Screen Goes Black and Restarts

[wheely34]

I'm having a problem with a friends computer. I am pretty sure I narrowed it down to a bad motherboard. When the computer is booted up, it runs fine. After being on for a little while the screen just goes black out of no where, or the screen will go black and the computer will restart...and will keep repeating that. Only after the computer has been sitting off for a few hours will i be able to boot it up with no problems...but within a matter of time, the problem starts up again.

I have swapped the HDD with a known working one...still the same issue (even changed connections. His original was a SATA and I tried a known working IDE HDD). I have swapped the video card with a known good one, problem still persists. I thought maybe he was setting his resolution too high and thats why the monitor was going black, but i brought the resolution down and the problem still persists. I even wiped the HDD and did an OS install just to rule out viruses and/or corrupted files, and the problem still persists. I honestly cannot think of anything else it could be other than just a bad motherboard. Before I go and purchase a MOBO, any other suggestions to try?

 

[Onus]

It sounds like something is overheating. Check your temps. It could be the CPU, or it could be the PSU which then shuts down, or it might be your chipset. How hot is the air blowing out of the PSU? If the fan in it has croaked, this could be your result. Please list your system components for better answers.

 

[wheely34]

Here's somne info on the system:

AMD Athlon 64 Processor
ASUS K8V-X MOBO
420 Watt Raidmax PSU
ATI Radeon 128MB 9600Pro Video Card
Onboard sound
Currently running off a 40GB Western Digital EIDE HDD
1 GB RAM

I was thinking tis may actually be an overheating issue. But how can I know for sure. I know I can d/l program that tells me the temp of the processor, I can also physically look at the computer and see if there are any busted fans and also see how hot that PSU is getting. But if the PSU was the problem, why would that make the screen go black. Wouldn't it just eventually burn out and shut the computer off?

 

[Onus]

Raidmax PSUs are constructed from fecal material. Very likely, it is so stressed by your system that its outputs are going way out of spec, causing your system to reboot. You are risking serious damage to your other components (if it isn't already too late). Buy a quality PSU. Four hundred watts is certainly sufficient.

 

[wheely34]

Yea problem is is that I am doing this for a friend and I dont wanna buy new parts and not have that be the answer....but hey, thats how tech work goes sometimes. I really do appreciate your response though. I'll see if I can pick one up from work and see if that fixes the issue. I'm also going to pull the CPU heatsink, clean it off, and put new thermal grease on there so i can at least know that is getting adequate cooling. I'll post some updates as soon as i can