The PC reboots itself after some time. Overheating of the processor or video card. Equipment not suitable

Hi all! Your computer assistant is in touch. Today we’ll talk about a rather unpleasant problem that, however, has its place in the life of a computer - spontaneous rebooting. Sometimes it happens that during the next startup when loading the operating system, the computer independently “decides” to reboot, and so on ad infinitum. If you are interested in how to solve such a problem, then you have come to the right place, this article is exactly about that.

In most cases, you can solve the problem yourself, but go for it if you understand well what you have to deal with, and We will help you with this.

In fact, it turns out that there may be many more reasons than it seems at first glance - these are both software and hardware malfunctions. Of course, determining the type of problem is complicated by the fact that sometimes it is not possible to start the computer itself, but let’s talk about everything one by one. Below are the most likely reasons for this “incorrect” behavior and tips for eliminating them.

Viruses

The most common problem leading to this outcome is the presence of viruses on your computer. Most of the viruses are fully activated just after the next startup or reboot, which explains the correct behavior of the computer before shutting down.

For most Windows operating systems, the solution to the problem is to boot the OS into Safe Mode or in mode Last working configuration . In order to get to the configuration selection menu, you must press the F8 key after turning on the computer.

After starting in Safe Mode, update your antivirus software and scan your device for viruses. Updating the OS can also help solve the problem.

Also check the list of Startup programs. Malicious program shortcuts may be found here, so exclude applications that are unknown to you from this list.

One of the most effective ways is to roll back the system to the restore point of the last working state when the computer was working. To do this, the menu for creating restore points must be active before infection (still in working order). After restoring the system's functionality, check your computer for malicious software using an antivirus program.

You can also boot from the license disk of the installed OS and select the “Recovery” mode.

If all of the above methods do not help solve the problem, you will have to format the disk and reinstall the operating system. In order not to lose files that are valuable to you, we recommend that you first remove the hard drive from the system unit and, inserting it into a work computer (preferably with an anti-virus program installed), copy them there temporarily.

If none of this helps, the problem is most likely a hardware issue. Go ahead.

Hardware problem

The most common problem in this family of errors is problems with the hard drive. It is likely that the boot partition has failed. In this case, the hard drive should be checked using specialized diagnostic programs - if errors are found, they should be eliminated. Otherwise, you will have to replace your hard drive and, accordingly, reinstall the OS with a new one.

The RAM can also fail. There are also specialized programs to detect its errors. If there is an error, the RAM board will have to be replaced.

There is a case when the cause of cyclic reboots is a malfunction in the video card. Then the scenario of your actions is as follows: having activated Safe Mode, update the drivers for the video card by installing the latest version. If there is no effect, show it to a specialist in order to detect the malfunction.

Oddly enough, dust contamination can also cause uncontrollable computer behavior. In this case, the system unit must be unscrewed and vacuumed. Be extremely careful when performing this manipulation, because... the likelihood of damaging the chips during the cleaning process increases. It's better to contact a specialist.

BIOS

Another reason may be the installation of incompatible software or drivers. To solve this, you should start in Safe Mode and reinstall all drivers or remove an incompatible program (remember what you installed the day before).

Conclusions:

Listed above are the most common reasons that can “force” your computer to constantly reboot and recipes for eliminating such problems. There are also a number of other reasons, but they require deeper intervention in the computer, which most likely cannot be done at home. Therefore, in such cases, you should contact the support center or a specialist.

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If your PC starts to reboot spontaneously, then most likely the problem is inside the system unit, and not a software one, so don’t rush and change the operating system.

There can be many reasons for a computer restarting, but in this article we will consider only the most common ones.

Causes and solutions

The main reason that the computer reboots itself is overheating of either the video card or the central processor, but these are not all possible reasons for such strange PC behavior.

The most common include:

Overheating of the processor or video card

The most common cause of overheating is poor cooling. First of all you need:

remove the cover from the system unit;
Check the functionality of the fans on both the video card and the processor.

Please note that they should rotate quietly, without stopping for a moment, and not making any extraneous sounds.

Even if the coolers rotate normally, there should still be no balls of dust and animal hair; dirt can also cause overheating.

The photo below shows how many times the fans are running. It’s better not to let things get to this point, as the same video card or processor can simply burn out over time. Regular cleaning of your computer should take place.

The computer keeps rebooting due to overheating. How to fix?

If the problem is really in the video card or processor, then fixing everything is quite simple. All you need to do is clean the coolers from dust, lubricate them, or, in extreme cases, replace them. As for the processor, in addition to cleaning the fan, you also need to replace the thermal paste.

