Computer starting over by itself

[tanusgreystar]

I have a pc that will be running and then all of a sudden it will restart. Sometimes it does this several times in a row. It may be a disk error, but I ran a diagnostic and it passed. I ran check disk but it says it cannot run. I'll have to try it again and post what it says exactly. Would this have to do with my disk only having 11gb free out of 80?? I'll have to move a bunch of stuff from it and see if that improves anything.

 

[Rob Williams]

That would have nothing to do with the amount of free hard drive space, but if it sporadically reboots for no reason, it's probably a hardware issue. I'd download MemTest and test the RAM, and also make sure that your GPU and CPU temperatures are keeping within reason, using CoreTemp and GPU-Z:

http://www.memtest.org/
www.alcpu.com/coretemp/
http://www.techpowerup.com/downloads/SysInfo/GPU-Z/

 

[tanusgreystar]

memtest checks out ok. I couldn't open the core temp page. What am I supposed to look for in GPU-Z? In Bios the CPU temp is running at around 46 degrees C/114 degrees F. I should have mentioned this, but I had fried my vid card. It works but when I go to play Oblivion I get some artifacts, and it crashes periodically. Also the message I'm getting when checkdisk opens is "Cannot open volume," then I get a black screen with white pixels all over the place. Would the vid card affect the pc restarting like that though??

 

[Kougar]

If the video card is bad then yes, it could.

However it could easily be the power supply, or other things. Have you tested the GPU on another computer? Rob wants you to look at the temp monitoring tab to on GPU-Z to check your GPU temps.

Besides the usual making sure no spy/mal/ad-ware or viruses are running, you can also try updating the video drivers. Then use a program like ATI Tool to test your GPU for artifacts.