Stupid CPU!! Need assistance please.

[XanderBoy]

For some reason or another, my computer has been acting really odd. It seems to just like to restart at very random intervals. It's not like I have Blaster or anything, it's that the computer is automatically restarting to the main boot screen. It has been doing this only for a few days now, and I am having a serious problem identifying what the problem is.

My current computer spces are:

AOpen Case and Power Supply
Pentium 4 1.7 GHz @ 1.69 GHz
768MB's of DDR333
Radeon 9800 Pro (Catalyst 4.2 Drivers)
SoundBlaster Audigy 2 (Latest SoundBlaster Drivers)
LITEON CD-ROM
Aopen AX45-V Mother Board
Maxtor 40 Gig Harddrive ATA133
Logitech Z-5300

The main problem I see seems to be from the fact that the computer just randomly restarts, but that's not the whole picture. However, after the computer has automatically restarts, it then takes a really long time for the computer to even get powered up again. I can press the power button on/off as many times as I want, but it doesn't seem to do anything good. I also sometimes can pull out the power cable, plug it back in, and then have my computer beep at my with 5 seconds of beeping, followed by 5 seconds of silence.

To me, the problem seems to be that either there's something wrong with my power supply, although I'm not sure what, or another possibility seems to me that it could be something wrong with my processor fan. Either way, it has me baffled, as well as frustrated. Please help if you know how I can get this fixed.

Note: I unplugged my SoundBlaster Audigy 2 in addition to my Z-5300's, and my computer seems to turn on (which is how I wrote this), but it keeps restarting ever 5-10 minutes or so. Also, now whenever I try to do things, like open an Internet browser, I keep getting system errors. "This program has encountered an error and needs to close."

 

[P4Man]

Most likely a PSU problem, could also be a leaking caps motherboard (<A HREF="http://www.badcaps.com/ident/" target="_new">http://www.badcaps.com/ident/</A>).

Check your motherboard if it is affected (see link), if looks okay, try another PSU.

(edit: removed memtest comments. if the computer will not even boot, its not likely a DIMM issue).

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by P4Man on 03/10/04 03:20 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Mr_Nuke]

This link is simply excellent!!!My board, wich is an MSI K7T Turbo2 suffers no such symptoms, but I know a friend with a Chaintech that shows exactly the symptoms described there.

 

[Mr_Nuke]

Really, checkup that link, it will really help you!

 

[redface]

Pls use MBM5 to check your 3.3volt, 5volt, and 12volt readings, it you get more than +/- 5% fluctuations then you should be really concerned about either your PSU is too old or you have some bad caps.

If you got no problem with the above, then maybe pull out all your RAM sticks. Test one stick at a time by going into WINXP and if possible run 3D gaming benchmarks. A bad stick will certainly lead to a reboot.

A fine day!

 

[XanderBoy]

Thanks for your assistance, guys. It turns out that I unplugged a piece of RAM I've had for about a month, and my system has been working flawlessly, although the performance is a bit lower now that I only have a 256MB stick in.

This really pisses me off too, because I just paid for that stick just over a month ago. What's weird to me though, is that the system still showed 768 MB's of RAM regardless of that fact that the computer would still restart (It was a stick of 512). Any ideas? Faulty RAM?

 

[Mr_Nuke]

Use Memtest86 for that.

 

[P4Man]

are you saying your computer still reboots ? If so, I really think you should check your motherboard for leaking/bulging caps.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =