WTF is happening to my computer?

JAEF

So for the last few months or so my computer has been randomly resetting itself. Happens maybe twice a week, been more frequent within the last 3 weeks or so. Last night it froze while loading a Half-Life 2 section. Tonight it froze up on me and did this in the middle of a game of Warcraft 3. I reset (whereupon it didn't post, another thing it's been doing) so I shut it off, waited 20 seconds, and started it up again, comp got up just fine, started Warcraft 3 again, and it happened on the main menu screen.

Any ideas?

I'm planning on building a new computer shortly but I'd still like this one to not die completely.

MoSiAc

Sounds like a heating issue. If you have a standard house fan, open the computer case and aim the fan inside and see if the computer runs any better/ has less lock ups and what not.

You may want to give the insides a good airing out if yo havent in a while, and check to make sure all the vents are clear and not blocked.

Also with that interesting screen shot your heating issue may be related to your video card in particular open the case and check the video cooling too.

This is some pretty basic help but it might get you going in the right direction

hideo

Get a new fan for your Pee Cee. Open it up and make sure all the cables are spliced together and not hanging loose like old boobies, impeding airflow. Get some compressed air in a can and give it a good clean. Get a girlfriend who loves you and not your phat rhymes. The second-last two can be done for cheep in any decent PC shop.

Mr_Rose

Yeah, something similar started happening to me lately as well. I managed to trace the fault to a fried connector in the plug-block that goes into the motherboard from the PSU. It fried because the GPU was pulling too much power during heavy load periods (ie games). So I swapped out the pitiful 280W supply for a slightly less pitiful 350W and it's been all good since.
Of course, the GPU was only pulling too much power because the other components were pulling a lot too, mostly due to clogged fans. So I cleaned that all up a the same time.

But, yeah, you should check the power connectors for singing and shit or the problem is just going to come back later.