System restarts on free will !

[Virtuality]

My system restarts suddenly without a bit of my intentions involved. No matter on what kind of application I'm working, the screen suddenly blackouts and the whole thing starts from scratch. This has started to happen quite recently and I'm trying to make sense out of it. My system is aprox. 10 months of age and the specs. are :

CPU : IntelPentium III - 550MHz, with intel motherboard
RAM : 128 MB SDRAM
H.D : 17 GB - IDE
O.S : Win 98 (2nd Edition)

In case this might be a help ; I've recently connected myself on the cable internet and the cable guys switched on to Linux from win NT as their server and incidently that's the first time I had this problem. Is there a link ?
And I also got my CPU's FAN checked and it came out to be functioning properly.
Could anyone give a clue ! ?
Is there a utility program to monitor CPU cooling and power supply related issues?
Thanks !

[YODA74]

if your hooked up to cable which style modem are you running ERICSSON-etc.etc.did you install your self?

[Virtuality]

I'm connected through Realtek ethernet adapter. For my dialup connection I use a Zoltrix cobra 56k PCI Speakerphone modem. The cable guys installed my ethernet card.
Thanks for your reply.
Originally posted by YODA74:
if your hooked up to cable which style modem are you running ERICSSON-etc.etc.did you install your self?

[ziba-june]

I would say there a good possibility that your power supply is quiting on you. The bad thing about the power supplies is that they don't suddenly die but rather they would slowly do strange things, something like yours. Get a multimeter and read the power(DC).

[Virtuality]

Thankyou Ziba-June for your advice. The power supply issue seems to be the problem here. Now this may sound a bit naive but could you please tell what should be a satisfactory power rating for the power supply(with + & -)and what rating should cause an alarm !
Thanks again for your help.

[This message has been edited by Virtuality (edited 08-15-2001).]