Computer Restarting Spontaneously

[PeteyPete]

I posted this in the technical support area and i still can't figure it out:

I was inside my computer trying to change the IDE ribbons to make my HD the master drive and my burner the slave. (my current configuration is DVD master/CD Burner slave on one IDE controller). When running Nero it said that i would have better performance if the two CD drives were hooked up to different IDE controllers. So after changing the cables i tried to get it to work without success. Frustrated, i just decided to put it back the way it was and head to bed. So after putting everything back the way it was, i started the computer, it posted fine, checked the ide controllers and located my HDD, burner, and DVD. But when it started to load up windows the screen freezes and the computer restarts? It just does this repeatedly....what is the problem?? anyone know? I checked and rechecked all the connections and made sure i didn't break any componets...what do you guys think?
What the hell did i do to my computer?

 

[SPAnDAU]

The first step to take would be to only connect your HDD. If the computer boots, then start connecting the drives one at a time until it starts locking up.

You may also want to replace your IDE cables. Sometimes when you disconnecta drive it can break some of the wires in the cable. It's somewhat uncommon, but cables are cheap so it can't hurt to try.

WARNING WARNING, NEWBIE SUGGESTION COMING.... did you change any of the jumpers on your drives?

 

[PeteyPete]

I'll try what you suggested...as for changing the jumpers, i made sure that the jumpers set correctly on both my CD drives, and HD. I think it may be a problem with the floppy drive, if i put the boot disk in (to start in in SAFE MODE) it just keep going into windows before it restarts. It like there is no disk in there at all....

 

[PeteyPete]

I'm now pretty sure that it's the HardDrive...ive disconnected everything else but the hard drive and floppy drive and it still continues to restart on it's own. After it posts and checks the IDE connections, it goes into the "windows loading screen" and thats when it restarts. Everytime it begins to access the hard drive, spontaneous reboot. Does this sound like it's manifesting the symtoms of a hard drive thats on it's way out? Also, i've been able to get it to get to the desktop screen once or twice in about 25 reboots.

Spandau, i switched the ribbons to remove any doubt, and still the same result.

 

[nightowl]

PeteyPete: When you were swapping cables you did not happen to unplug your CPU fan by mistake or bump the HSF did you? Spontaneous reboots can be caused by the CPU over heating. I had a similar problem where my computer would just continually reboot. The problem was that my CPU was too hot and that was causing the reboots.

 

[PeteyPete]

nightowl, did your computer reboot at the exact same time in the startup sequence? i checked and rechecked all the connections and both the cpu fans are spinning..the strange thing is that it reboots at exactly the same time every time i load it. Is it the Hard Drive, or the motherboard??? everything else is disconnected.

 

[nightowl]

I dont' remember exactly but I do know that it would reboot after the Windows splash screen came up but before I could logon to Win2k. Did you check your CPU temps in the BIOS?