Strange happenings with computer

For the last week my computer has been rebooting its self around 10:30 at night.
I have a pentium 3 550mhz processer am running windozes 98se my virus scanner is avg and is updated every 2 days. I have run a trojan scanner, swat it and adaware. I also have norton utilities which I run on a regular schedule. Nothing has been found by these programs and I was wondering if anyone else has had this problem and if so what they did to correct it. My firewall does not show any strange programs trying to access the net nor any unusual hits.
What happens is it shuts down everything the monitor goes black the power shuts off and then it goes through the start up mode and right now I am the only one using this computer I havent played with any of the settings or downloaded anything.
Any ideas on how to stop this because it is driving me nuts.

Some mobos if they sense components such as the cpu are overheating will shut themselves down. Dont know if this is necessarily is your case but its always nice to go on a little cleaning frenzy with your computer. The first thing i would reccommend doing is checking out all of your fans. If they are caked with lint dust take a vaccuum to them first and then wipe them down with a tissue (i take my fans out of the case and use a damp tissue to clean em) Do the same thing for your CPU fan if it is caked in gunk. This will increase cooling efficiency. And it might solve your problem. You have tried virus scans etc and they have revealed no bad programs so im leaning towards overheating.

PeacE
-BoB

Do you have any scheduled application or tasks?

I do seem to remember having something like that with Me...................I believe the "hibernate" feature can be a problem with 98/Me, but cannot remember the circumstances.

The overheating suggestion is a good starting place though.

Also go into Control Panel and Power Options Properties: set "power scheme" to "Always on" and "System Standby" to "never" (you might have to get to this via "Display Properties"/Energy saving properties of monitor with your OS). Whilst you are in "Display Properties" set "Screen Saver" to "none"

I would then re-boot and go into "setup" and see what your BIOS settings are for "advanced power management" or whatever it calls it. Try turning this feature off.

Hope this helps

EDIT: sorry about that, I have just moved house and can't find anything :D

I have just found and activated a P1/133 that boots 98se. What I should have told you (the above is for Me not 98):

The control panel icon is called "Power Management"...you get a pop-up called "Power Management Properties"

Set "Power Schemes" to "always on" and the "Turn off Monitor" and "Turn off Hard Disks" to "never" REMEMBER TO CLICK "APPLY" before you ok out of it. Then go check your BIOS settings.

I think that the default scheme is home/office desk which will shut things down after a while. Just touching the mouse or even a slight vibration can cause it to fire up again, which may make it look like it is doing it on its own.

Not sure how this has happened. Does anyone else use your machine or is it connected to a LAN? Or, has your usage pattern changed over the last week?

Just a tought: maybe you're looking in the wrong direction.

Could there be a spike on your power-outlet on that time? For instance, do you share an outlet with something like a washing machine that's turned on at night? Something else hefty?

I would think it to be some sort of hardware problem possibly, I've got hardware problem, My mouse and keyboard stop working entirely, its like theyre not even plugged in. It happens almost totally randomly, but mostly when my monitor goes into power saving. Anyone ever had that problem?

Are you on a back up power/surge protector. If not look to see if anything else goes on that uses a lot of amps, in your house. Easest way is to turn on TV and see if picture dims at that time. If you have power/surge on line. It could be your power supply is going. It may be that is the time it gets to cool down and or heat up.

Guus........that is a good thought....I have had stuff to prevent it for so long, I had forgotten it as an an option. However, if they cancel power management witin windoze and BIOS, we will narrow the cause down?

prost, skol, a votre sante, cheers or whatever :p

Thanks folks for your responses as for a power spike I am on a good surge protector and there is nothing on in the house at that time of night other then the tv and a couple of lights. As for the options in the control panel I checked these and they are set for power schemes always on same as monitor and harddrive. As for anyone else using the computer no my daughter has been at camp all summer and my husband cannt even turn on the computer. My computer is all by its lonesome with only me to talk to it. I am also on dial up, but this has happened even when I am not on line. So I guess I will have to try the cleaning sugestion to see if that helps other than it rebooting its self the computer works fine no real crashes or freezes so I guess I am lucky in that way. But thanks I will let you know how the cleaning goes when I do it tomorrow.

If you have extra power supply try swapping it and see how it goes. Or check your power supply, if this helps

hmm..I was wondering...why would it reboot at around 10:30 every day if it was just something to do with overheating or power spikes?The only way that'd be possible was that if he had the computer on for almost the same time every day..if he doesnt it sounds like a software prob to me...sure you dont have something in your scheduled tasks?

Errrrr,

This is rather an old thread? you can tell that because the date at the top is flashing ;) Generally it is not a good idea to add stuff to old threads, even though a lot of them seem to be "hanging there" without a resolution. I am afraid that some people never get back and tell you what the solution was :)

therenegade, your question is quite valid in my opinion, as you are asking about suggested solutions.

So, I will try to suggest a few possible answers. You will have noticed that the event is at 10.30 at night?

1.People are creatures of habit. They tend to follow set behavioural patterns, so at some time in the evening the computer gets turned on. This is probably the same time, home from school, after evening meal, and so on? It follows, therefore that if a machine is overheating slightly it will reach a critical temperature at around the same time. This is particularly true if something like central heating (I noticed that you are from India :) ) cuts in at a set time to warm the house for the night. Remember that your air cooling systems will only work relatively to the ambient (air) temperature? Also this is a married lady with a child, homemakers are one of the most likely groups to have a set behavioural pattern out of necessity?

2. A lot of houses have devices that operate on timers, and that will create a power spike when they start up. Also you may be on the same supply as a bakery or some other commercial user that powers up their equipment at a certain time. Finally the electricity generating company will have a schedule of planned maintenance and turn generators on and off. Frequently at the same time? They work shifts..............

3. I did suggest the problems that can be caused by software that manages power supply. Scheduled tasks could be an answer, but you might remember that you had set it up? and if it failed, you should get an error message, or at least notice that it had not worked?

Please do not take this reply as criticism in any way.

Until I joined AO, I had very little experience of trying to support people remotely without at least voice contact.........I have learned a lot, just from that experience.

I hope that I have answered your question

Sorry about not replying before the problem with my computer was that the hard drive was dieing. I had to replace it in Nov and my computer doctor told me that it was a problem of overheating that was shutting down the system. ;)

Hi lostit44,

Many thanks for the update, I was afraid that might be the problem.

I don't know what your "doctor" dispensed, but I would recommend that you get an exhaust fan. These are high volume flat fans that take up one of the expansion slots at the back of you computer (PCI/ISA). They cost around $5-10 and will shift 40-50 cubic feet of air a minute out of your machine. I install them as standard in any machine I build or refurbish.

When I build a new machine with two hard drives I use HDD coolers. It is a mounting with (usually) three small fans at the front that suck cool air in, and blows it over the drives. A build up of hot, stale air is a real HDD killer. You fit the drive into the cooler and the whole assembly screws into the 5.25" bay.

Cheers

I just run my main comp without either of the side panels on and an ocilating fan blowing on the comp and me... heh... works for me...

Hey,

I have to keep my side panels on, I have a dog that is intrigued by anything that moves. He is insistent that it must be licked. So the extra fans Nihil recommends are difinitely the ticket here. No telling what might happen if I get a big ole slobbery tongue on the CPU Fan.. :eek:

cheers

One things for sure... You would have one well cooked hot dog... heh...