reformated but still random restarts and ultra slow performance help

[davinci]

my girlfreind has a computer she built 2 yrs ago and is now having problems with it she cannot solve. i will get a full list from her later but heres some info to start us out
its a amd 2.1ghz processor
64mb ram
40 gig hd
windows xp os
replaced psu year ago

the computer had xp on it and was runnin fine and had already had the new psu then the computer would start randomly restarting and sometimes more then once in a row ( not bsod) windows would just boot back up and would get all teh way to windows then restart... sometimes it wouldnt a virus was thought to b the culprit so she reformated

now the computer still restarts every now and then and she says the boot up is extremely slow and the computer runs slow

she also says she did install the motherboard chipset drivers as well so untill i get a full rundown on all the system this is all i got. any help thanks ;)

[DMR]

64mb ram

With XP?!
Please tell us that's a typo. :eek: :eek:

Until you can post more info, here are a couple of suggestions:

Bad RAM is definitely one thing that can cause such behaviour. Make sure the RAM modules are firmly and properly seated in their sockets, and test the RAM with Memtest86.

Although probably uncommon, I've worked on a few systems recently which started exhibiting very similar behaviour. In each case I found that the culprit was a Microsoft update package downloaded and installed by Windows' Automatic Update feature. The specific update was different on each machine, but the symptoms were the same, and they were reliably repeatable: uninstall the update, the crash & reboot problem disappears; redownload the update, the crash & reboot problem comes right back.

[davinci]

sorry its been so long since i posted, work has had me so busy... and no thast not a typo she says its 64mb ram hahaha but said it worked fine before ill tell her to check the computer updates and see if that is the problem thansk for your help and patience

[DMR]

OK- but in the mean time, please buy your girlfreind more RAM. :)

Here's a serious question in that regard though: Is 64M really the total amount of RAM in her system? You would have to crack open her computer's case to verify that, but XP will barely run (if at all) on that amount of RAM.