Computer keeps powering off and on then stays on

[Gennobi]

I'm fixing my best friends computer, and he just spent $1300.00 at tiger direct building this thing. The problem is the thing keeps powering off and on, then the system stays on (for an unknown amount of time). It does this about 9 or 10 times. I don't know why it does this either. I've never really seen a problem like this before. I really don't know what can be causing this.

Ok, here's the specs for the computer.

Motherboard: Asus M3N HT Deluxe
Processor: AMD Phenom X4 9850 black edition
Memory: (2 gig) Corsair xms2 dd2 1066 mhz There's 2 sticks of this.
Graphics Card: (2) Nvidea PNY GeForce 9600GT (SLI configured)
Hard Drive: SeaGate Barracuda 250 GB HDD

 

[auscanzukus]

What's the psu make & model?

Unplug power cord, clear cmos for 10 mins, try each stick of ram in each slot.

 

[Gennobi]

Oh, the PSU is a 650 W Ultra

 

[Gennobi]

anyone?

 

[auscanzukus]

Did you try my suggestion?

 

[Proximon]

Not all Ultras are created equal. Is it an X3?

Yes, try to clear the cmos.

If that doesn't work, try flashing the BIOS. It could just be trying to boot at default settings and failing... BIOS might not recognize that CPU without an update.

 

[Gennobi]

auscanzkus, clearing the cmos and updating the bios did it.

Also, are two 9600GT cards for SLI useful, because I'm getting a lot of feedback telling me that I'm better off with one.

 

[ohiou_grad_06]

I'm kinda wondering if the Ultra PSU is the problem. Now don't get me wrong, I've had ultra PSU's before and they were actually a good unit for me. But I'm not so sure that Ultra actually has enough juice to push both those cards. Also, do try the bios update. But one quick test for the psu theory, remove one card and see if it still acts that way.

 

[auscanzukus]

You need to google for 9600GT SLI benchmarks for the GAMES that you play to determine if SLI would be worth the money. i.e.

http://www.firingsquad.com/hardware/geforce_9600_gt_sli_performance/page9.asp

About 10 fps or 50% jump in that game. I think your priority right now is to stabilize the pc. Get this to a disk & boot it up for 8 passes:

http://www.memtest.org/#downiso

If it errors out, bump ddr2 voltage up a notch and retest.