"Random" reboots...help, please.

[JJHendrix]

Right - here goes...
my computer was working fine. A couple days ago it randomly reboot for some reason but i ignored it.
then it started to happen more frequently. this afternoon it got so bad that while it was still booting up from one "crash" it would reboot itself in an endless cycle of booting.
When i turned it off and then on again, it would be alright - for a bit, 'till it happened again.

I don't think the problem is software based, because it reboots before windows loads sometimes. It could be the power supply, although it's fairly new (3 months). I also don't think the problem is heat related because i looped 3dmark2000 for awhile without a crash.

I tried moving my stick of ram to other slots, but the problem persisted.
I checked for loosed connections, but didn't find anything.

My system:
PIII 450
Abit BX5 rev 2 (kinda old - 1.5 years)
64 megs of PC100 RAM (also kinda old)
SBLive!
Voodoo3 2000 PCI
Western Digital 18 gig.
Note: i'm not overclocking right cause i've been too busy to bother with it.


Any ideas? Thanks in advance.

JJHendrix

 

[Celstar]

if the computer works after you let it sit for a while then i'd have to say it sounds a lot like your fan died on you. check your psu fan and your cpu fan to see if they're working properly.

 

[JJHendrix]

all fans working, thanks for the response though.

 

[JJHendrix]

^
computer now seems to do it while under stress (loading windows, opening programs, etc)
but i still believe the problem is hardware related.

Anyone ever have this happen to them?

 

[moocat]

I had a similar problem and it turned out to be my power supply. My supply was also fairly new when it failed.

 

[JJHendrix]

thanks a lot, moocat.
that's what i'm beginning to fear...i tried underclocking my system and it still happened, which rules out a lot of stuff...so it's beginning to point more and more towards the power supply. damnit.

 

[jor888]

U might have hardware conflict somewhere so try to boot safe mode and disable some hardware or manually pull out some hardware.

 

[Cheep]

Yup. A bum modem caused that problem for me. I yanked it and it never happened again.

 

[loosbrew]

i had the same exact problem two weeks ago...are you using win2k? cause its defaulted to auto reboot when a system error occurs...and my problem was that the cpu was getting way toohot...found out that the cpu was fecked so i bought me a new mobo and cpu..cost me 350 to fix my problem...but now it works...good luck btw..
loosbrew

 

[ModemMix]

loosbrew you shoulda turned off the reboot on error and the write system log on error and you could have saved the cash cause 90% of the errors that cause a reboot are still workable. unless ofcourse your like me and use any excuse to warrent an upgrade... im a junkie and i cant stop.

 

[Brian M]

I've had problems like this before; I was running Windows 98. It turned out to be my power supply. I have had 3 different Sparkle 300w PS and the first two had the random re-boot problem or sometimes they wouldnt POST. My third one has been working well. My guess too is that its your PS. Usually they're under warranty however and it should be easy enough to replace. Best of luck.

 

[tonster]

LOL, that reminds me of my first system. I was one of the dopes that bought a cyrix before anyone knew what floating point was and how important it was to games (doh!). Anyway, anytime I worked it hard, particularly in descent 2, it would spontaneously reboot. Right in the middle of the game!
I doubt that's your prob, but I just thought I'd relay that bit of info anyway. Boy am I glad cyrix is gone. My next processor was genuine intel, and it rocked

 

[ModemMix]

i had a cyrix p166+ and that bad boy kept my house warm in the winter but it never once crashed and actualy still works....when it was really cold id overclock it from 133mhz to a true 166 mhz and use it to cook with as well, email me for my cyrix fried steak recept