Computer Restarts for no particualar reason. Help

[LancerEvolution7]

I've had this computer for about two years already and its been running fine. Yesterday, for some reason it just started reseting. It would boot into windows and about five min later, it would restart. Sometimes it wouldn't even get into windows before rebooting. I tried to reformat, but during the initial scan the computer rebooted itself. I left it in the bios screen and it reboothed. Need help fast. The only recent change I made to the computer was switch the video card from a 8500 to a gf2 mx400.

Here are my specifications:
Athlon XP 1700 Palamino core
Soltek Via Kt333 motherboard
Maxtor 80gig hd
IBM 80gig HD
Pioneer A05 DVD burner
Pioneer DVD-Rom
Floppy drive
SoundBlaster Live Sound Card
Nividia Geforce 2 MX 400
Lan card
420W Enlight PSU

 

[Woodman]

Checked the temps? CPU fan running? Maybe it'srebooting cuz it's overheating?

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[Johanthegnarler]

Sounds like blaster worm to me. Every few minutes.. restarts towards the end of the month. Go virus scan with a descent scanning utility.

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[P4Man]

could be a lot of things, but my guess is (in order of probability);
1) leaking caps on the motherboard. If you don't know what I'm talking about check out <A HREF="http://www.badcaps.com/ident/" target="_new">http://www.badcaps.com/ident/</A>
2) Bad caps
3) Bad caps

4) memory module(s) giving up. try relaxing the timings and or swapping them and/or running <A HREF="http://www.memtest86.com" target="_new">http://www.memtest86.com</A>. please note, a bad caps mb or a faulty PSU might also lead to errors in memtest86
5) PSU giving up. Check voltages in BIOS, see if they are okey. Please note, a bad caps mb might also give you too low voltages. Could try a different PSU if you have one, but this seems unlikely. you have a very powerfull and quality PSU there, much more then you need anyway.
6) videocard dying. try the old one again if you can, and the above suggestions turn out incorrect.
6) software seems unlikely if you can't even reinstall/reformat (not sure what you meant though when you said " but during the initial scan the computer rebooted itself")

Did I mention I suspect you suffer from the bad caps syndrom yet ?



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

 

[GIPNOR]

Be very wary of a bad PSU - that would be my first guess. If it's got problems, it could fry your other componants. Like people have said, it could be many things... since it rebooted while in the BIOS setup, that's a good indication it's a hardware issue.

 

[endyen]

Set your vacuum up to blow, turn the computer switch off, and blow the case out. Do the psu from the back.

 

[redface]

1. check varios voltage and their fluctuations in your bios big fluctuations (greater than +/- 5% the rated voltage) means that you have either Power supply problem or Motherboard caps problem.

2. vacumm clean your case

3. check your cpu temp too. maybe your thermal pad/paste is drying out.

4. check your case temp, other components need to work in a cooler environment as well.

5. maybe you have dead ram(s). try testing each stick one at a time to see if it solve your problem....

A fine day!

 

[phial]

Sounds like blaster worm to me. Every few minutes.. restarts towards the end of the month. Go virus scan with a descent scanning utility.

if it was ,he would be getting a warning message that his system would be shutting down, with a timer



sounds like temps to me or power stability issues

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[LancerEvolution7]

Thanks for all the suggestions people.
I already checked my CPU tempurature and its around 45-50 which is good range. I took compressed air and cleaned the computer and it still restarts for no particular reason.

My ATi video card died and thats why im using the GF2MX as a replacement for now.

I checked the my motherboard and looked at the capacitators. I don't have the stuff oozing from the bottom of the caps, but it looks like the top of the caps erupted and now there is dried brown stuff on top of it. Not sure if that is bad caps. The capacitators that are affected are the ones closest to my CPU.

Weird though, it restarts randomly. Sometimes i can leave it on for hours and sometimes it doesn even work for 10 min.

 

[phial]

got another PSU to try ?

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[P4Man]

Welcome to the club
There can be no doubt about, RMA or replace your MB, you've got the bad cap thingie. I was pretty sure already, now I am 110%. The symptoms are exactly that. Using a more powerfull PSU you could perhaps maybe get it working again for a few days/weeks but it is not gonna resolve it; you need a new motherboard.

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

 

[phial]

oh shitty, yea its probaby the capacitators then heh


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[redface]

http://www.badcaps.com/ident/

A fine day!

 

[Johanthegnarler]

That wasn't our case at our work. At least we must of had a different version. It would reboot every few minutes without warning.
But without me really thinking hard enough i suppose.. it wouldn't restart while formating.

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[GGS430]

but it looks like the top of the caps erupted and now there is dried brown stuff on top of it. Not sure if that is bad caps. The capacitators that are affected are the ones closest to my CPU.

There's your problem right there. Time to replace the Motherboard.

 

[LancerEvolution7]

Well changed the motherboard to an Biostar Nforce2. Works like a charm now. When I was changing the motherboard though, I found burn marks at the connector where the PSU plugs into the motherboard. Could bad caps have caused that or was it the bad psu that caused the caps to burst? Right now I'm using the cheaper 300w psu that came with the case, but im wondering if there is something wrong with my setup.

 

[P4Man]

Probably a side effect of the bad caps, I guess your PSU is fine.. even a bad PSU should not cause your capacitors to die like that.

BTW I just read on Aces about someone who actually had bulging/leaking caps in his PSU! This is really a plague. It has even come to the point where badcaps are pretty much my first suspicion when someone calls me saying his computer is acting up. My first thought ought to be virusses, but badcaps are becoming more of a problem these days What really upsets me, is that there is no way to avoid them.. its not like you can tell when you buy a MB, or that the problem is limited to certain brands or platforms. A real PITA just to shave off a few $cents of the cost of a MB. Whoever is responsible better not come near me.

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

 

[pat]

If there was burn mark on the power connector, then that was your connector that was causing your problem. With the time, the connector got loose and bad contact cause heat and power lost. That was what was resetting your computer. Maybe all you had to do was to clean, inspect and reseat the connector in your board. So I guess that your old board is still good.

Lower quality PSU are more likely to cause that because they use lower quality componant. So, now, just check if the connector is really tight in your new motherboard, because if it is loose, with the time, oxidation will occur where the contact are bad. Increasing resistance will cause heat and burn your connector again and your computer will start to reset...

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[LancerEvolution7]

Hmm, that might be the case, but cleaning it is out of the question. The old board definitly had something wrong with the caps since the tops exploded. I can't clean it because part of the plastic part melted and cause it to bond with the board. So I actually had to use force and pry the damn thing off. I was under the impression that Enlight made pretty good PSUs...