Computer Reboots Sporadically

Well I am at a loss now. I have Win XP Pro. Up until a week ago I have had no issues at all (lucky huh). I have in the past installed a beta driver or whatever and when my computer acted badly I could always use Acronis Image to restore a back up that I faithfully do every week. My computer out of nowhere starts rebooting for no reason. Sometimes it reboots 5 or 6 times at start up before it will remain on. I can be doing something or playing a game and suddenly a reboot. I just assumed it was an operating system issue so I restored the Acronis image that was last working perfectly. Unfortunately it still does the same reboot. Could it be a hardware issue, video card going out or something? I need suggestions on what to try next. Thanks. Oh by the way I was in safe mode and the computer rebooted on its own also which I think tells me its not a program or driver issue. I'm lost

 

Hi

One question, does the system shut down or reboot. My first guess if it is shutting down it is a hardware issue ie memory hard dirve motherboard or power supply.

If it is rebooting then I would go with software issues ie a driver, a virus, spyware etc. do u have an up to date antivirus software and spyware program?

When did the issue start happening. If you can do a system restore back to a point before the issue started might be an option. good luck

 

Thanks, I did all that and I never use system restore. I make a complete backup of the harddrive so when something blows up I can restore back to where everything is perfect. Well this time I did that but it issue remains. Before I start throwing away parts, I just remembered one last check I can do. I have two harddrives and on the backup I cloned the main disk sometime ago in case the main harddrive fried. I swithched boot harddrives in the bios and booted to my backup harddrive. Everything runs smooth and no reboot issues. So now it is either a software issue on the main drive or the main drive itself. My next test will be to clone the back up drive to the main drive. If it runs perfect it means some software or an issue with win xp. If it still reboots then I probably have a bad main harddrive. Thanks for your help. I will continue to update so anyone else with a similiar problem can review and maybe solve their issue. I will advise how it goes.

 

Go to:right click my comp>properties>advanced>startup and recovery>uncheck automaticaly restart.

 

I did that last night and am at work now. I am using the backup harddrive which doesn't have the problem. When I get home tonight I am going to do the clone thing. I might go ahead and use the one that reboots so I can actually see what the blue screen error is. Even if I fix it by restoring, the curiosity about what the reason for the reboot was will haunt me.. Thanks I think I will let it reboot and get the error before I try and fix it.

 

I let it reboot twice on the problem harddrive and this is what the blue screen said. by the way I get a different number each time. I think I read somewhere that if it is a stop: that it usually means a software issure and if it actually says error then it tends to be a hardware issue..anyway here is what is was the first time
Driver IRQL Not_less_or_equal
Stop: 0x0000000D1 0x00000002 0x000000000 0KF74B7570
Have no clue what this means.

I am going to clone the good drive to the problem drive to make sure it is not a harddrive problem...This back up drive works perfectly....Will advise

 

Go to control panel>administrative tools>event viewer,and see for issue there.I will recomend you to disable acronis and firewall,cos your BSOD with value D1 maybe comes from this two guys,and if you have NVidia GPU,this can cause the issue too,so uninstall Acronis,reinstall firewall and reinstall NVidia(if you have).When you uninstall something,use CCleaner,to pickup files that remain in your comp from uninstalling.After that install fresh one.

 

Well I think I know what is causing it, I just don't know why. I restored a two week old Acronis image backup and everything runs perfect. This issue started when I installed the Microsoft updates, .net framework 2.0 and .net framework 1.1 service pack. I did my normal computer stuff and played a couple of graphic intense games and absolutely no issues. I looked at my installed programs and noticed that I already have Microsoft .net framework 3.0. Wouldn't think I would need the older .net updates. Can't figure why they would be on the update page unless the 3.0 is a beta. Anyway I thought I would install the updates and see what happens. Bingo the second I installed the updates and rebooted the computer, the bsod started almost immediately. Maybe having the .net framework 3.0 on there causes an issue when the older versions are updated. I am going to re-format the drive and put that same Acronis image on again and not install those .net updates this time. What a pain in the ***. At least it isn't a hardware issue where I have to start buying stuff. Thanks for everyones suggestions.