It could be a one time thing, but so far it seems to have happened twice. My friend was talking to me on aim and her computer restarted. The second time, she signed off abruptly. While she hasn't asked for my help, I think it may be time for me to get ideas as to why this is happening. After all, nerdy computer knowledge is how you impress girls... right?

Anyway, I don't know her computer specs, but I'm fairly certain she is using an ATX PC, and not a laptop. It could be many issues, but I think it could be simple overheating, because she told me the machine just randomly restarted without her control. When I see her next, and if she says yes to my help, I'll ask her to set the computer to display a BSOD.

The computer restarted while she was watching a youtube video.

I understand this is like searching for a needle in a haystack, but it is good to have preliminary ideas befo
re I continue.

You are not sure if she is using a laptop, but you are fairly certain she is using an ATX desktop? You want to impress her so you are going to ask her display a BSOD? Then you feel like you are searching for a needle in a haystack? Man, I'm overheating thinking about this Can you post a pic?

Lol, its a former classmate of mine from last year, we are both freshmen in High school...
Apparently she is using a standard PC, not a laptop, but its an old Dell. I asked her to tell me the specs, and I have:


2.8 ghz Pentium 4 processor
Intel GMA (I don't know what model, but considering its a GMA, I doubt power supply is an issue)
512 (510 if you want to be exact) Megabytes of Ram
Windows XP

And thats about it. The restarts are rare, but the computer itself seems to be very slow from what she has been telling me over Yahoo. Windows movie maker took 5 minutes to open, etc. etc.

Could just be a software issue if the thing hasnt been formated since birth, BSOD's can happen with software issues too it would also account for the machine running slow.

Heat is also up there as the 2.8 will scale back cpu speed to try to prevent overheating and eventually boom restart.

That could explain it. I haven't talked to her yet, but if she has gotten BSOD's that would explain it. I don't know if it has ever been formatted, but she said her family brought it to the computer repair shop (so, I'm guessing they took the computer, smacked it a few times, claimed it was a software issue, and then installed several viruses to make it look like something is broken, told them extra money to format it is needed, and then didn't do it ). Nevertheless, I do think that the system is just old, and probably needs at least a defragmentation done. Of course, before I could tell her how to do it, she signed off (probably due to computer crash again). I'll talk to her today if I can.