Vista freeze then shutdown.

My grandad is having computer issues. He's running vista, not a top of the range gaming computer it decent enough. It will load up fine, can go on the internet but it keeps freezing and then restarting itself.

Any ideas on what this could be?

 

Is this a laptop or a desktop? We need a lot more information before we can give a semi-accurate diagnosis. >_<

Has the computer been cleaned recently? Too much dust can prevent decent airflow (causing excessive heat/restarts).

What sort of specs are we talking about for the computer? Does he have an anti-virus running on the computer?

We're missing a lot of information here mate.

 

Vista is honestly one of the worst Operating Systems ever made, you should see about upgrading your grandad's computer to Windows 7 if you can.

Open up command prompt

Type - sfc /scannow

Let that run.

 

6gig ram, will be a basic graphics card, not sure on the processor, can get full info Friday, my main curiosity is, is it more likely a hardware or software problem?

 

The exact specs will be useful to know. Although if only crashes when you open up IE then it sounds like a software issue.

 

Not just ie, anything. I've ran in safe mode for over an hour which is swaying me to software. But as he mainly uses it for internet he explains the issue as when hes on the internet. I was on there and right clicked on a program to close it on the taskbar and it froze for me.

I plan to upgrade him to Windows 7 on Friday/Saturday but if its a hardware issue id prefer to wait until I fix it.

 

Just slap Windows XP on it, will be stable enough.

Also open it up and check all the connections and blow a hairdryer in there for the dust.

 

XP will unsupported around this time next year. Plus not all computers today will support or have the drivers for XP.

@OP Did you try the cmd command I posted?

 

Just looking for opinions atm, I won't have access to the computer until friday.

 

I would just save everything important on a portable HD, then proceed to do a complete factory restore. If that fails and it still freezes up afterwards, you know its a hardware issue.

 

This should be the problem. I've seen millions of computers with this exact problem and usually that's the issue.

There are other things that may be the problem:

Failing hard drive, Corrupt BIOS; if it blue screens, possible memory error.

 

Harddrive was replaced ~6 months ago, it's only blue screened once in the 5 times its crashed on me. Just freezes for about 30 secs, black screen, restarts.

Going to get a can of air to give it a good clean on friday.

So, what are the chances of upgrading to Windows 7 fixing this issue? Ofc It will also be getting a nice clean out (I do this every 6ish months).

 

Ummmm, it could very well be a failing harddrive even if you just replaced it 6 months ago. Improper reads will force a dump/restart if it can't find the proper items. You would need to run a full diagnostic on the computer to give us a better idea. I believe I compiled a list of diagnostic tools you can run somewhere in this subsection. Try http://www.hwinfo.com/ - this should give you temperature readouts for everything. You should also look into (I forget the bootdisk program which can help/diagnose computer problems - has drivers - etc... I'll post it here when I find it/remember it). Also, see if dxdiag can give us anymore information.

I wouldn't suggest just upgrading to Windows 7, I would say save important documents - run them through a heavy-duty virus scanner, and then format the computer/reinstall it.

The chances of it being hardware vs. software is about 50/50. Since we don't have a clear image of WHY it's crashing. I personally am leaning more towards hardware since it crashes when any program is opened.

HOWEVER, a very malignant virus could also do this to the computer. If a program is opened while the virus is running it will shut down the program (or freeze it in this case) and then restart the computer. You said you ran it in safe mode for an hour without a problem - that's possibly because safe mode only opens vital programs while in that mode (ie: the O.S., the clock, and a network connection)... If I remember correctly. Anything else is prevented from starting. Try opening an antivirus program in safemode and running it. I would suggest AVG/Malwarebytes - but that's my personal opinion.