computer keeps restarting

[pretty2tuff]

hi, my brother told me that his computer suddenly keeps restarting out of nowhere.. like right before that screen where you login, and i've tried getting to the desktop by safe mode, last config that worked, or normal it just restarts every single time! i don't even know why it happens, i doubt there's anything loose inside the comp because it was working fine before..? but i have a usb-to-ide and i can take out the harddrive and i want to back up the harddrive on my laptop if there isn't anything i can do... i really don't want to lose my files.. can anyone help please? ok thanks http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

[Small Shoe Magoo]

Wow, this happened to me a long time ago and guestolo/josetann, I can't remember who (sorry) narrowed it down to either the motherboard or the cpu. I didn't really want to spend money on either at the moment so I just decided to try a new HD. That worked fine. The installation went by easily, while on the other it would always blue screen during. I formatted the old HD and that's working well now too. It was very annoying.

[pretty2tuff]

ohhh ok ya... i think it is the motherboard or the cpu, because the hdd looks fine in the usb enclosure... i got that computer in 2004... does that mean i'd need a new one? http://images.thetechguide.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/sad.gif\' class=\'bbc_emoticon\' alt=\'\' />

[quote name=\'Matthew.\' post=\'441261\' date=\'Aug 26 2008, 08:57 PM\']Wow, this happened to me a long time ago and guestolo/josetann, I can't remember who (sorry) narrowed it down to either the motherboard or the cpu. I didn't really want to spend money on either at the moment so I just decided to try a new HD. That worked fine. The installation went by easily, while on the other it would always blue screen during. I formatted the old HD and that's working well now too. It was very annoying.[/quote]

[Small Shoe Magoo]

Probably not. It wasn't my HD persay, I'm guessing it was a corruped system file for windows. Wait for guestolo.

[guestolo]

Not sure if I quite understand, can you boot to Safe mode all the time?

[pretty2tuff]

well i can choose the option, but when it does, and before it goes to the desktop, it restarts all over again so i can't do anything...

[quote name=\'guestolo\' post=\'441610\' date=\'Sep 1 2008, 09:55 AM\']Not sure if I quite understand, can you boot to Safe mode all the time?[/quote]

[guestolo]

Not sure if it's Hardware of software, are you able to boot computer with a Live distro of Linux

Such as Knoppix for eg..