To avoid guessing for a long time what exactly is overheating, you can download a special utility that helps monitor the temperature of the processor and video card.

There are plenty of them on the Internet; AIDA 64 and Everest would be excellent options. In addition, such utilities are supplied with drivers for the motherboard.

Photo: location of the power supply in the system unit

Before you go to the store for a new block, we advise you to first borrow it from friends, preferably choose a more powerful one, and then try to work or play with toys. If everything works stably, then it’s time to buy a new power supply.

When choosing a new power supply, you just need to take the characteristics of all the equipment installed in the system unit, and then add its power to the pile.

Based on it, the power supply is then selected.

If you are looking for an inexpensive option, then choose a power supply that is at least twice as powerful as the resulting amount of power, since cheap options correspond to a maximum of 80% of the parameters written on the package.

RAM fault

If the RAM is of poor quality, has defects and damage, then this can also explain why the computer turns off. If you suspect this, then you should definitely check the strips. Especially for this purpose, there are a lot of programs on the Internet that can both conduct a complete test of RAM and find out whether it has defects. The most popular utility is called

Memtest86.

If you are not sure that you can test it yourself, then borrow similar strips from friends and use them for several hours. If everything goes well, the computer does not reboot, then it’s time to buy a new RAM.

Faulty software

The computer may randomly reboot due to the fact that some program was installed incorrectly or is not functioning properly. The problem may also be inside the operating system, maybe there is some kind of bug there. Anything is possible. Everything here is much more complicated than with hardware problems; it is not so easy to identify a breakdown.

All software problems can be resolved by removing recently installed programs, installing and configuring the operating system.

It is important not only to remove the malicious program, but also to understand how it got onto the computer, this will help to avoid problems in the future. If the reason is not found either in the hardware or software, then it is still worth changing the operating system.

To solve this problem you should do the following:

It is also better to remove malware in safe mode. If you don’t know what exactly needs to be deleted, you don’t know what caused the reboots, then you can roll back the system to the date when everything was still in order.

Another solution to the problem is to simply disable Windows from automatically restarting when problems are detected. It is worth noting that this method will most likely simply destroy the system in a few days.

Video: Cyclic reboot

OP's work

Incorrect operation of RAM can also cause frequent computer reboots. In order to find out what's wrong, you will have to test each strip separately. The previously mentioned Memtest 86+ program will help us here.

Problems especially often begin after installing a new RAM module. If this is really the case, then run to change the bar under warranty, otherwise, if you delay too much, no one will return the money.

Photo: Memtest 86+ program interface

You can also use programs to check that are capable of loading RAM to the maximum, then you will see whether it is working normally, or whether there is still something to worry about.

Often PC users don’t even realize that the RAM needs to be replaced; they don’t know why the computer has recently started to become so glitchy.

Not enough free space

Perhaps the reason for computer reboots lies in the fact that there is not enough free space on the local disk for the operating system to work comfortably.

To solve this problem, you should immediately delete all unnecessary files from your computer, especially from the partition where the system is located. If you seem to have deleted everything, but a lot of space is taken up by something unknown, then you will have to reinstall Windows.

There are several ways to remove unnecessary information from the hard drive:

find and delete duplicate folders and files;
disable saving recovery files and delete already saved ones;
disable hibernation. The fact is that when entering hibernation, a hiberfil.sys file is created, which takes up space equal to the size of the RAM.

If you apply all of the above tips in combination, you can achieve significant savings in disk space, speed up your computer, and, accordingly, avoid unexpected computer reboots.

Viruses

Viruses are one of the main reasons that can explain regular OS reboots. Please note that viruses do not begin to act immediately, but the next time you turn on the computer.

The best option to get rid of malware in such a situation is to start the work in safe mode, and then update the operating system and anti-virus protection.

After this, you should use the same mode to check the system with an antivirus scanner for the presence of Trojans, spyware and other unpleasant files.

The second way to get rid of viruses is to roll back the system to the day and time when everything worked correctly. This can be done either in the same safe mode or by inserting a disk with the operating system.

In addition to reinstalling Windows, you can also restore functionality from it. As soon as everything is fine, immediately install an antivirus and check your hard drive again.

If the virus is serious and has infected more than half of the system files, then, unfortunately, there is only one way out - to format the hard drive and reinstall Windows. All files will be lost, but the computer will work.

Power outages

This problem has become common, especially over the past few years. The fact is that modern apartments are literally filled with electronic equipment, and it also needs power from the electrical network.

