do i need a new power supply?

ok, so my computer like randomly restarts from time to time, sometimes it wont happen at all, sometimes it will happen every 20 minutes... but more often then not its usually around twice a day if im actually on the computer.... it also usually restarts even when its idle.... so my only guess is that i need a more powerful power supply.... what else could be causing it? and are there any good brands that you guys could recommend.... thanks!

 

The problem could be a number of things the hard drive could be failing, a bad or malfunctioning power supply, a bad memory chip, and or also the cpu could be overheating look inthe bios for temperature problems if this one is the problem the temp should be around or be between 25-40 degrees.

I can only tell you theory, I would actually need to see the PC up front.

 

ya its not cpu temps, at idle its like 20 degree and max load it only gets up to like 42 degrees...... but why would a bad memory chip or hard drive cause restart.... wouldn't those just cause a crash, and force me to manually restart it?

 

Just about any flakey bit of hardware can cause spontaneous random reboots. As mentioned, RAM is the most likely culprit. Run a memory diagnostic to get the low down on that. Could be the main board itself, or even the BIOS. If you have a digital voltmeter or multimeter, do some online research and learn how to test the voltages of your power supply (disconnected from the mobo of course ) and see if you have steady, accurate voltages... You shouldn't have more than a +/- .75v differential on the 12v rail (for example: it should be no lower than 11.25v and no higher than 12.75v).... if your RAM passes an exhaustive test (like 4 or 5 hours of steady diagnostic) and your power supply has acceptable readings, then you may have flakey capacitors on the motherboard. Look for the little cylinders; if any of them have even SLIGHTLY bowed out tops or have what looks like crud leaking out, you'll need a new motherboard.

hopperdave2000