Windows Help me with troubleshooting my PC.

My machine has problems.

it runs fine 90% of the time. But just this week, when I am playing Diablo II, the machine restarted randomly a few times. Now it restarts around 5 minutes into the game. But when the game is not open it runs fine.

Now, i've head this before with Warcraft 3 in Janurary. I had a crappy mobo DFC, whcih I thought was the problem. I was running XP. I then got a Gigabyte mobo, a different hard drive, and installed Windows 2000 Prof.

The problem disappeared, only to resurface now. I've made no changes to the PC configuration since Janurary and it's been running problem free since Janurary.

On a side note, certifications are pointless and stupid. I have Microsoft 70-210, which means I should be able to take care of this crap, but I have no idea what to do, not to mention i don't have a 2000 CD.

As it stands, i'm trying to install XP, but I was wondering if anyone else had this occur and if so was there an easy solution.

 

bah! you should have got the a+ and net+.

back on topic:
do the standard things here ... such as, defrag, double check for spyware and adware, minimize background processes and kill any services youre not using while gaming ... get a copy of the ultimate boot cd and run memtest a couple times ... make sure your processor/video card arent overheating ... defrag, reinstall yer games, defrag again ... i was a heavy tribes2 addict for a while, and it got quite buggy with lots of random UE's and lockups ... and no one was really ever sure why, cause it seemed to be totally random and hardware independant, and happened on all versions of windows.

troll other forums and google your problems too ... likely your not the only one with these problems.

 

But now it's been runnig problem-free for ~4 days.

I'll run defragger and memtest anyway.

Could a PSU overheating be the problem? I have one of those Antec PSUs witht he variable voltage rail for fans, and the rail stopped working. I was running the entire thing with only the CPU fan for a month or so. Then I shifted the case fans tot eh regular 12v rail, and got a spare 80mm fan and taped it to the back of the PSU for ventilation, but it might be overheating. I really need to fix it, but in my experience, if I disconnect anything, the computer will stop working and require hundreds of dollars in new hardware and a reinstalaltion of all software, so I just leave it like it is, hoping it won't fry itself.

 

hot psu = bad.

replace it. 80$ for a new psu is much better than frying a mobo or cpu due to bad power.

my old roomie's psu died and took out every mosfet on his mobo at once, and by some miracle it didnt kill the cpu ... and he ended up dropping over 600$ on new parts to rebuild his box .. all because he chainsmoked in front of his puter all day long, and it clogged the fan in it all up.

ive been using the same enermax 431w for 2 1/2 years now, not one problem. dont know that i really trust the antec psu's ... just havent heard good things about them.

 

I'm thinking it was the power supply, as I took it out to wire up the fans to 12v to keep it as cool as possible and it stopped working... I suppose I burnt it out. I'm going to get a new one and make my best effort to preserve the warranty.

 

You'd be surprised at how much difference a proper PSU can make. I was having all kinds of crashing and instability issues with the Antec PSU that came with my case of my old P4 system. I'd become resigned to live with it when I bought a swate Enermax 550w PSU (more because it was pretty then for any other reason) and low and behold, my computer became well behaved and docile, like a kitten. Hehe, sometimes the best solution is the one you stumble into,

Perp