Maximum PC

I have an older Gateway FX400 that I use as a bench machine. I'm running Win 7 Ultimate with 4G ram. Whenever I push it a bit, it reboots. Simple use, surfing, watching videos/dvds, it's rock solid. I originally thought it was bad memory so I ran Memcheck and it came through clean. I then researched it and there were posts that said it may be heat related, so I ran BurnIn for 8 hours with nothing. I'm starting to think it's power supply related. It seems to reboot most when I have a USB drive, flash or HD inserted and in use. I was just throwing it out there so I can get some ideas.
Thanks!

What graphics card?
Do you have another PSU that you can put in there?

Look in the Event Viewer for errors in the system and application logs. This is always a good place to start your gremlin quest.

It could be the psu because they use the bare minimum to keep costs down. Be sure you can use an ATX psu or you may smoke the machine.

Nasty

I'm curious if the random rebooting is caused by a BSOD. If you right click on "Computer" -> Properties -> "Advanced System Settings" (in the left pane) -> "Startup and Recovery" Settings button, see if "Automatically Restart" is checked.

nVidia GeForce 6600

I don't have a spare of this type and I'm not sure if I want to spend the money sine it's only for a bench machine.

It is.

Here's what I get ater the reboot:

Problem signature:
Problem Event Name: BlueScreen
OS Version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.256.1
Locale ID: 1033

Additional information about the problem:
BCCode: 50
BCP1: FFFFF8A00FE96948
BCP2: 0000000000000001
BCP3: FFFFF88003BEAE79
BCP4: 0000000000000000
OS Version: 6_1_7601
Service Pack: 1_0
Product: 256_1

Files that help describe the problem:
C:\Windows\Minidump\042912-20781-01.dmp
C:\Users\Wing\AppData\Local\Temp\WER-47562-0.sysdata.xml

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C:\Windows\system32\en-US\erofflps.txt

According to this forum it may be your video driver or your video card is overheating.

http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/ ... 65107.html

Try running your pc with the side off the pc and point a house fan at it. Run whatever blue-screens the machine and see if it runs. If it does without blue screening, you have a heat problem. If it does blue-screen, it may be a bad driver install or the psu is dieing under load.

Nasty

I should've said what to do afterwards. The first thing you should do on a new install is uncheck it, because if you get a BSOD, you'll have "random restarts" if you leave it checked.

But since you found the BSOD event, no worries.

I'll try out new drivers and see if it still happens.

Turns out it was the graphics card. I tried new drivers and it rebooted even quicker when running the Windows index. I took out the card and used the onboard video and low and behold...it completed without a reboot!

Thank you all for your suggestions!

Thanks.. I am having the same problem. I will have try that this week because the overheating is killing me.