PC restarts on its own

[Nubly]

i bought a compaq a little over a month ago. i have had nothing but trouble since the beginning. i have contacted HP support several times but they only manage to fix it temporarily. the problem with it is that it restarts on its own. it is not that current virus going on with XP because it does not tell me anything when it restarts. any idea on how to fix the problem? i have a copy of an XP pro CD but then i would have to register it or whatever they do to prevent piracy now. i also have a copy of win98 but i would have to drive four hours to my old house to get it. any other options, besides shipping the PC to HP?

 

[Y_lifter]

Bad Electrical or Power Supply ? Or Battery if laptop
It loses connection and therefore does a cold boot..

Are the symptoms similar to you powering it off / on ?

 

[Y_lifter]

DUDE !

You shoulda got a Dell

 

[Nubly]

didnt think about the electrical or power supply being the problem. the symptons are exactly like hitting the restart buttong from the start menu

 

[WODIN]

You have the new Windows NC model. (NC = Neo-Con). The machine takes unilateral action whenever it thinks there might be a threat to it's existance and shuts down. I think you have to type in "I'm a dittohead" in the Start/Run line to get it to stay on.

 

[Forge]

Is it one of these new really small PC's, about the size of a VCR and with no fan to cool it down? One of the guys here at work has one and it has the same problem, restarts every now and then for no good reason (actually I think his just powers down, it doesn't come back on afterward). We are pretty sure it's overheating. It's supposed to cool by convection alone but I can't see how that would work myself. We setup a fan to blow into it and it hasn't done it since.

 

[Nubly]

nope its not a small PC. i've checked the tempature and its ok on that part. the PC does work for about a day if i reinstall the drivers to the keyboard and the mouse though. i've bought a new keyboard and a mouse as well, to see if that was the problem but it didnt help either.

 

[Devastation]

You have the new Windows NC model. (NC = Neo-Con). The machine takes unilateral action whenever it thinks there might be a threat to it's existance and shuts down.

this HAS to be the problem imo

 

[bran987]

my computer did that for about 3 weeks

then it suddenly wouldn't boot up into XP anymore

I turned it on and it would just say "master boot volume error"

had to take it to compusa

make sure you use antivirus next time, and spyware, and back up your stuff before this happens to you too just a matter of time

 

[RaZor Ramon]

I thought you didn't have to activate XP pro. Did they change that? I have a 2 year old copy of XP Pro. No activation required.