Workstation restarts randomly - no BSOD - temperature/power supply problem?

Question

I have a high-end dual CPU workstation that has started rebooting itself several times per day. It has no history of doing this - it just started in the last few days. It hasn't had any hardware updates, or even had the case opened recently.

There is no blue screen/STOP error and nothing in the Windows logs to indicate a software/OS error. There is no "your computer recovered from a serious error" message or prompt to start in safe mode.

The only pattern is that the restarts increase in frequency through the day; maybe staying up for a few hours to begin with, then restarting every few minutes at the end of the day.

So I am thinking its some hardware part wearing out, and the increasing frequency leads me to think its temperature related.

So, if I was to start swapping parts out, what should I start with, i.e. the most likely culprit?

Answer 1

My wife's laptop had a similar issue recently. We opened it up and reseated all of the cards and cables. That fixed it.

Open the computer, pull out a cable and put it back in again, then do the same with every other cable and card and memory stick. Also give it a gentle vacuum or dusting while you're in there.

Answer 2

Turned out it was blown capacitors on the motherboard and/or in the power supply. Good description of the issue here.

Answer 3

Sometimes...... If a PC reboots itself and does not go into the blue screen or BSOD even though the OS is set up to display the BSOD, it may mean the power supply is failing. In other words, the PSU does maintain the proper voltages in order to maintain the system long enough for the BSOD to post.