Gaming Computer problems driving me nuts

[InuYasha]

Where do I start? first off I have a emachine t5048 running XP,one major problem I have is sometimes my computer will reboot itself for no reason,I disabled the reboot automatically under start up and recovery options and it was still rebooting itself last night,then I thought maybe its a heat issue(might still be) so I left the computer sitting in the bios settings for like 45 mins to an hr,nothing happened it didn't reboot itself,then I was thinking maybe a failing power supply might fix all these problems and I think I found the same exact one for like 20 bucks so I may try later down the road unless I find out its not the PS,and I noticed sometimes the system struggles to power on fully and the cpu fan will just go like zoom zoom instead of zoooooooooooooooom then quiet down after start up,any help is greatly appreciated...

~edit~

I've been on the computer for about an hr now without any problems...

 

[Rydian]

If it was heat it'd be shutting OFF, not restarting.

Yeah it sounds like a power issue.

 

[InuYasha]

The weird thing is yesterday it was on all day then around 4-5pm it would starting rebooting constantly like every 5-10 mins,and today its been on since like 8am and its 1pm now without any issues,I don't know perhaps even a failing power supply can still work when its wants to who knows... anyway the model # is EP 43060(ATX switching PS) and I found this one doing a search http://www.cputopia.com/emachine-480w-t-series-t5048.html looks pretty much the same cept the back of the PS fan is alittle different...

 

[Originality]

It could just have been an unstable power source (either from the wall or any multi-tap adapters you're using).

 

[ILuvGames]

The weird thing is yesterday it was on all day then around 4-5pm it would starting rebooting constantly like every 5-10 mins,and today its been on since like 8am and its 1pm now without any issues,I don't know perhaps even a failing power supply can still work when its wants to who knows... anyway the model # is EP 43060(ATX switching PS) and I found this one doing a search http://www.cputopia....ries-t5048.html looks pretty much the same cept the back of the PS fan is alittle different...

At 20$, i'd say it was worth a chance buying it anyway. My PSU failed on me last year and it popped the caps on some of the capacitors on the motherboard and fried my 8800 GTX in the process. On that page, you have the voltages for the card. If you go into your BIOS, does it give you the voltages for the PSU ? If it does, check them with the voltages given. I found this information elsewhere :-

The PSU has a small circuit inside that monitors the voltage outputs. If one of the outputs drops out of tolerance, the PSU is supposed to automatically shut down. When it does, it removes a control signal called something like "Power_OK". When that happens, it forces an automatic hardware reset.

 

[InuYasha]

It could just have been an unstable power source (either from the wall or any multi-tap adapters you're using).

Never thought about that,I think it's plugged into a surge protecter( that i've had for ages),also I do recall once in awhile my computer would reboot itself when it seemed the boiler in the basement(which i'm right above) kicked on or something...



~Edit~

After about 10 hrs(around 6pm) it started rebooting itself,and when I just turned it on later after turning it off for a few hrs it struggled to power on right away...