Why Does a PC Keep Rebooting on Its Own?
PC computers generally work efficiently and have no issues. However, sometimes a PC will begin to repeatedly reboot on its own. A variety of different events can occur that will cause failures and ultimately a reboot. These events can be caused by system errors, power fluctuations or overall incompatibility.
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Capacitors
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One of the major causes for PCs to reboot on their own is a motherboard problem. When a capacitor on the motherboard fails, the computer will reboot repeatedly. This is usually caused by a bad power source.
Power Surge
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A power surge can be caused by a sudden power failure. This can be caused by an electrical storm or simply the local electric company. This can cause failure of the PC and the Windows operating system. To prevent this, you should always use a heavy-duty power strip.
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Fatal Error
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Occasionally, you will encounter a fatal error that appears as a blue screen. In earlier versions of Windows, this screen stays until it is manually rebooted. However, with XP and beyond, this fatal error will cause the computer to reboot. If the error does not correct itself, the PC will continue to reboot.
Software and Drivers
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Sometimes, software incompatibility will cause a PC to reboot on its own. If a new application was installed, there may be an error. Otherwise, new hardware requires drivers that may conflict with other software.
Hardware
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Hardware issues should be noticeable the first time a computer is booted. If the wrong type of device has been installed, it will cause incompatibility issues, sometimes resulting in a reboot.
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References
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- Photo Credit Jeremy Banks; Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 License
