Black Screens of Death on Vista

[Rigged3]

Hello,
I'm a beginner in these things and I noticed my computer keeps rebooting time and time again every 5-15 min.
I tried updating my bios, setting the bios at default and I also changed my CPU mode from Dynamic Switchable to Always Low to give me some more time but that results in freezes with vertical lines that change my screen's colour instead of reboots.
Strange enough, if I run Dead Space 2, I get no freezes or reboots
Also tried updating my drivers using those softwares and using sfc /scannow, chkdsk and startup repair - nothing worked.

System details:
A 3 year old Toshiba Satellite A300-276 with retail Windows Vista x86 that I installed 1 month ago since I changed from Windows 7 because of this problem
Graphics Card - ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470, which I tried updating but Catalyst Install Manager says sometimes that it cannot find INF file and then in the device manager it shows up exactly the same
Sound Card - Realtek High Definition Audio
Motherboard -Toshiba Portable PC
CPU - Intel Pentium Dual Core T-4200
Power Supply ---

[loda117]

Hi and Welcome to TSF
There is no crash dump file in there so I don't think its your Drivers or anything else

since its a Toshiba Satellite A300 I can tell you one of the major reasons for the computer to shut down and restart on its own is over heating
the heatsink has a huge engineering flaw so dust gets trap on the plate and accumulates
so If you remove the back Pane for the heatsink and just blow it out with Compress air you should not have that problem anymore
Also factory default your CMOS(BIOS) as well

[Rigged3]

Didn't check for dust but my cousin cleaned it after he replaced me the HDD about 3 months ago maybe.
Is it possible that it's filled with dust already?
And by the way it never crashes when I play games but I'll check for dust anyway.

I tried setting the BIOS to factory defaults and it doesn't work

[loda117]

Ya its just the design of it that makes it to collect more dust over small period of time

Possibly when you are trying to play video games then maybe the fan is blowing a lot faster but that also make me believe that maybe the fan might be going out

if possible can you post the voltages from the BIOS

[Rigged3]

Sorry but I actually don't know how to see the voltages.
I'm taking the pc for a check maybe next weekend.

[loda117]

If you can get into the BIOS
it should be under the first tab

[Rigged3]

At the main screen only saw Sistem Time and Date, CPU speed and type, HDD, Optical Disk Drive, BIOS version and Language.
There are more sections but none of them provides info about voltage.

[dwm260]

I do agree with loda on this one. It sounds to me like an overheating issue. Fans dying (or dead), graphics chip getting way too hot, etc... Many things can cause this over heating. Does it feel abnormally hot to you on the bottom after it's been on for a while?

[Rigged3]

Sometimes.
But it only heats when I'm playing and when I'm playing or if I have a game in the backround it doesn't crash.
It also reboots and freezes around 1 minute after I start my pc in the next day.

[Wrench97]

The Toshiba Bios will not show you the temps or voltages.
Use Hardware Monitor to see the temps, voltages on a laptop are not very useful.

Do hear the fan speed up and slow down, feel more air coming out of the vents when it speeds up?

Check in Event Viewer for any errors.
To open Event Viewer click the Start button, In the Search box, type Event Viewer, and then, in the list of results, double-click Event Viewer.

[Rigged3]

I'm using HWMonitor but can't see the voltages.
Temperatures are:
73ºC on the motherboard
70ºC and 69ºC on the CPU
55ºC on the HDD
61ºC on the graphic card

I saw a bunch of event ID's 6008 in the event viewer that say previous system shutdown was unexpected

Details are:

Log Name: System
Source: EventLog
Date: 21-03-2012 13:33:03
Event ID: 6008
Task Category: None
Level: Error
Keywords: Classic
User: N/A
Computer: Leonel-PC
Description:
The previous system shutdown at 21:46:14 on 20-03-2012 was unexpected.
Event Xml:
<Event xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">
<System>
<Provider Name="EventLog" />
<EventID Qualifiers="32768">6008</EventID>
<Level>2</Level>
<Task>0</Task>
<Keywords>0x80000000000000</Keywords>
<TimeCreated SystemTime="2012-03-21T13:33:03.000Z" />
<EventRecordID>36984</EventRecordID>
<Channel>System</Channel>
<Computer>Leonel-PC</Computer>
<Security />
</System>
<EventData>
<Data>21:46:14</Data>
<Data>20-03-2012</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>4421</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Data>
</Data>
<Binary>DC0703000200140015002E000E001201DC0703000200140015002E000E0012013C0000003C000000000000000000000000000000000000000100000000000000</Binary>
</EventData>
</Event>

[Wrench97]

69c-70c for that CPU are a little warm is under load?
Voltages on a laptop are not usually reported unlike a desktop you do not have 3 distinct rails, just voltage regulation on the motherboard from battery voltage.

Do hear the fan speed up and slow down, feel more air coming out of the vents when it speeds up?

[loda117]

Have you cleaned it up with compressed air?

[Rigged3]

I had a crash last night and cpu was at 81º and I had a game in the backround only.
The pc seems to be always at the same speed. I feel the vents working and air coming out.
Never actually cleaned it myself but my cousin says he did it when he replaced my HDD a few months ago.

[Wrench97]

Clean the heatsink using a can compressed air, available at office supply stores as well as many other stores.> Caring for your notebook computer.

[Rigged3]

Thanks for the solution.
I'll buy the compressed air soon and I'll keep you posted.