hi guys! hope somebody can help me with this since i'm not really a hardware guy.
pc specs:
athlon64 3000 S939
ECS A939 mobo
512 DDR
Inno3d GeForce 6600 256MB PCI-E
P4 Dynamo 400W 20-pin PSU
if you guys need anymore info, like BIOS stats, please ask me about it by also telling me where i could find it in the BIOS. hehe sorry....
anyway, here's what happened.
bought all the parts. put it all together. 1st time I assembled a PC too so it took me a while. turned it on. wanted to install Windows 98 (for running old apps/games) so that I could dual boot with XP. didn't work. Windows 98 would install correctly but after the reboot, it would stay on the Windows splash screen forever. so I took it out. figured it could be a mem problem since I only bought a generic mem. i was under a budget. hehe researched and downloaded some mem testing programs. forgot the names. sorry again. but so far no errors were found.
installed windows 98 again. same thing happened. gave dual boot up and installed winXP instead. it worked but haven't installed service pack 2 yet. installed drivers. PC worked fine. we were able to surf and play games. just a game actually. Installed Serious Sam:First Encounter. It's an old game so figured the PC could handle it with maxed settings. I think the PC suddenly rebooted once or twice while I was playing. didn't mind it because I was able to play it for 4 hours straight at the longest after that. I thought it was just some random anomaly. Oh yeah. I was also able to run 3dmark2005 on it too. After a few weeks I tried to stress test the CPU. Got CPU BurnIn. Ran the test for 24 hours. PC didn't hang or reboot. Stopped the test. Played Serious Sam. and BAM! instant reboot after just a few minutes of playing. checked the CPU temp on the BIOS. it was on 50+ i think. Prior to the CPU Burn In test, I was confident that Serious Sam would run. but now, I'm confident that Serious Sam would reboot the system in less than 10 mins of playing instead. 3D mark also hanged the system during the 3rd test (the pixie light thing floating in the forest test). I don't think it's a CPU heat problem since the same thing happened immediately just after the PC was newly booted up. read the temp and it was just at 40+. even had air conditioning turned on in the room hehe for now, the only thing we could do on the PC are office stuff (surf and MS Word). no 3D apps.
sorry bout the long story. what could be the problem with this? is the 20-pin power supply an issue here?
thanks for any replies!
pc specs:
athlon64 3000 S939
ECS A939 mobo
512 DDR
Inno3d GeForce 6600 256MB PCI-E
P4 Dynamo 400W 20-pin PSU
if you guys need anymore info, like BIOS stats, please ask me about it by also telling me where i could find it in the BIOS. hehe sorry....
anyway, here's what happened.
bought all the parts. put it all together. 1st time I assembled a PC too so it took me a while. turned it on. wanted to install Windows 98 (for running old apps/games) so that I could dual boot with XP. didn't work. Windows 98 would install correctly but after the reboot, it would stay on the Windows splash screen forever. so I took it out. figured it could be a mem problem since I only bought a generic mem. i was under a budget. hehe researched and downloaded some mem testing programs. forgot the names. sorry again. but so far no errors were found.
installed windows 98 again. same thing happened. gave dual boot up and installed winXP instead. it worked but haven't installed service pack 2 yet. installed drivers. PC worked fine. we were able to surf and play games. just a game actually. Installed Serious Sam:First Encounter. It's an old game so figured the PC could handle it with maxed settings. I think the PC suddenly rebooted once or twice while I was playing. didn't mind it because I was able to play it for 4 hours straight at the longest after that. I thought it was just some random anomaly. Oh yeah. I was also able to run 3dmark2005 on it too. After a few weeks I tried to stress test the CPU. Got CPU BurnIn. Ran the test for 24 hours. PC didn't hang or reboot. Stopped the test. Played Serious Sam. and BAM! instant reboot after just a few minutes of playing. checked the CPU temp on the BIOS. it was on 50+ i think. Prior to the CPU Burn In test, I was confident that Serious Sam would run. but now, I'm confident that Serious Sam would reboot the system in less than 10 mins of playing instead. 3D mark also hanged the system during the 3rd test (the pixie light thing floating in the forest test). I don't think it's a CPU heat problem since the same thing happened immediately just after the PC was newly booted up. read the temp and it was just at 40+. even had air conditioning turned on in the room hehe for now, the only thing we could do on the PC are office stuff (surf and MS Word). no 3D apps.
sorry bout the long story. what could be the problem with this? is the 20-pin power supply an issue here?
thanks for any replies!