I really need you guys to help me out. I initially owned a P3 256MB RAM running XP built by Acer. It was working fine all these years but just recently it started rebooting on its own. Checked with the hardware guy said RAM n motherboard are both fine. But I still had problems installing a fresh XP copy at times, coz my comp wud reboot. Thought my Pcs old n might have a motherboard problem so I decided to switch to AMD64 3000+ with 512MB DDR(PC3200) running in the Dual chanel mode!! it makes a world of a difference! MSI motherboard RX480 (MS-7093) ATI Radeon Xpress 200 series WinXP (32bit) However for 2 weeks it worked fine and i occasionally get teh same problem. REBOOT! it also happens during POST! I have the latest update to zone alarm.. did a full sys online scan from Trendmicro...NO virus or spyware! What do i do now? I suspect a software problem, (DC++ and IPmessenger for LAN). Uninstalled both and waiting to see how my computer responds.... but skeptical coz DC++ is widely used by ppl. the other two suspects are 1) I have a slightly rusted keyboard USB connector 2)I dont use a UPS or spikeguard If u've been reading till this point i really appreciate it thank u so much. Pls help me with this coz its really frustrating

tjkahn, could be a trojan. Be aware that a virus and a trojan are similar, but not the same. Many times, a virus scanner can detect one it can't clean , other times, it gets missed entirely. There’s an online trojan scanner @: http://www.trojanscan.com/trojanscan If it turns out that you have one and need to clean, A² can do the job and you can get it free @: http://www.majorgeeks.com/download4281.html among other places. If it turns out that you need to use it, be sure to update prior to running. HTH. Ed in Texas.

Hi:Right Click on My Computer Click Properties Select the Advanced tab Click the Settings button under Startup and Recovery Remove the check from the Automatically Restart checkbox Next time it encounters a problem, it will give you an error message rather than restarting. Write down the error message Also have you ever Tested you hard drive for a bad Sector/ Bad Cable & what about your video Card ,an Overheating Video Card /Bad Fan Can Cause your Computer To Reboot !!! Finally :are you sure a 100% that your Ram is Fine!!!!!! Also have your ever Considered using another Firewall just for Testing purpose!! Bon Courage..

If you are still using the same Power Supply, and upgraded hardware, then maybe the PS needs more output and should be replaced with one that has more watts of output. How PC Power Supplies Work

thanks a lot Ed and poweraid. Tried the trojan scan .. dint find anything. I've unchecked the auto-restart feature. About my hard drive...its a brand new Samsung 80GBSATA and a brand new motherboard which is a week old. I did check for bad sectors though dint find any. My RAM is also new but is there any test software i can use to check my RAM? Another wild possibility..... can it be that my motherboard has got short cktd coz i handled the RAM on it wihtout proper grounding? As in short skt coz of the static on my body? Really wild but i've read it somewhere on a website. Anyways... i guess i'll note down the ERROR MSG i get when my comp restarts. Thanks a lot guys.... really appreciate ur help.

Thanks Chuck I'll test the power supply. Also .. could u help me with these stop errors guys.. Firstly like all blue screens It asks me to check drivers, hardware and BIOS. It says PFN_LIST corrupt and gives a list of HEX addresses. STOP: 0x0000008E (0xBFA155DD,0xF6EA2698,0xF6EA2698,0x000000) It also named this file ati2cqag.dll (guess thats something to do with me ATI card??) which is at Adress BFA155DD base at BFA0FF000, Datestamp 423646ad What can it be guys? Really frustrated

Guys thanks... replaced the RAM! Problem solved! I guess i was twice unlucky to have encountered the same problem in both my computers ... leading me to think of a solution other than chaning RAM!!