1. video card drivers
have you updated any? changed any drivers? are you using unsigned drivers?
2. bad memory
have you installed any memory lately? (or did you purchase the computer?) - if i recall, you have 1 stick of 256mb, have you tested your memory using diagnostic tests? see
www.memtest86.com
btw, to run all tests, it will take a while to complete, so do it overnight if you want to test your ram module(s).
ALSO i have to warn you, if you dont know what you're doing ... or if you dont know how to use dos, then don't
faulty ram modules will usually restart computers unexpectedly.
if you're adept with computer hardware, have you tried switching pci slots for each card? e.g. removing your soundcard, network card (if any), etc. and having a minimal setup only, to determine which card(s) are causing conflicts. if it's not the ram, it'll be your pci addon cards (try switching cards, taking out cards, diagnosing your problem etc if you have the time to do it that is).
3. are you using windows xp?
if so, determine the stop error (blue screen "code") when your system restarts
can't see the blue screen?, or the bluescreen disappears too fast?
then:
right click my computer
properties
advanced
under 'startup and recovery'
click settings
then
UNTICK 'automatically restart' under 'system failure'
also, check your event viewer,
go to control panel
administrative tools
event viewer
on your left hand side, you will see "system"
click system
check for any RED system errors, or caution (yellow) exclamation marks
if not, then you will need to look it up or sort the list by time/date
once you have found it, double click the error once you've found it.
once you've done that,
choose to send microsoft the error report and see if they have any solutions for you (or if the problem has been identified with other cases, then you'll be one of the lucky ones)
OR
visit
http://www.xptuneup.com/xptuneup_stopmessages.htm
it happened to me before
stop error 0x7E and 0xCE
the cause? a bad burner/mainboard combination
+ using daemon tools 3.33
so that's a note to everyone out there,
if you have a sony CRX-175E 24/10/40x, do NOT use it with an ABIT IC7 (overclockers board
)
and if you happen to install daemon tools and XP restarts constantly (infinite loop, cannot boot into windows, or windows keeps restarting on itself without even logging into windows itself ie restarts in dos all the time), then that's your problem (you can't even uninstall it without the system BSOD'ing on you!)
hopefully that solves your problems freaking_out