i suck with technical issues, help please

[Deadly Tek]

well i am on a shitty computer, with 2 shitty hard drives, a shitty processor, a shity cd burner, you get the point. as shitty as it is, it works well for photoshop, which is all i care about. however about a month ago i downloaded teamspeak for my god linkshell on Final Fantasy 11. after installing it, i connected to the server, and boom, computer restarts. all cords are securly fastened both inside and outside of my computer. during the start up after this sudden restart, i get stuck at the windows loading screen. after many tries, and many failures, i re-installed windows since i was told it sounds like something happened to my OS. however the same problem still happens. once out of every 10 tries (on a lucky day) my computer will actually load windows and work fine. can anyone diagnose this problem? my only guess would be that the boot files on my Harddrive are messed up or sumthing, like i said im half decent with graphics, but dont know anything about any technical issues. THanks in advanced

(EDIT: dont feel like changing all the curses lol, Cake = Sh i tt y

[H2O.pry0r]

My guess would be to reformat or try using a Windows CD to go in to the recovery console. Reformatting should fix it. I've had the same issue except I was never able to get in to Windows at all. A single reformat fixed it all for me :)

[Deadly Tek]

i have tried both of your suggestions back when the issue first arose and neither worked :(

[H2O Fate]

download the service packs onto spare disks, disconnect from the internet completely reformat your computer *so you basically start with a clean slate and basic windows*, install the service packs from the cds and then go from there.

[Deadly Tek]

ok im gonna give that a try tonight. would me having a window disc that i bought just 3 months ago matter? being that it comes standard as SP2?

[H2O Fate]

yeah actually thats alot better. just reformat completely with your internet on standbye or disconnected. then sign on after your firewall is up and running.

I could list a few products but i'm not sure if that would be advertising or not so i'm just going to leave it at that.

[Kal-El]

I occasionally have a problem with my computer rebooting. the crash apparently is caused by my onboard sound card doing something it's not supposed to or can't. Unfortunately there's no update available yet for it. Luckily it only happens on certain games. Those games happen to be games I don't particularly like anyways, so no harm done. :D

Maybe it's your sound card that's causing the problem. Wouldn't be surprised since it happened when you tried to use teamspeak. Looking into updates for drivers is never a bad idea, even if it's not the cause of your problem.

[H2O.pry0r]

I occasionally have a problem with my computer rebooting. the crash apparently is caused by my onboard sound card doing something it's not supposed to or can't. Unfortunately there's no update available yet for it. Luckily it only happens on certain games. Those games happen to be games I don't particularly like anyways, so no harm done. :D

Maybe it's your sound card that's causing the problem. Wouldn't be surprised since it happened when you tried to use teamspeak. Looking into updates for drivers is never a bad idea, even if it's not the cause of your problem.

That's actually a good idea. I've had that happen before. I never thought about it though.

[Gun Monkey]

Creative has had issues with instability in the past. However, if you have completely reformatted, and the problem persists, it may be hardware related. It does happen that cables can become unplugged, even by moving your computer.

Sata cables are especially notorious for this, since they don't have a clip system. I would have someone you trust (with a static wrist strap) look over your cables to make sure they all have a firm contact.

Also, this can be a cause of bad/faulty memory. You can load Memtest86 (a free program that you can get on the net) onto a bootable floppy or CD, and have a go with that. Occassionally power supplies go out, but you will either need to swap the power supply out to test that, or find someone with a powersupply tester.

Before you take it to a computer repair store, however, keep in mind that repairs are $70 - $100 per hour, with a one hour minimum service fee, and that if you have a proprietary computer (dell, HP, gateway) it may require prorietary replacement parts that cost far more than they should.