Computer goes off and on again by itself, reboots

In continuation to my first posting.
hi, thanks for the support.
Its four and a half years old, my computer

I fllowed you what you suggested unchecked the automatically restart, and I also gave my computer a thorough clean up as some suggested, it went off again but this time left the following message:

Error message
A problem has been detected and windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL.

If this is the first time you?ve seen this stop error screen, restart your computer. If this screen appears again, fellow these steps.

Check to make sure any new hardware or software is properly installed. If this is a new installation ask your hardware or software manufacturer for any windows update you might need.

If problem continue, disable or remove any newly installed hardware or software. Disable BIOS memory options such as caching or shadowing. If you need to use Safe mode to remove or disable components, restart your computer, press F8 to select advanced start up options, and then select safe mode.
Technical information:

Stop: 0x0000000A, (0x00000054, 00000002, 0x00000001, 0804DBC8E).
Beginning dump of physical memory,
Physical memory dump complete.
Contact your system administrator or technical support group for further assistance.

P.S. no hardware has been fitted no any software been installed.

There are many possibilities,drivers,hardware,heat,....

You can eliminate heat as a possibility.Check for dust and if fan is working.

Does this occur when computer is on for a long time or when you boot up?

Check this LINK

Tom

this error can be caused by drivers or the BIOS but because windows did not report the name of a driver it must be BIOS. I don't think it is a virus anymore as i posted earlier.

you have an electrical problem with your computer. either a fan has stopped turning and the computer is overheating, or your power supply has gone bad.

before you open you case, try running the BIOS program. As the computer is turning on, before windows starts, peck the delete key DEL a few times.

in the BIOS menus you will be able to check fan speeds, temperatures, and power supply voltages. usually problems are highlighted in red.

good luck

Hi, thanks for your support,
The fan is working fine I checked it, but does that mean that the power supply box is functioning properly as well, or are they not necessarly connected?, most probably your right about the assumption of having an electrical problem, I shall change the power supply box and see what happens.
If it is not the power supply box, what is the other probability?

This might help to diagnosing the problem,

I turned my computer on at 8:30am and kept it on till 4;30pm(16:30)
I did not connect to the internet nor opened any program, the computer did not reboot, it went on so smoothly, but when I started working on a program it went back to rebooting, also when I get connected to the internet and log on to any link it went back to rebooting, I hope this might help in narrowing the possible faults.

i've been doing some more research, and am not sure it is a hardware problem any more. Some programs interoperate with the BIOS and can cause unnamed interrupts, Nero for example.

you say you crash when clicking on a link, this could be a malicious virus like infection. Did you run a complete virus scan? Windows Defender is good, and still free i believe.

In order to solve your problem, you have to isolate hardware from software. So I think you should consider erasing your partition and doing a complete re-install of windows.

Are you able to backup your data? do you have important data that needs backing up? Can you afford $60 for a new hard-drive? - you seemed ok with a new PSU.

don't give up!

geezer hi, thanks for your help and support,
Not the minute I click on a link, after a while froom logging on a link and not a particular link but any link, so it is a particular link but linking.
I did run a complete virus scan, the result no virus.
I have a hard drive 80GB a brand new one I have not used it yet, the one in my computer is 40GB, I have important data, my next question to the forum is how to get the data from one hard drive to another, as I intend to fix the 80GB soon.

1- Today I turned my computer on about 10 a.m. and logged on a program but
did not work on it, I brought a fan and placed it over the computer and let
the computer run for about 8 hours; it did not reboot went on perfectly, but when I switched the fan off, it went back to rebooting, so
one would think the rebooting was the result of over heating, 2- so I fixd an
auxialary fan inside the computer as to boost cooling, to my surprise no
effect it went back to rebooting, the outside fan was off. I think that makes
things more complicated.

first you must disconnect your 40GB drive as soon as possible. It is only a matter of time before one of these reboots causes a disk problem and you will lose your data.

reinstall windows on the 80GB - then you can start messing around with fans etc. without the potential for data loss. I hope you have a boot disk and product key.

when it works you can re-attach the 40GB as a slave and copy your data

fans redirect air, but sometimes thats a bad thing.

Geezer hi,
I placed the 80GB hard drive, still the same, it reboots by itself, now we can tell that the fault is not from the hard drive, nor the result of over heating, or a software, but where does that leave us, propably with the power supply box, what do you think?
Adnan

whew! well i feel better knowing your data is safe.
and we have eliminated software from consideration

yes, new PSU maybe get one 50Watts more than your old 1.
i really like the winsis brand

if that doesn't work, Your external fan experiment makes me think that overheating is still possible cause.

after that, i think it would be advisable to call a computer repair guy before i would spend money.

well i'm off on honeymoon so i will be away for a while good luck!

A happy marriage and enjoy your honey moon

Full Transfer Using Copy-Paste

The free way is the better way, in my opinion. This method involves the use of the common copy and paste routine of Windows. First, you must install the new drive. Temporarily install it as a slave to the old drive.

1. Set up the new drive as drive D:, or whatever your slave drive should be. Partition and format the new drive just like normal. In order to use this method of file transfer, the partitions on the new target drive have to be the same sizr or larger than the source drive. More simply, there must be enough space on the target drive to hold the data you are trying to transfer to it. Also, the partitions must be mapped similarly to the old drive. This is because we will be transferring each partition's content to the target drive, into the drive partition that will have the same drive letter once the old drive is removed.
For example, let say the old drive has a C, D and E partition setup. The C drive contains the operating system. When you partition the new drive, create at least three partitions to correspond to the C, D, and E partitions on the old drive. The sizes of the partitions to not need to be equal, as long as each new partition is large enough to accomodate the data of the source partition. Once the new drive is installed as a slave, the three partitions we are concerned with will be mapped F, G and H. Once the old drive is removed, F will become C, G will become D, and so on. The layout of the files across the partitions must remain the same in order to maintain the integrity of your Windows registry and shortcuts.
2. In Windows Explorer, choose View/Options. Select Show All Files. Deselect "Hide MS-DOS file extensions for the file types that are registered". Click OK.
3. Go to the root directory of the C: drive and select all files and sub-directories. You can do this by doing Edit/Select All. On many systems, one will run into problems if the Windows swap file is selected. For this reason, you may want to deselect the Windows directory for now, copying everything to the F drive (using the above example) except for the WINDOWS directory. If you originally set up Windows to have the swap file in another partition, you don't need to worry about it.
4. Select the F: drive, or the letter of your new drive's primary partition. Click the Paste icon in the toolbar. You can also choose Edit/Paste or type CTRL-V. The file transfer will take place, and may take awhile depending on the size of the drive transferred.
5. If you have not copied the WINDOWS directory over yet, we will do so now. Switch to the WINDOWS directory. Select all files and directories except for Win386.swp (pagefile.sys in NT-based operating systems, including 2000 and XP), then proceed to paste the other files to the new drive. This will transfer all of the Windows OS files to the target drive while leaving the swap file alone.
6. Repeat this copy-paste procedure for any remaining data partitions you may have.
7. Install the Windows system files to the new drive by going to the MS-DOS prompt and typing SYS D: at the C> prompt.
8. Exit Windows and turn off the computer.
9. Swap the cable connectors going to the drives. Change the jumper settings to make the new drive master. you can make your old drive the slave if you wish to use it as a backup of your old setup. Reboot. The system should work normally, with your new drive fulfilling the same role as the old drive. If not, your old drive is still completely intact and can be used to get the system back in operation.

Using the Old Drive as Data Backup

In situations where you have upgraded the operating systemor re-installed it, you can still use your old drive as a source for your data file by attaching it as a slave to the master. First, re-install all of your software on your fresh operating system. Tweak the settings as you want them. Then, you can install your old drive as a slave to the new drive. After doing this, you will have several new drive letters available to you in Windows Explorer. You can then navigate the directories of your old drive and copy/paste individual data files (like your documents, MP3s, accounting files, etc.) from the old location to the data directories of the re-installed applications under the new operating system.

In this way, you can easily get your data files into a completely new system configuration, without necessarily having to go through the hassle of burning all of your data to CD-Rs or something of that sort.

Thank you very much for such a very explicit information, I shall go through it step by step and inform you of how successful or unsuccessful I get.

Probably as you explained that the suggested process to transfer the data is much easier than using the CD, i.e. to write all the data on a CD and then download them on the new HardDrive. I did try the CD before, but it was such a a long and tiring process.

Thanks
Adnan