Even more so if they 500 Watt PSU is the usual split rail. The hardest part for owners is it worked OK for a time and most owners are unaware that heat and stress ages the PSU as well as dust collects on the fins.
I'd re-think the usual areas and check if the PSU is a split rail design.
Bob
My windows 7 desktop pc recently conducted a system update. The next day without warning the p.c restarted itself, this continued to occur over the next couple of days with the system running from anywhere between a few minutes to a few hours before suddenly restarting. Eventually I tired restarting in safe mode, while loading the drivers the system froze on classpnp.sys. Thinking this was a driver error the next time I rebooted I uninstalled the latest windows updates and updated my video card driver manually. The system worked for about half a day before restarting again. I can now no longer get windows to load at all and the pc restarts after 5 - 10 seconds of being powered on. I have tried removing ram / cd drive / hard drive / CPU. One at a time and all together with no success. Even with all these removed the system reboots after 5-10 seconds. I am told this should not even be possible with all those components removed possibly pointing to a power supply fault... Any input / suggestions welcome.
Computer specs :
Windows 7 x64
6 gb ram
I7 quad core processor
Asus main board
GeForce gts 450 graphics
1.5 tb hard drive
Cooler master 500w power supply
Kaspersky Internet security

Chowhound
Comic Vine
GameFAQs
GameSpot
Giant Bomb
TechRepublic