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[Hydrogen Bluebird]

The windows 7 desktop PC our family has been using for years suddenly started restarting by itself. I tried cleaning the CPU (motherboard, video card, fans, etc.) to see if dust/dirt was causing it to overheat and restart but cleaning didn't work.

Additionally, the error message that is displayed upon recovery after a shutdown/restart lists the crash error as "blue screen".

I tried scanning for viruses but AVG didn't find any. I also deleted unused registry files and booted the desktop in safe mode but it didn't work as well.

What could be causing this autonatic restart/crash error and how can it be fixed?

 

[ghostjoke]

Does it actually display a blue screen? If so there should be a hex code that can be goggled.

For overheating, get something like speed fan and check the temps. Could be something like the headsink isn't on right. Get that as being the potential cause out of the way before anything else.

Could be part of hardware failing.

Any logic to the restart? Intensive programs being used?

Any new software install recently?

 

[Hydrogen Bluebird]

There's no actual blue screen that appears. I only see the word blue screen after a restart and the windows system error/recovery dialogue box pops up.

 

[Dictator93]

Did you make sure it is plugged in?

All joking aside though, the "blue screen" recovery lists a number for the error code. Google that and it will tell you what caused windows to stop working momentarily.

The code looks like 0x0009939393020 or something.

 

[Aureon]

There's no actual blue screen that appears. I only see the word blue screen after a restart and the windows system error/recovery dialogue box pops up.

http://www.alcpu.com/CoreTemp/
http://www.gputemp.com/
Check that, under load, both temps are reasonable. (<80 celsius)

 

[LurkerPrime]

When I had an issue with my Windows 7 computer doing scary blue screens randomly, it ended up being bad RAM. The problem began very rarely, and increased in frequency until it was happening almost daily. All of these forced shutdowns took their toll on the system files, and I had to do an integrity check or something to make sure it was all working properly. This issue also caused it to occasionally BSOD while shutting down.

I'm not saying this is necessarily your issue, instead that if you have any sort of hardware diagnostic tool now's the time to use it. Hardware diangnostics were how I ultimately discovered the cause of the problem.

 

[Cels]

have you checked event viewer for critical errors?

control panel->administrative tools->event viewer

if you've installed a windows update recently or maybe some other new software that might be the cause and a system restore could help.

it could also be your RAM. windows has a built in memory diagnostic tool that you can tell it to run the next time you start. memtest86 is a more exhaustive (and free) tool you can use to test your RAM as well.

 

[Kyuur]

If you can't get past initial boot, it's time to try switching out some parts to identify the issue if you have spares / another computer you can switch from. RAM is the first culprit I would check for, followed by hard drive.

 

[lednerg]

I use Who Crashed to help determine the causes of blue screens.

http://www.resplendence.com/whocrashed

It's free.