Weird Rebooting Problems, Memory Or Mainboard???

[JoaoFranco]

Guys, I am really out of ideas on how to solve my stupid PC problem.
It happen when i was force to purchase a new mainboard as my Old Mainboard Gigabyte 8IPE1000G refuse to install Windows XP SP 2 normally.

So i went to the nearest shop and bought a new cheap mainboard, ECS P4M800-M Socket 478 VIA Chipset, and it worked, it allowed me to install Windows XP SP2 normally.

After a few days, i experience weird rebooting problems, when i am watching DVDs or surfing the webs and chatting in Windows Live Messenger, it would just Reboot with a clicking sound of the harddisk, and login into windows normally.

Thinking it could be a problem with my Kingston 512MB x 2 Ram, i downloaded Memtest 3.3, Memtest86 1.70 and also DocMemory 3.1Beta and used them to test my 1GB Memory, and indeed i got a error.

Therefore, i took one piece of the ram and test it alone, it showed no error, tested the other piece and it also showed no error.., i was thinking what the? Inconvince by the results i tested the rams again and the error showed again. repeated it piece by piece, and it was clean.

Conclusion, maybe it was the mainboard? so i purchase another piece of mainboard from the shop, Asrock P4i65G Intel 865G Chipset, tested the 1GB Ram and it didnt showed the Error, that was produce by the ECS Mainboard, tested it piece by piece, also showed clean.

Happily, i went on to reinstall my Windows XP SP2 and programs, 1 week later, the same problem is back to haunt me. it would just reboot me while i am surfing, chatting or when i am playing games.

Turning of the Auto Reboot in Windows XP trying to catch the Error Message, will be posting it in here later if it reboots again.

Anyone have any ideas on what is happening? Whats left unchange is my Pentium 4 2.0 and 512MB x 2 Kingston Memory. I am running low on budget keeping me from buying a new PC and repairing it is the only choice.

System Specs
Pentium 4 2.0Ghz Northwood
ECS P4M800-M and Asrock P4i65G
Kingston 1GB Ram ... 512Mb X 2 DDR333
ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128MB
Creative SBLive Platinum
Western Digital 80GB SATA
Sony DVD-RW DRU-710A

Thanks
Joao C Franco

 

[prong]

Guys, I am really out of ideas on how to solve my stupid PC problem.
It happen when i was force to purchase a new mainboard as my Old Mainboard Gigabyte 8IPE1000G refuse to install Windows XP SP 2 normally.

So i went to the nearest shop and bought a new cheap mainboard, ECS P4M800-M Socket 478 VIA Chipset, and it worked, it allowed me to install Windows XP SP2 normally.

After a few days, i experience weird rebooting problems, when i am watching DVDs or surfing the webs and chatting in Windows Live Messenger, it would just Reboot with a clicking sound of the harddisk, and login into windows normally.

Thinking it could be a problem with my Kingston 512MB x 2 Ram, i downloaded Memtest 3.3, Memtest86 1.70 and also DocMemory 3.1Beta and used them to test my 1GB Memory, and indeed i got a error.

Therefore, i took one piece of the ram and test it alone, it showed no error, tested the other piece and it also showed no error.., i was thinking what the? Inconvince by the results i tested the rams again and the error showed again. repeated it piece by piece, and it was clean.

Conclusion, maybe it was the mainboard? so i purchase another piece of mainboard from the shop, Asrock P4i65G Intel 865G Chipset, tested the 1GB Ram and it didnt showed the Error, that was produce by the ECS Mainboard, tested it piece by piece, also showed clean.

Happily, i went on to reinstall my Windows XP SP2 and programs, 1 week later, the same problem is back to haunt me. it would just reboot me while i am surfing, chatting or when i am playing games.

Turning of the Auto Reboot in Windows XP trying to catch the Error Message, will be posting it in here later if it reboots again.

Anyone have any ideas on what is happening? Whats left unchange is my Pentium 4 2.0 and 512MB x 2 Kingston Memory. I am running low on budget keeping me from buying a new PC and repairing it is the only choice.

System Specs
Pentium 4 2.0Ghz Northwood
ECS P4M800-M and Asrock P4i65G
Kingston 1GB Ram ... 512Mb X 2 DDR333
ATI Radeon 9800Pro 128MB
Creative SBLive Platinum
Western Digital 80GB SATA
Sony DVD-RW DRU-710A

Thanks
Joao C Franco

The problem certainly could be caused by your 2 x 512 Kingston RAM. Try installing 1 DIMM in slot 1 and running it that way and see if the problem persists. Try the other DIMM as a single if the problem persists. Two new boards and the same problem suggest the RAM is the more likely culprit. Buy or borrow some new RAM and see if the problem continues. Kingston has a lifetime replacement warranty.

 

[Mondoman]

The ECS is certainly a low-quality board. However, you didn't list your power supply model number - what is it? Perhaps your PS is insufficient or failing.

 

[JoaoFranco]

Thx for the quick reply guys,

The situation now is that i have confirm that there is a fault in one piece of the memory, but the weird problem is, it seems that VIA Chipsets are able to detect the failure and not Intel Chipsets, when Memtest 86 3.3 or Memtest 1.70 are being used.

Anyway, right now i have send the module back for its warranty, waiting to see if it still comes back with the other piece of memory module as it didnt showed error when doing burn in test.

Joao C Franco

 

[callboy]

I was same problem with ECS P4M800-M motherboard.

Finally, I was resolved that problem.

The cause of weird rebooting was the RAM.

Curiously enough, Memtest86 v1.70 didn't showed the Error.

But after I was get rid of my 256MB RAM, then well worked without

anymore weird rebooting problem.


My System Specs
----------------------
Pentium 4 3.06GHz Prescott (L2 256KB cache)
ECS P4M800-M Ver 1.0A
BIOS Version : 1.0B (2005/06/17)

Samsung PC3200 1GB RAM & Samsung PC3200 256MB RAM
Internal Graphics 64MB
Western Digital 250GB SATA (WD2500JS 22MHB0)
LG GCC-4522B DVD-ROM combo

Power Supply: Powerlex REX-u400N

From riPmAn 2013.01.08

Thanks