Computer restarts...please help

[ispofdoom]

here are the symptoms:

1. Computer restarts without warning
2. Restarts occur at random, occasionally when you press the power button.
3. Can be triggered by touching a key, or using a mouse wheel - this appears to be common, though it does restart when I am away from the computer.


Here are my computers specs.

Gainward nVidia Geforce 4 Ti 4200 128MB RAM
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
Gigabyte GA-7N400-Pro2
512MB DDR 400 RAM
SB Audigy with Creative 5.1 speakers
40G Western Digital Hdd (I think)
9G hdd (using it as a secondary...it came with the computer package we orginally got)
Logitech MX700 mouse
Logitech keyboard
Computer package Power supply - possibly 320W.
Computer package CD Drive 32x



my thoughts on what it could be:

Cooling - I have recorded from motherboardmonitor heat up to 76C and an average of about 65C , but according to the BIOS my CPU seems to run at the low 60C's

Faulty Ram - its possible..surely? even though the startup checks the ram and it seems to work :S

Power Supply faulty/not powerful enough - could i be trying to power too much with the power supply. Or could it be faulty and have power cuts?

Software/Hardware conflict - could it be this?



Anyway, thanks for your help.


ISP

 

[tm37]

What brand PS?

Run a MEMtest

 

[ispofdoom]

I wish i knew what brand the power supply isive had a look on it and it only has a couple of product numbers and serial numbers and a 'warranty void if removed' sticker. Like i think i said, its the one that came with the computer, that was 4 years ago (maybe 5). Since then i have pretty much stripped it and chucked in a pretty decent rig...all running off the same power supply :S

NB: I will try running memtest tonite.

 

[mechBgon]

Random restarts are one symptom that I associate with a tired power supply. If you're using a 4-year-old generic power supply, then I vote for getting a new high-quality 350W unit or above.

The temperature looks a little higher than necessary, too. What is your cooling in that case, does it have an auxiliary exhaust fan besides the one in the power supply?

For DDR400, you may also need to bump the memory voltage a little, perhaps 2.6V-2.7V, and it should be clocked at DDR333 to match the CPU's bus speed anyway, for best performance Undervolted memory can result in instability too. If Memtest shows errors, clock your memory to DDR333, raise its voltage to 2.7V, and see if that works better.

Heh, then there's the Audigy 2 :roll: Consider pulling that out completely for a while if you address the other potential issues and still have problems. If the problems go away, try the A2 in a different PCI slot. Gigabyte unfortunately doesn't tell what the IRQ-sharing arrangements of their PCI slots are, in the manual for your board. From what's on page 57, I'm deducing that PCI slots 1 & 5 share their IRQ, but that's all the more help Gigabyte is Make sure you don't have PCI devices in both PCI 1 and PCI 5, at least.

 

[HeddaLora]

I'd say probably either a problem with the power supply, or a trojan. Have you updated virus definitions and run a full scan lately? (Or even better, run one from one of the free online scanning services.)

--Hedda Lora

 

[ispofdoom]

thanks for the advice,

mechBgon:

can you recommend a brand of powersupply...I dont know much about them, just the higher the watts the better

cooling in the case:
1x Heatsink - default one that came with the athlon XP CPU
1x Powersupply fan - in the power supply
1x built onto motherboard
1x added fan beneath the powersupply (I think this one is what you meant by auxiliary
1x Graphics card fan.

thats all i can see at any rate.

The MEMtest came back with 0 errors, but i am not sure if it finished completely (does it catually have a results screen, because as far as i know it just keeps cycling. - I left it for 6 hrs and it hadnt finished :S

Interesting about the IRQ's. I'll give that a go as I have had troubles with the Audigy drivers before (and its an Audigy 1 btw)



HeddaLora:

I dont think it is a trojan, because I have had this problem a while, and did a total reformat (on all harddrives), and it still happens - (though the reformat did clear up a blue screen of death issue - but not htis one of restarting).

