Last december, I built a computer. Now I am having some problems with it. It keeps restarting! Its so frustrating. I have ruled out the possibility of software problems and the power supply unit. It has happened hafe way through installing 2 different programs which can cause problems for it. There have been times when I have removed the cpu heatsink. I put thermal grease on it when I built it but never re-applied it. I don't know if this could cause it or not. Please help! lol By the way, I have an AMD Althlon 64 x2 3800+ (am2) if that helps.
Oh, and it also seems to happen when the compuyer is under a heavy load i.e. installing software. Sorry, forgot to mention that
I just put some fresh thermal compound on my cpu. It seems to be working ok, I will post back if I have any more problems.
They are all flat topped. I really need help with this, starting college soon and I can't afford to have a broken computer!
I just remembered, a while ago the computer wouldn't start up and the hard drive made some strange noises. It seems to fix itself and that never happened again. I don't know if that helps.
Yeah I have an old Maxtor 40gb hard drive that works, but the restarting is fairly random so I might not be able to figure out if it is the hdd. Before I try it out, could the hard drive cause the system to restart. Or is it not likely? Also, I have installed windows xp many times on this machine, last time, it said I couldn't activate it again, but when I called it was activated over the phone. Would I be able to activate it again? I need to know before I try.
Okay, thanks so much for the help. I will try it tomorrow when I have some free time. Damn it, I might have to buy a new hard drive. Oh well.
*Sighs* My mum threw it out...sorry i'm being so difficult. I'll see if any of my friends have any I Can borrow. By the way, what are the chances that the HDD will be the problem?