Posted: 1/20/2004 5:42:51 PM EDT
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I have an e-machine. Every few days for about the last month, the machine reboots itself suddenly (without properly shutting down Windows). The general diagnostic page from microsoft says it is a device driver malfunction. The two device drivers I've added (if I understand the term correctly) is Pop-up stopper and Ad-Aware. Could they be malfunctioning and causing the computer to have a spasm? Or more accurately, has anybody heard of such a conflict causing such a result as spontaneous rebooting? |
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The pop-up stopper and adware programs are both software, not drivers. All of the times I have seen sudden, unexpected reboots it was the power supply at fault. Not a huge deal to replace, around $50 for a quality unit. Just unplug all the power cables to the drives and motherboad, unscrew the old power supply, put in the new one, reconnect the power cables. They are all keyed so it's pretty hard to mess it up. |
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Quoted: Can you try a different power supply? Spontaneous reboot is a classic sign of a faulty power supply. E machine being low end they probably didnt put the best one in there in the first place. Couldn't have said it better myself. I would bet on it being a power supply issue. If you replace it go with at least a 400 watt. |
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Since you are getting an error message when windows boots up again this is not a power supply problem. The first thing to do would be to check the system event viewer log or read the details of the error when it comes up again. Chances are it is a motherboard or video card causing the problem if the error is specific. The other possibilities could be failing memory, for which you can get a diagnostic bootdisk from [url]www.memtest86.com[/url], or a failing hard drive. You can get hard drive diagnostics at the manufacturer's website. |
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I had this problem once and the connecter to my hard drive was loose. Before you do anything else first open your case and make sure all of the plugs/connectors are in tight and that all of your cards are properly seated. If the problem still persists you can always still get a new power supply. I did find this link about emachine power supplies though that might come in handy. [url]http://www.consumeraffairs.com/computers/emachine_power.html[/url] |
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There are worms that fake the Windows GPF dialog box just to screw with you. When it reboots, if you [b]don't[/b] get the message that Windows was not shutdown properly, then it's possible that it really is shutting down correctly and the worm is just screwing with you. |