Why my computer freezes or auto reboot on a cold boot?

Question

I usually leave my computer 24/7 on, and once i turn off and cold boot it on another day, it will freeze after going into desktop. When it freezes, i can notice there is no more light on my optical mouse and the hard disk LED indicator also no longer light up (not blinking anymore). However, the power indicator remains light up and the monitor displays a freeze desktop screen. Thus i have no choice but to press the power button to turn off the system and turn it back on again.

After restarting, the system will auto reboot on different parts of the booting phase. Sometimes during Windows XP blue bar loading and sometimes after logging into desktop. Random auto reboots (or freezes) for a few times and then everything works well. If i continue leave it on without turning off, there is no freeze or auto reboot problem at all. Only on cold boots when the computer is off for a day or so.

What could be the problem here? Hard disk failing? Or bad caps? Motherboard failing? Power supply failing? Please help... Btw, my power supply unit is only one year old cos i had it replaced. And my system is 3 years old.

Answer 1

You've got a bad power supply. Your symptoms are classic for a failing power supply. The reason it works OK after several freezes/reboots is that the power supply is LESS efficient when it is cold. Freezing/rebooting several times gives it time to warm up to the point where your system can run stable.



But your power supply should not require a warm-up period to be stable!!! It's a shame that such a new-ish power supply is bad, but that's pretty typical for average (read: poor) quality power supplies. The average quality power supply will be reliable for about two years, maximum.



Even good power supplies go bad eventually. But a DECENT quality power supply should be OK for about five years. Since the system is 3 years old, I wouldn't suggest spending a lot of money on a replacement power supply. But you don't want junk, either. Try a Antec Earthwatts EA-430D which (last I checked) could be bought for about 45 bucks delivered off of Amazon.

Answer 2

The most likely cause is a bloated registry which has become the home for all kinds of useless bits and pieces of data. Whenever any change is made to the system settings or a program is installed or uninstalled, a new entry is generated in the registry. The operating system while running your computer has to pick its way through all this excess material. There is a multitude of useless bits and pieces to be removed.Parts of uninstalled programs,parts of incompletely installed programs,dead drivers and many other things. clean your registry and remove all the useless data fragments and no longer needed information to fix the freeze error! I should like to commend Registry Easy http://clean-up-registry-faster-pc.com to you !You can try ! Good luck!

Answer 3

Reboot PC and press the F8 key a couple of times before the Windows screen appears. Enter Safe Mode, or Safe Mode with Networking if you need network access) and download MalwareBytes from google ,Install it, update, and run a full system scan. Remove everything it finds. Next, run a full antivirus scan with something like Microsoft Security Essentials .Auslogics disk defrag and Auslogics registry cleaner are very good and fast to keep you clean and running good .all are free ,just google them.