Computer Random Restarting Problems

[Exarkun2k]

I have a 1.33 Ghz Athlon on a Abit KT7a motherboard with a 350W Codgen power supply. Until today I had 384 mb of crucial pc133 ram in my computer (they were in 256 and 128 mb sticks). Today I received another 512 of the same memory. I installed the memory, but my computer restarts randomly and at different time intervals. It doesn't matter what I am doing, but it will just restart for now reason. I have tried different configurations with the ram modules, but so far nothing has worked conclusively. I even tried the original 384 mb, and still it restarted. I have tried memtest, but it has shown nothing conclusive. Have I done something wrong, is my power supply on the fritz. I need help!

I also am running Windows XP Pro.

 

[Exarkun2k]

*Bump* Please Help

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Welcome to the forums

First go to the advanced tab under system properties and under startup and recovery click on the settings tab then uncheck the box for automatically restart, then you can use the event viewer under administrative tools to see what the error code is if any has been generated. I had the KT7 non "A" and with all the memory slots populated and needed to increase the RAS precharge timing in the bios to 1ns to get it to work stabily but I don't know if your board offers that setting or not but it's worth looking into. Why it continues to be flakey after going back to the original config is damned strange for certain, are the settings by SPD? If so try manually setting them up and see if that helps should the event viewer and other options prove of no help, and it's always a good idea to clear the CMOS too. Good luck and post back with an update

 

[Exarkun2k]

Thanks for the help

I don't recall seeing any RAS precharge timing in my BIOS, and I have looked several times. The event viewer did not really show anything strange either. I haven't cleared the CMOS and...since I am somewhat not aware off all the computer lingo, what is the SPD settings you speak off. Anyway, so far today my computer has not restarted and that is with the 512 stick of ram in. Oh, I don't get a blue screen of death either when it restarted.

 

[Gretzky]

I have a similar problem with my computer rebooting. Where can i find the system LOG?? in windowsXP pro

 

[greenkabbage]

system log is in the administrative tools in the control panel
-Jun

 

[Gretzky]

wow in my applications log. I have bin getting a error since January 2nd.

Its called a True Vector Engine

" The description for Event ID ( 1 ) in Source ( True Vector Engine ) cannot be found. The local computer may not have the necessary registry information or message DLL files to display messages from a remote computer. You may be able to use the /AUXSOURCE= flag to retrieve this description; see Help and Support for details. The following information is part of the event: . "

Oh there are no system errors so it looks fine. Maybe this is why my computer has random reboots when playing games or running any sort of anti virus checker.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Hiya Exarkun2k Sounds like you're problem may have been 1 of the other sticks afterall, but if you start getting reboots when under heavy system loads like gaming then you may have bumped or otherwise unseated the heatsink while installing ram and have a heat problem due to poor contact between the heatsink and CPU. By SPD just means serial presence detect which is a chip on the ram that tells the bios it's size, data width, speed, and voltage, so that you don't have to configure it yourself, sometimes just changing to user select from SPD for the memory in the bios settings can solve stability issues. BTW have you made certain you have all the latest, greatest driver for everything and all the updates for windows?

Hiya Gretzky
The true vector engine is Zone Alarm I think, did you have Zone Alarm and then uninstall it, or still using it? BTW, your reboot problem could be heat related as well, but if you eliminate heat as the culprit then try using the optimized settings in the bios which sets everything to the most conservative settings to help improve the stability of your ram or other hardware to see if it's just that something is flaking out@ faster settings. Gretzky have you made certain you have all the latest, greatest driver for everything and all the updates for windows too?I'm just curious because both of your reboot issues could be due to software glitches ect. that are addressed by new drivers or updates. HTH