Ramdom (?) reboots

  • Thread starter Thread starter Fitz
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Fitz

System:
Biostar M7NCG w/AMD Athlon XP 2800+
2 X 256 MB Corsair XMS2700C2
LiteOn DVD RW
Adaptec Firewire800 PCI card
Antec Aria case (300W power supply)
Just added: PNY Verto FX5500 128 MB Video Card

Very basic system that does nothing more than surf the net and play very
basic (we're talking Yahoo) games.

Problem: Computer reboots randomly. Most of the time it will try to reboot
and go through the process twice before getting back to the desktop. Seems
to be worse when screensaver (she's running the MS Aquarium) kicks on- it
will do it within a couple of minutes.

My first thought was heat. Using the onboard graphics (passive cooling), I
thought perhaps it was overheating in the small case. Got the FX5500 and
installed it- no improvement.

I removed one stick of memory- no luck (although I did get an IRQ not less
or equal to error on the first reboot). Upped the DDR voltage by .1 - no
luck.

Power Management setting are Minimal- never turn off anything.

At one point tonight (while clearing the CMOS) when I plugged it back in,
the GFI circuit it was on tripped. I then plugged it into a different wall
socket not on the same circuit, but it rebooted itself after a couple
minutes use.

I'm inclined to think this isn't a software problem because of the tendency
of the computer to restart the boot process a second time at the post
screen.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Fitz
 
You will get several ideas from this group, but the one that was suggested
to me was bizarre and worked. I went through many of the same attempts as
you (heat, video card, etc). Someone suggested that I run chkdsk. It did
the trick. Not sure it will really help in your case too, but it is a
simple thing to try.
 
Follow-up:
Talked to Antec on the phone and am replacing the power supply. In their
estimation, tripping the GFI is an indication of a defective product and
they quickly approved 'cross shipping' a new power supply. Very impressed
with the service- no request for a receipt, no hassle at all. Got to talk to
a rep without listening to any recorded messages. Their cross shipping
policy is easy- they charge for the part, and refund the charge upon
receiving the defective part. Each party pays one way shipping. I got an
email within 5 minutes of hanging up with the order no. and RMA no. complete
with shipping address.

Fitz
 
In the System Properties, go to Advanced, Startup And Recovery. Remove the
check mark from Automatically Restart. Make sure that there are checkmarks
on Write an even to the system log, and Send an administrative report.

This way, the machine should not re-boot. When there is an error, it should
stop and display the "Blue Screen Of Death". Take down all the details of
the content of this screen. Now you should have something to work with.

It is very possible that you are having a hardware failure that is causing
the machine to randomly reset. This can be from the power supply through to
a bad RAM.

You can also try running a good RAM testing program. Memtest86 is supposed
to be a very good one. It is free if you search it out.



--

Jerry G.
=====

System:
Biostar M7NCG w/AMD Athlon XP 2800+
2 X 256 MB Corsair XMS2700C2
LiteOn DVD RW
Adaptec Firewire800 PCI card
Antec Aria case (300W power supply)
Just added: PNY Verto FX5500 128 MB Video Card

Very basic system that does nothing more than surf the net and play very
basic (we're talking Yahoo) games.

Problem: Computer reboots randomly. Most of the time it will try to reboot
and go through the process twice before getting back to the desktop. Seems
to be worse when screensaver (she's running the MS Aquarium) kicks on- it
will do it within a couple of minutes.

My first thought was heat. Using the onboard graphics (passive cooling), I
thought perhaps it was overheating in the small case. Got the FX5500 and
installed it- no improvement.

I removed one stick of memory- no luck (although I did get an IRQ not less
or equal to error on the first reboot). Upped the DDR voltage by .1 - no
luck.

Power Management setting are Minimal- never turn off anything.

At one point tonight (while clearing the CMOS) when I plugged it back in,
the GFI circuit it was on tripped. I then plugged it into a different wall
socket not on the same circuit, but it rebooted itself after a couple
minutes use.

I'm inclined to think this isn't a software problem because of the tendency
of the computer to restart the boot process a second time at the post
screen.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Fitz
 
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