hp pavillion a6235x automatically restarts

i just got this newish computer from my older cousin who upgraded his computer and i got this one in perfect condition exept it had no hard drive so i just swapped in my old maxtor hdd (8gb) until i can get a bigger one and it worked fine for a while and one day when i was playing bejeweled blitz (on ridiculously high graphix settings because i could) it restarted when i tried to put it in full screen it restarted and this continued with a few other games (civ 4, the elder scrolls 3, the sims 2) they all restarted the computer when they opened (also i freshly installed xp home sp2 on it with all the newest drivers i could find foor the computer and latest directx) and WMP 11,10, and 9 would all restert it if i had i song playing and the visualisations on and i tried to move the player or any other window full screen video did the same thing please help!?

i already have an idea of what is up i have narrowed it down to 3 possibilties but i want a professionals opinion

computer specs: pre built (mostly excluding my maxtor 90872u2 hdd) hp pavillion a6235x
amd athlon 64 x2 dualcore processor 6000+
ati radeon hd2400 pro
windoze xpee home sp3

any other info i will gladly provide

Hi, install newest driver for your Ati Radeon.

If you still have same problem, try to change graphic card because it's dead.

new develpement i think it may not be the graphics card because the computer has an onboard graphics so i took out the card and i used that and it worked fine un til ttoday it wouldn't turn on at all i mean it would power on but not POST so i think problem lies elswhere? (i had newest driver for it that was the first thing i did lol... im sorta learning to be a computer repair guy so this is great help for me

Hi, as first, did you installed Media Codecs ? You can find KLite Codec Pack for free on Filehippo.com

Did you tried to reset BIOS to Default ? Also, are you using external HDD ?
8 Gb is nothing.. so low, you should change it.

all i had for a hard drive( like i said old hard disk) no, not an external hdd also bios default: yes
codecs? i didn't bother with em because vlc has all the codecs i use anyway(i use them on my moms pc cause dhe dont know hoe to do it and i f im not aroude then she is outta luck...)

Let's try with codecs. Just download and install KLite and install it, and try to play movie in your player.

====
If i didn't help you, your graphic card is near dying. I can not help you with that, ask someone in nearest PC Shop for help.

i thought it was dying i just needed an opinion thanks for the help (i freecycle computers anyway finding another pci-e graphics card wont be difficult for me) sorry for wasting your time

I never waste my time Do not worry, we are always here for help. I hope you'll change it fast, PCI-Express is standard for 21th century, just visit PC Shop

lol i said ---->freecycler <----- i take free junk lol

Oh, okay My bad

HAHAHA! i think i have it figured out. this morning when i woke up i tried to turn my laptop on and it would for about 3 seconds and eventually i deduced it was overheating cpu so i take out my trusty thermal conductive pads and add another to the prcessor and it starts then it hits me i remove the fans from the cpu/gpu and lo and behold NO THERMAL COMPOUND of anysort so a iadd some and it works fine ... for a while... so i look it up and the lockups and spontanious restarts/shutdowns and the failure to boot is most likely one of the most over looked issues with computers the psu so my friend has one that he will let me try in my computer later this weekend (oh and i have a slightly larger hdd in my pc now a humongous!*sarcasm* 20 gb hdd)

Thanks for info

well... i have new info on this... i got a new power supply 500w and i replace the other one... and this solves the spontanious restarts and and failure to boot... but now i have a persisting problem... the computer locks up randomly... at anytime... sometimes at POST or loading an OS installer or loading the OS (also that 20 gig hdd died so im back at to the 8 gig)
i am now wondering again what this may be...i know everything on the computer works flawlessly as i have tested them in other systems



thanks in advance for any input you may have - Xald

New HDD my friend, you need new HDD.

Not to sound un appreciative of the assistance but i have tried it without an HDD and with different combinations of parts... i fear that something is toast on the MoBo

Hmm, try to Install new copy of Windows XP.

feel so dumb now... i never payed attention to anything on it... i replaced the power supply and that fixed the failure to boot... and the spontanious restarts... and the freezing... cause no i realise its not FREEZING its only a MEGA hang of the processor(i do mean mega... it takes 15-30 secs to turn num lock on/off...)
also i had been trying to install windows... repeatedly... for the last little while but the constant hanging made it well impossible...
i hope this recent and quite delayed info helps if i dont figure it out soon

Took out CPU and clean it, use thermal paste on it and carefully put it back, you have to be sure that all pins are okay! Also, the CPU should lie down easy. Try to check BIOS settings again, and set it to defaults. Also, i suggest you to remove that HDD with 8 Gb, Operating System really need a much more space for normally work!

yeah so i took the CPU out and cleaned it and the socket but i didn't have anythermal paste so i'll go pick some up at some point this week... i know this problem is something that is either easy or something im over looking...
or maybe im just wasting my time...

I just can't figure what is problem. It suppose to work nice, after all you have done, it should work! Btw, as you said, it's maybe motherboard issue, but i don't think so, because you can run computer. Or you just have some damaged components on motherboard. Maybe, try to change RAM memory, i don't have idea.

Errors generated by the software program may cause the computer to restart unexpectedly or without warning. If you are running Windows XP see the "For Windows XP users" section below before continuing.

thread necromancy, my friend, that computer is now parts used throughout my other computers and friends computers

you all might hate me, but i want people who see this to know that i know what the problem was, and i have used this in several other problem's instances
the RAM ALL 4 modules were no good causing the computer to randomly freeze, the same thing happened with 2 other computers with different RAM and when i removed the faulty sticks and replaced them, no random freezes or random restarts
again, sorry for bumping a 2 year old thread.... but i figured this might help someone else
-seth