autoboot

[Jomapil]

Throughout the night, my PC always reboots and I lose what I'm doing.
My OS is WinXP with SP2. I have activated Automatic Updates. Will it be that?
How can I avoid that situation?


Thank you for your sugestions.

Cheers.

[Nelson37]

Automatic Update can cause reboots, but you would be notified of such, and they would not happen several times a night for several nights in a row.

"Always reboots" does not convey enough information. How many times in a specific time period, such as "twice an hour, every hour, for 3 hours running"? How many evenenigs has this been happening for? How long after bootup is the FIRST reboot, then how long for the second reboot?

Could be power related, (random time intervals) in which case get an APC battery backup and check the building ground, or it could be heat-related, which if it typically ran for a fairly long time on the first reboot, then if powered back on immediately would then run for shorter and shorter intervals, would be indicated. In this case, open the case, blow out the dust with compressed air and/or vacuum, and a clean paintbrush, along with checking all the fans and replace as necessary.

Or your cat could be bumping the power cord.

[Jomapil]

Thanks, Nelson.

The reboot in a night, I think it is only once. It is not every night. But lately it happens many nights. Perhaps they are the Automatic Updates but I thought the reboot was not automatic.

[guns1inger]

If you take the default auto update settings the yopu will download and install the updates at 3 am, and if any updates require a restart, the machine will automatically reboot. Better to change the auto-update settings to one that lets you decide when you install.

[redwudz]

XP SP2 shouldn't have that many updates and shouldn't need to reboot for most of them. If MS was slowly updating you to SP3, that could be it, but I doubt it. As Nelson37 mentioned, the updates should tell you when a reboot is required. I would check for other programs that may be updating and causing a reboot.

You could set the updates to manual and if you still get reboots overnight, then it's something else doing it. I shut off auto updates with Vista after it rebooted my computer once in the middle of a six hour encode and I lost it all. Now I check what it wants to update and decide if I want to let it do it. I don't want IE8 and I don't use IE mail, so I don't need those updates.

[Jomapil]

And, if I choose NOT Automatic Updates is the problem resolved?

[redwudz]

I would try turning off the automatic MS updates for about a week and see if you have the same problem. If you do, it may be something else doing it.

[Jomapil]

Thanks, Redwudz.

I'm going to try that.

[nasdravi]

Hi
If you do some heavy cpu tasks ( like encoding) then it may be an overclocking/thermal issue. Or your psu is not good enough to handle the load. Try better cooling and underclock (if overclocked).

[classfour]

Choose "Let me decide what updates to choose" or whatever that option is - and then you manually do the thing.

[Nelson37]

Seems like too many occurrences for it to be updates, but "many" is not precise enough for accuracy.

Does seem to be increasing in frequency, which is classic evidence of an impending hardware problem.

I will try AGAIN to get more information.

Does the reboot typically happen AFTER having been on for several hours?

Has the PC EVER rebooted within just a few minutes of being turned on?

Are the reboots ALWAYS After the PC has been on for a half-hour or more?

Has it ever rebooted a second time, within a fairly short time period after the first reboot?

Are you reasonably sure it has NEVER rebooted twice in one evening?

Any clocks or appliances on the same circuit which would give positive evidence of a power outage or surge?

Are you using a battery-backup unit, if so, what brand? If so, have you tested by pulling the power cord from the wall outlet?

Any sort of heavy electrical draw equipment - copier, washing machine, etc. - anywhere near this PC? Have you seen or heard this equipment turn on with no effect on the PC, more than two or three times?

Start with turning off the Automatic Updates, but I think you may have either a heat or power related problem.

[AlanHK]

I've had similar problems: once was due to a failing power supply.
Another was due to bad RAM (perhaps corroded contacts?).

In both cases replacing the hardware was cheap and effective (and enabled an upgrade while I was at it).