People at home now have electric heating systems, convectors, boilers and other equipment, the power of which is many times greater than that of a personal computer.

Just imagine, it was evening outside, everyone came home, turned on all this equipment... It’s not even surprising that frequent interruptions began, this is already a standard phenomenon to which everyone is accustomed.

The computer is severely overloaded from power surges, and the power supply, in order to prevent any component from burning out, simply reboots the system. Believe me, this is much better than buying a new power supply, because if you don’t reboot, it won’t last long.

Dealing with voltage surges is not so difficult, but you will have to buy either a power supply or a voltage stabilizer.

I've been doing computer repairs for almost ten years now. I've seen a lot of different faults and gained a lot of experience. But the most mysterious and at the same time widespread “bug” is the spontaneous reboot of the computer. It’s like a headache - it serves as a symptom of various abnormalities, which are not always possible to quickly localize.

Let's look at the main reasons for automatic computer reboots.

Why does the computer restart itself?

All problems that lead to spontaneous rebooting of the computer can be divided into two categories:

Software problems– are caused primarily by software failures, such as the operating system itself, as well as drivers, services, system files, malware, etc.
Hardware problems– caused by hardware failure: overheating, power failure, deviations in electrical parameters, short circuit.

Somewhere in the middle you can place problems with microcode (firmware), which seem to be software, but at the same time represent an integral part of the hardware - BIOS, FirmWare etc.

Let's look at the problems and ways to solve them sequentially, although I, in principle, have already listed the main types.

Popular reasons for computer reboots

Motherboard and peripherals

Problems of this kind belong to the class of hardware problems according to our classification.

Diagnostics

First of all, when “floating” glitches occur in the form of reboots, I open the system unit and conduct a visual inspection of the condition of the motherboard and expansion cards.

The situation is far from isolated, there are currently a LOT of motherboards coming in "MSI" with the same problem - blown capacitors. Either the resource has been exhausted, but they are just coming en masse. It happened that in a week only 4 boards had to be soldered. The entire replacement capacitor fund has been exhausted!

By the way, as I already mentioned, this malfunction can affect not only motherboards, but also other expansion cards, most often graphic cards.

Repair:

I described the situation on our blog page. The repair is not very complicated - we find a similar capacitor and, using a soldering iron, simply replace the blown one with a healthy one, while you need to follow a number of basic rules:

The ideal case is if the capacitor is exactly the same (but this is not always the case);
The operating voltage should be no less (more is possible) than that of the damaged one;
The capacity should be no less (perhaps a little more) than that of the spoiled one. But there is a nuance here. The central processor circuit, where many capacitors are concentrated, works on the principle of damping electrical surges, that is, the capacitors there act as “expansion tanks”. There is positive experience in replacing many capacitors with one, the capacity of which is equal to the sum of those removed. This is acceptable, although not very desirable;
Observe polarity carefully! As a rule, the motherboard has a corresponding mark at the location where the electrolytic capacitors are installed (the “+” symbol), as well as a painted half of the seat. On the capacitor itself there is a contrasting strip with “+” or “-” signs on it, depending on the manufacturer. This stripe indicates the corresponding leg. Violation of polarity threatens rapid failure of the capacitor.

Glitches in RAM

This is also a fairly common problem. It is usually expressed in frequent, unsystematic BSODs with various error codes.

Diagnostics:

Personally, I carry out diagnostics using the cool utility “Memtest86+”, which is included in almost any boot disk (Hiren BootCD for example), and is supplied independently. Above I have provided a link to the official source.

We boot from the disk and run memory testing. We will see one of the following two situations:

A clean output indicates that the memory is working correctly, that is, there is no data corruption. Or like this:

There is clearly something wrong with this situation. We remove one of the memory sticks and repeat the test. In this way, the faulty ruler is localized.

Repair:

Alas, I would not repair the RAM. I think it's cheaper and easier to replace.

Peripheral or power failures

Various types of computer malfunctions, including reboots, can be caused by malfunctions of peripheral equipment - disk drives, hard drives, sound cards and video capture cards, etc.

Diagnostics:

It’s quite simple - disconnect all equipment from the motherboard, leaving only the monitor and keyboard. Well, and food, of course. Disconnect all other wires. If the problems stop, gradually, one by one, connect all the components and catch the moment when glitches appear again.

Or, what else would be nice to try, have known good equipment (power supply, RAM, hard drive, optical drive) and replace it with it for a while.

