What do you think my power problem is?

[Neofight]

First post. Appreciate all the knowledge on these boards.
My rig: (Go ahead and laugh. I can take it.)

Athlon XP 1800
MSI KT3 Ultra mobo
MSI GeForce Ti4200 video
768 mb Ram
HD1 Maxtor 30 gb
HD2 Maxtor 40 gb
Connected to APC UPS

No new compnents for about one year. Problem is the box will suddenly reboot as if I had flashed the power button off then on again quickly. No blue screen, just power off then instant reboot. Happens with only one app running, most often when my son is playing Toontown online ( I think it is a java based game graphically but I'm not sure.) Has happened with just web browsing also but only once. It has been suggested to me elsewhere that the problem is dead/dying capacitors on my mobo. Any thoughts are welcome. Thanks.


EDIT: Freaky. Happened just after I posted this. My machine out to get me?

 

[jaguarskx]

It could be a few problems.

Open up the case and clean out any dust; dust can block airflow. This includes dust on the CPU's heatsink. A mini-vacumm would be best, but an aircan is an alternative; not as good though since it can blow dust into places that you can get to easily. Clean out the dust blocking the power supply grills as well. DO NOT use an aircan to blow dust into the PSU!!. If you don't have a mini-vac, then use tweasers to pull the dust off the grill. Too much dust can cause heat to build up which can force the PC to reboot.

Clean up the Windows Registry. If you have Norton Systemworks, then use Norton WinDoctor. If not, download this free Registry cleaner. Uninstalling any un-used programs as well.

If these two solution do not work, then the PSU may be the problem, but do what I suggested above before throwing money at your problem.

 

[Neofight]

Thanks jaguar. Here is an interesting one. It happened twice while running the registry cleaning prgram, both times just after completing the "file paths and history lists" step. For now I will just get in the box and clean it and see if that helps. I am a bit worried that I will experience a HD failure with all this happening.

 

[paztelu]

Well my simple recomendation before doing procedures that may risk your HD data is simple, Save ALL your important data. Is to better to be safe than sure The thing was that I learned this lesson the hard way

 

[Neofight]

Paz, Thanks for the rec. I do save everything critical (which ain't all that much when you think about it) to a thumb drive. I just don't want the hassle of installing a new one and all the old apps. Not too proficient with drive mirroring so I haven't tried backing up that way to my second drive.

Back to topic. Just took a much needed tour inside the box. Home vacuum with the drapery attachment worked well. Yea, I know, stupid. Took the fan off the CPU heat sink. Lets just say 3.5 years of dust on the copper heat sink fins was probably interfering a bit. Will try a few apps that have caused problems and see how it goeas.

 

[ikjadoon]

I had the same problem, except I actually had BSODs. What is the wattage on the PSU? Do this:
Right Click My Computer
Click Advanced
Click Settings under Startup and Recovery
Uncheck Automatically Restart

See if there is still a blue screen.

~Ibrahim~

 

[Neofight]

Thnks ik. Since the thorough cleaning I haven't had problems in the same apps I did before. I suspect heat was the culprit.

 

[jaguarskx]

Thnks ik. Since the thorough cleaning I haven't had problems in the same apps I did before. I suspect heat was the culprit.

Glad that resolved your problem, just remember to clean it out every year or so.