# Computer restarting itself **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 9, 2014, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173 "2014-08-09T15:53:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173/21 "2014-08-11T22:09:12Z")
You can also turn off automatic updates. When you click on the Windows Update icon, you’ll see a list of the ones it wants to install. You can deselect them and see if the problem goes away, or search to see if other people have the same problem. I don’t install updates until I’m good and ready to, since there have been problems in the past. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 11, 2014, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173/22 "2014-08-11T22:54:31Z")
I can’t speak for the OP, but on my machine, all updates except a couple of superseded security updates from the first round after purchase 2 months ago have succeeded. ---
**Author:** ![dougie\_monty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/439d5e/32.png) [@dougie\_monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dougie_monty)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173/23 "2014-08-12T16:15:54Z")
> [@DWMarch](#): > > It sounds like you have a Windows Update that is failing and causing the whole series of them to fail. Perhaps your computer is trying to install a big one like Service Pack 2. Go into Windows Update under Control Panel and check View Update History. This will show you all the updates sorted by date. However, you can also sort them by status, which will tell you which ones are failing. Please let us know which ones are coming up in here if any. I did as you suggested. Practically all of the updates that were tried since early June have failed–and as I remember, that’s about the time my Internet access (on that computer) failed. Almost all of the updates were Windows 7 stuff or some kind of Security update. As for the System Log, I still don’t know how to raise that. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173/24 "2014-08-12T16:30:17Z")
> [@dougie\_monty](#): > > As for the System Log, I still don’t know how to raise that. It’s Event Viewer, found under “Administrative Tools” in Control Panel. Run Event Viewer, select the “System” log, check only the boxes pertaining to errors, and scan though it. My experience with these kinds of crashes – if that’s what it is – is with XP but the concept is similar. When I was getting crashes from pagefile read errors arising from a disk problem, there was an entry at exactly the time of the crash, and the error text was “System Error” followed by an error code and a set of parameters. Googling the error explained what the parameters meant and helped me understand what was going on. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173/25 "2014-08-12T16:40:12Z")
> [@Askance](#): > > You can read the machine’s temperatures yourself. Try Speedfan, or CPU-Z and GPU-Z, as free apps, if you don’t have such an app already. If your computer is running hot, it will feel warm to the touch. Feel around it with the palm of your hand, you will notice any hot spots. It should not get any warmer than your modem or the AC adapter where it plugs into the wall. Athough it will probably be sightly warmer than other furniture in your house. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173/26 "2014-08-12T16:59:13Z")
I did a little poking around online and found a problem that shows as DRIVER\_IRQL\_NOT\_LESS\_OR\_EQUAL (plus a code in parentheses) on your BSD as it’s about to reboot. This is associated with 3rd party security–it shows as in issue on Kaspersky, Avast, and AVG message boards. ---
**Author:** ![Celidin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cc9497/32.png) [@Celidin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Celidin)\ **Post date:** [August 12, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173/27 "2014-08-12T17:19:53Z")
It could very well be the auto updates thing - my computer (when I had autoupdates on) liked to install the updates then reset, and if i wasn’t paying attention to the icon in the taskbar it would just go and do it without my intervention. I turned that sucker off. I recommend you do the same and see if the random resets stop. Since you’re having issues installing an update, this sounds like it could be it - the computer tries to install, then resets to finish installing, can’t, aborts then tries the whole thing again later. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/computer-restarting-itself/695173.md?page=1)