I have been experiencing the most torrid computing problems for the past one month. My computer is roughly 4 years old, and it usually runs 24 hours a day. A month ago the SMPS /power went bust, and I got it replaced with a new device. For 10 days; everything went fine until the computer mysteriously started rebooting of its own, in the middle of work. I have dual boot windows XP SP1 and 98 and the rebooting happened with both the OS. The frequency was anything from 2 minutes to 2 hours. There was no blue screen, and no dumps, no errors since it wasn’t a crash; but it was like someone just hit the reset key. There were also couple of occasions when the computer didn’t start at all – The monitor instead of lighting up went into power saving mode and the HD light showed a hang [constant red LED indicator] state. I thought; perhaps it had got something to do with the new SMPS and I again got it replaced. Once again; I experienced no problems for 10 days; the computer was up and running 24 hours. And then, from the past 2 days I am plagued with the same problem. Computer restarts of its own without a damn explanation. The chances of any virus on my computer is very very remote; as I always use latest antivirus. Where could the problem lie………also I have noticed that the monitor power off and HD LED constant red situations have increased in frequency. I have to often switch on/off the computer multiple times to even get the computer to start.

Any help will be greatly appreciated. I hope it is not my MB because that would mean virtually replacing my entire system

Quick question: do you hear strange clicking noises just before it reboots?

one or two noises; yes but nothing more

From my experience, this strange clicking noise, which is followed by a reboot, means that there is a physical error on the surface of the HDD. Unfortunately, this is unrepairable and will only get worse as time goes on. A reformat of the drive will not fix this either, as it is a physical problem. If this is indeed the case, you'll want to get a new HDD and transfer what you can while the disk is still somewhat alive.

I would definitely get a second opinion on this topic, as some of the other symptoms you are describing have not occured when this happens (red LED).

If you have a spare HDD, try using that one and see if you are still getting the same problems. It will at least narrow down the cause. If it continues to happen with a new HDD, then you've ruled that out. If the problem ceases with the new HDD, then you've just saved yourself a world of trouble a a good chunk of money.

i cant be sure but it sound definity like a virus or spyware sum of these nasty little bugs can do that i have made a few and sent them to friends and they have sent to me real easy here stick ur windows disk in drive wait till u see booting from cd or dvd clike space bar or enter it will load the setup next on ur partioned space click d enter l it will delete the drive completly so if u can get on the pc for a few burn what u need or it will be gone forever okay after this press enter use formate ntfc or w\e it is quick formate then when it reboots it will install new windows note:if u have any windows thats not professional u will need the cd key for the windows if u dont have one u can get one of the net as well as a crack to make it genuwine so u can update it u goto www.utorrent.com download the client goto www.mininova.org im just gonna send a like to u for the right one cuz sumof em are viruses but arnt and ill give a detailed explation on how to do it then it will restart several times if it aint fixed u need a new hd but this should work.....we want quality not piece of shit hardware peace

Well, start from the top. Your hard drive is a suspect, but there are other things to look at when it comes to random restarts and shut downs. It is odd however that everything works for roughly ten days and then starts going haywire. Check in the BIOS, or using a handy program like Speedfan (http://www.almico.com/speedfan.php) and check your system temps just in case. I'd bet it's the hard drive, but better to be safe and check all possibilities. The fact that your system is on almost 24/7 will wear out a hard drive a lot faster than regular on/off use. Also, if you're adventurous, pop your case open, get some compressed air, maybe some goggles, rubber gloves, etc and start blasting some dust out and re-seat any cards you have in there, card-creep is a silent killer.