This especially applies to power supplies. It has often happened to me that the power supply passes the test, starts up via POWER-ON, but the computer stubbornly refuses to work with it correctly. Either a ripple or an unstable voltage, which a household multimeter is not able to detect.

There were also cases when failures occurred due to the DVD drive, as well as due to a faulty Mobile Rack - connecting the hard drive directly to the motherboard did not cause errors, but connecting through the Mobile Rack case completely crashed the computer.

Solution:

Replace the faulty element causing the failure. Well, or, if the problem is obvious, try to fix it. Somehow I managed to resolder the capacitors in the power supply, quite successfully. The only inconvenient thing is that the installation there is quite cramped.

Problems with USB ports and other short circuit problems

I would never have thought that this could be the cause of the reboots. The essence of the problem is as follows: someone, after carelessly handling flash drives, broke out the USB port so that the power contacts were shorted to ground either permanently or due to mechanical vibrations.

The computer (or rather the power supply), under such shocks, either went into deep protection (turned off) or rebooted the computer.

The same applies to incorrectly laid wires inside the system unit. In my practice, there was a case when the power supply Molex, by some miracle, touched a corner of the internal metal structure of the case and the computer instantly rebooted. The problem was solved by carefully laying and holding the cables in a stationary state.

Diagnostics:

External inspection of the I/O ports, as well as a mechanical check to see if the behavior of the computer changes when the wires, cables vibrate, pressure is applied to the covers, etc.

Overheating of chips

A very common problem is simple overheating. The computer simply turns off (reboots) at the moments of highest pleasure of peak load. This is observed in games, resource-intensive applications (Photoshop, AutoCAD, video converters and studios).

Diagnostics:

The best way to diagnose this is by installing temperature monitoring software (HWMonitor or AIDA64 are good options).

Look, the temperature on the processor is shown at 101 degrees (!) - in my opinion, this is a bit too much and the computer does not have much time left before a protective shutdown.

Some information about the temperature can be obtained from the BIOS if there is not enough time to start the system.

Although, if you don’t have enough time, you may no longer need to look at the temperature and you can safely climb inside.

Open the system properties in the “Control Panel”, follow the link “Advanced system settings”, in the window that appears, go to the “Advanced” tab and click the “Settings” button in the “Startup and Recovery” section. The following window will open:

If we no longer have a way to get into Windows, then when the system boots we try to press to get to the boot menu and select “Disable automatic reboot when the system fails” (see point 4). We will refer to this menu later in the text, so we will mentally remember its location.

Under point 1, the various download options are highlighted. safe mode. A very useful option, sometimes it helps when the problem is in some insidious service or driver. In this case, Windows starts in a minimal environment without starting many services and drivers, often this is enough to start diagnostics from the inside.
Point 3 - loading last known known configuration– launching a previously saved copy of the registry (parameters), in which the download was successful. With various changes, these sets of settings rotate in such a way that there is a current configuration and a previous stable configuration. If you screwed up something with the services, you can load the latest working configuration, where fatal changes have not yet been made.
Point 4 – disable automatic reboot on system failure– it is this parameter that allows you to most often see a blue screen and understand in more detail the causes of the malfunction.

These errors indicate a problem with loading the system registry (one of its “hives”). Restoring a damaged file from a backup copy ( \System Volume Information\_restore(XXXXXXXXXX)\RP\snapshot\_REGISTRY_MACHINE_SECURITY or _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE accordingly, first rename them as it was), where ( XXXXX) is your drive GUID, and YYY is the highest number (most recent restore point). The required registry file must be found and moved to the directory \Windows\System32\config\ replacing the file that is indicated by BSOD.

If this is SOFTWARE, then rename it to SOFTWARE.old, and rename _REGISTRY_MACHINE_SOFTWARE from the above directory to SOFTWARE and drop it into the *\config\ folder. The problem will most likely be solved!

Other BSODs help solve the banal chkdsk C: /f(or D: or whatever you have?).

Sometimes restoring Windows over an already installed one helps (this helped a lot on Windows XP).

Malicious software

I don’t currently remember a single piece of malware that caused the computer to reboot cyclically, but, nevertheless, sometimes it wouldn’t hurt to check your computer for malware using third-party tools.

Among the most popular, I highlight three:

These programs are free and allow you to check the connected disk for malware, if necessary, and cure/delete the objects found. I think that in the future I will write separate articles on the use of these tools, but for now, let me take my leave, there are a lot of letters.

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If your computer restarts on its own some time after turning it on, you need to take this problem seriously. Otherwise, when your PC suddenly reboots, you may lose valuable information, since the system shuts down in emergency mode, and there is no guarantee that your data that you were working with at that moment was saved on the hard drive. You need to find out what is causing the operating system to fail.

