Hi,

I have a little problem with my computer and I was hoping somebody here could help me. (I believe this is the correct place for this but I am not entirely sure it is. Sorry if it isn’t)

Here’s what happened, I was on the internet doing nothing I don’t normally do, and all of the sudden my computer screen WENT blank and my computer reset. As windows was opening back up I noticed that it was doing so quite slowly, at least slower then it usually does. Once it opened up I went to Internet Explorer to see if I could find out maybe what happened to my computer and it took about 2 minutes to open (It usually opens right away) I tired to open some other programs thinking it might have been IE that screwed up but everything seemed to open very slowly, but they eventually did. When IE did finally open up it wouldn’t go to any web pages. The internet for this computer is hooked up by a wireless router so I went to another computer in the living room which is hooked up by the same router to see if the internet was out there as well, and it was. So after a few attempts to get it to work I had to call my ISP, and they told me what to do to fix it. They said that the modem was fine but the router wasn’t recognizing the modem. Anyway, the internet (on both computers) was FIXED and the computer that was acting funky started to run normally again.

But this is what confuses me. My internet has gone out before but my computer has never reset or acted weird because of it. But is that what happened this time? Is it even possible for that to make my computer run weird?

Or is it just an odd coincidence that the router happened to go out when my computer reset and there is something else wrong with my computer?

I have an eMachines running on Windows XP Home (SP1)
AMD Athlon XP 1788 MHz
1GB DDR Ram
Nvidia GeForce4 MX 440
60 GB HDD

The router I use is a Microsoft 802.11b wireless router

Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you.Spuz:

Possible causes:

* Power surge or brown out.  A lamp or light fixture dimming or getting brighter might indicate this.

* Power supply problem.  Either too many devices have been added to the system, or the power supply is starting to fail.  Fix: Have a computer repair shop replace the power supply with one with greater wattage.

* Dust.  Yes, dust inside the computer case can cause the system to overheat and even short out the system. Fix: Turn off the system open the case and blow the dust OUT of the case using a can of anti-static compressed air.

* Overheating.  Is the case warm to the touch?  Fix: Check the fans inside the case and the power supply (but NEVER open the power supply, as this may harm or even kill you, even if it is unplugged).  If they have stopped working replace them or replace the power supply.  Blow the dust out of the vents for the fans and out of the case.  Add more fans if NEEDED.

* Hardware device going bad and causing the system to reboot to protect the motherboard.  Have a computer repair shop figure out what device is bad, by using a multi-meter or by swapping parts out, and replace it.

* A virus may also cause the problem.  Rebooting would allow it to make changes to your system so it may do its dirty work, like stealing your credit card number, passwords, etc.  Solution: Install a good anti-virus program and keep it updated weekly.

Blessings to you,
Doc