Random reboots when attempting to game or watching video at length

Hi,

I am experiencing random reboots atm. This started yesterday and only seems to occur when I start up a game or watch any video at length. The system is fickle and will sometimes reboot constantly whenever right after windows starts up and I log in. One time after a forced shut down I came back to an error reading "Reboot and select proper boot device or insert boot media in selected". I went into bios and found that the hard drive was not detectable as a boot up device nor was it shown in another screen listing IDE /SATA devices. After opening the box, checking the cables and rebooting the machine everything was working again. It's a seagate barracuda and I downloaded SeaTools to try and diagnose the problem but although the harddrive shows up in the bios' boot sequence screen now, there is still nothing being reported in the IDE/SATA device screen and SeaTools does not detect my hard drive at all. I've had a suspicion that the hard drive was going to fail soon, it makes 3 loud clicks just before the system shuts down. I do not have a spare drive to test my suspicions atm but I do have a WD caviar blue on the way.

The thing is it's been clicking like this for almost a year now and although it might be the hard drive I can't be 100% sure. Can anyone else help me determine what exacltly is causing these unexpected reboots to occur?

My sincere thanks,

No DMP included...


We do need the DMP file as it contains the only record of the sequence of events leading up to the crash, what drivers were loaded, and what was responsible.

Please attach the DMP files to your next post not to post one.

If you are overclocking STOP

You may be able to get the DMP files without crashing by booting into safe mode (F8) with networking.

To enable us to assist you with your computer's BSOD symptoms, upload the contents of your "\Windows\Minidump" folder.

The procedure:

* Copy the contents of \Windows\Minidump to another (temporary) location somewhere on your machine.
* Zip up the copy.
* Attach the ZIP archive to your post using the "paperclip" (file attachments) button.
*If the files are too large please upload them to a file sharing service like "Rapidshare" and put a link to them in your reply.

To ensure minidumps are enabled:

* Go to Start, in the Search Box type: sysdm.cpl, press Enter.
* Under the Advanced tab, click on the Startup and Recovery Settings... button.
* Ensure that Automatically restart is unchecked.
* Under the Write Debugging Information header select Small memory dump (256 kB) in the dropdown box (the 256kb varies).
* Ensure that the Small Dump Directory is listed as %systemroot%\Minidump.
* OK your way out.
* Reboot if changes have been made.

Hi JMH,

Thanks for the response. I've enabled small memory dump and am trying to recreate the crash right now.

A pleasure.

We await the DMP's when convenient.

I can not replicate the crash... which is good news I suppose but still leaves me worried about what underlying problem is there. Thanks for the concern. I will make another thread in the future if this problem comes back.

OK.
Hope all goes well.
Good luck!