Prices for basic services:

Causes and their solutions.

Reason #1: The main reason for frequent computer reboots is swollen capacitors on the motherboard and video card. Capacitors look like small metal barrels 1-2 cm long and about 0.5 cm wide, with a thin aluminum top.

Solution: If there are swollen capacitors, then they need to be replaced. If the motherboard is new (less than one year old), you should look at the capacitors in the power supply. If it suddenly turns out that the capacitors there are swollen, then you will have to replace your power supply.

If the capacitors are fine and the computer restarts, try removing all devices from the system board (memory, video card, processor, etc.) and reinserting them.

Reason #2: Often, viruses can be the cause of a sudden PC reboot. For example, the Blaster virus, which terminates one of the critical processes in the system, which leads to a computer reboot.

Solution: You need to scan your computer for viruses.

Reason #3: Any new device (newer and more powerful video card, additional hard drive) installed on your computer can be very demanding on the power of the power supply. Perhaps it is due to lack of power that failures occur.

Solution: Check the power saving settings in the operating system itself. Try disabling the power saving mode of your hard drives, monitor, and other PC components.

Reason #4: Reboots may also be caused by incorrect BIOS settings.

Reason #5: Perhaps one or more chips or other parts in the system unit are overheating.

Solution: The temperature of the components should be checked. This can be checked by going into the BIOS. In the PC Health Status item, you can see the temperatures of the main chips of the computer. Displays CPU temperature, North Bridge and South Bridge for Intel processor-based computers and Sys Temp for AMD processor-based computers. If the temperature is high (it’s better to check immediately after rebooting), then most likely the reason is overheating. There is also an excellent program called EVEREST, which will determine and show the temperatures of various computer units.

Reason #6: Also, the cause of a sudden reboot of the computer can be dirty coolers.

Solution: open the system unit (if the computer is under warranty, then it is not advisable to do this, since you may lose this warranty) and check the coolers: whether they rotate easily and are not dirty. Pay special attention to coolers on the processor, video card and motherboard chip. Try reinstalling the drivers and operating system.

Sometimes it happens that the computer restarts by itself, regardless of the user's actions. What could be the reason? Listed below are the main problems that cause such a defect in the operation of the device.

Software error

Starting from the version of Windows XP, an error such as BSoD has become common in the system configuration. Luckily, it's easy to fix in both XP, Vista, 7 and 8. To fix this issue, follow these steps. On your desktop, right-click on the “My Computer” icon. Select the “Properties” option, then “Advanced system settings”. In the settings, find the “Boot and Recovery” group, uncheck the box located with the “Perform automatic reboot” item. Click Ok.

Hardware error

Any malfunction of a hardware component in a computer can cause it to unexpectedly generate an error or reboot without warning. If you've recently tried to add a new device, remove it to make sure it's not causing the problem. If your computer restarts on its own, make sure you're not encountering any hardware conflicts by checking Device Manager for errors.

Drivers

Newer drivers can also cause this problem, so you may want to try older versions to rule out this problem. Study the information on the official websites of these programs, especially compatibility issues. If you've updated your drivers and removed any hardware that might be causing your computer to restart on its own, but the problem isn't resolved, it's likely because your device's memory is weak. Finally, hardware devices that are not installed properly can also cause random reboots. Make sure all cables and expansion cards are connected correctly. The best way to determine this is to disconnect and reconnect them.

Computer virus

Malicious programs can also cause a computer to reboot on its own without warning. Typically, in such cases, a restart occurs every 5, 10, 15 or 30 minutes after the system boots. If you think your computer may be infected with a virus, make sure your antivirus programs are up to date. Update your antivirus using the Internet or download a new antivirus scanner.

Device overheating

Many computers today are designed to shut down and reboot if the processor or other device reaches too high a temperature. If you hear any strange noises, especially when you turn on the device, this may indicate a hardware problem. First, check the fan by opening the back panel of the system unit. It should spin and move smoothly. If no noticeable deviations are visible, but the computer restarts on its own anyway, you need to check the operation of the processor. To do this, it is advisable to contact a specialist, since there is a risk of accidentally damaging the device.

Problems with the operating system

If, after following each of the above recommendations, your computer restarts by itself (Windows 7 especially), it is likely that the problem lies with the operating system. In this case, the only solution is to reinstall the OS.

Authors of the article: Gvindzhiliya Grigory and Pashchenko Sergey