automatically Restart in the System failure section if it’s checked.

These are just a few of the many reasons why your system is restarting.

It might be something to do with something you’ve recently added: If you’ve installed new hardware, software, or peripheral devices, remove – and see if the restart persists.

It could be that your power-supply unit (PSU) is wearing out, or it may be due to bad capacitors on your motherboard. (See this article)

There is no one answer, nor is there one single set of answers: Having said that, I hope the above information helps.