I will try the free online scan, and I do have Norton, but I havent re-subscribed lately...





thanks, has anyone heard of AVG antivirus software from www.grisoft.com (i think). I tried that out and it had frequently told me I had viruses and things like that, but after running a scan it never seemed to redetect/kill them....odd...

thanks,
ISP

 

[mechBgon]

I use Grisoft AVG Free Edition at home. It's never detected anything, but then again, I don't have high-risk tendencies in the first place. Generally it's earned a good reputation if configured properly. Also try Symantec's free online security scan & antivirus scan (link in my signature).

For power supplies, Antec, Enermax, PC Power & Cooling and Fortron are some brands that earned good reputations here Good to hear you have one fan below the power supply, that helps keep the air moving past the CPU so it doesn't recirculate its own hot air too much.

 

[ispofdoom]

thats interesting about the extra fan doing so much. Do you think it could be cooling at all? I have had my CPU running at about 62-63 according to the BIOS after every restart. As far as i know this is ok. Could Humidity play a part?

I have run the antivirus on www.pcpitstop.com and it came up with nothing. I have also run adaware and cleared all that out, but it continues to restart

Anyway, I will do my best to get money for a new Power supply over the next week or so. How many watt minimum do you think i should get for my specs. (for specs see first post)

Also I have noticed my computer restarts quite a bit when I scroll down using the mouse wheel. Could this be a hardware conflict (I will try using a microsoft mouse after i post this, currently i use a logitech mx700).

Anyway, thanks for all your help I will post back here after running a chkdsk c: /f and other such fun time takers.

ISP

 

[isp123abc]

riiight

Just to clarify this is ispofdoom on another account. Longstoryshort i had to sign up again because i am no longer using my other computer due to the problem this thread is regarding (and my raising temper), and i havent memorised my password, for my ispofdoom account, which is stored on my other faulty computer.
Basically isp123abc = ispofdoom
ispofdoom = isp123abc

now thats out of the way:

Here is the puzzling thing about my restarting computer. It powers itself up after i hold down the power button to quickly/manually shut it down. Just now I have flicked the power switch at the back to turn it off instantly (then i unflicked it to have power running to the computer). After that I left it and I came back after about 2-3 minutes and it was on! This is not the first time it has happened either. This leads me to believe it is a faulty power supply. Does anyone agree or disagree with me? Due to my current financial position I want to be at least 99% sure that buying a new power supply will fix this problem.

During my frequent trips to the BIOS I encountered this under the PC Health Status section:

Case opened - YES
Vcore - OK
DDR25V - OK
+3.3V - OK
+5V - OK
+12V - FAIL


Dont ask me what it means, I can only guess. There were more options on the page, and all I have coppied into this post, except the top 'case opened' one was greyed out and could not be accessed to be changed. This is the same screen where I went to find out about the CPU temp, and other such things.

Could this be related? Is it perfectly normal? SHould I panic?


thanks, below is some random information regarding my CPU and mouse, there is a slim chance they are relevant.


ok, I have a Athlon XP 2500+ Barton core unlocked* Normally I run it at the full 3200+ speed, It has worked fine like that for close to a year, then this problem started happeneing, I did the reformat,and some time between posting the first post in this forum and now I have been experimenting with lowering the CPUs speed. I tried it on its technical setting of 2500+, the computer still restarted. Today I lowered it as far as I could- to a 1100+ speed. It still restarts GRRR!.

*the unlocked barton core is basically a limited 3200+ that has been set to run at 2500. the unlocked part means you can go into the BIOS and put the CPU at 3200+ (the unlocking was an early 'manufacture fault'), this is techincally not overclocking. Later batches are 'locked' and cannot be speeded up.

Now onto the mouse. Like I said i have seen the computer restart when I use the scroll wheel. I replaced my logitech mx700 mouse with an optical microsoft wheel mouse. It still restarts......

anyway, thanks for your help.

ISP