*help* Random restarts...please give your input!

D

domoMKIV

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A few days ago I picked up some Crucial PC3200 2x512 for my comp to replace the single 512 PC2700 in there. Shut down the computer, took every precaution to make sure I was grounded, unplugged the 20pin and power to the psu, swapped out stick, swapped in new stick.
VOILA, welcome me to the age of DDR, im so far ahead of the game now its not even something I can talk about.
I use my pc for a couple more hours and then turn it off for the night.
Next day I fire it up and after a few hours I get a random restart, no blue screen, just *click*RESTART.
So it would do this every now and then, I adjusted my clocks back to OEM spec to see if maybe the RAM just didnt like it or was problematic with my board config....
Still got the restarts.
So I removed the sticks and put back in the single stick of 512 I had in for 2yrs with no problems, still restarting.
So today I decide to swap out my PSU (TTGI 550w) for my old Aspire extra, got a restart after a few hours.
I decided to check to see if my video card was the culprit so I fired up CS:S and it locked up, I restarted and fired it up again and once in the game it did the infamous *click*RESTART on me.
So im thinking, ok its either my hdd or my vid card.
Swapped out my vid card for one from another comp and still get the restart.

I plan on buying myself an A64 system next week but I had planned on giving this PC to someone else to replace their XP1800+ system.

So really what im asking is, what do you guys think is the problem?
hdd?
mobo?
amdemons?

any ideas on ways to narrow down the problem? i have a 2nd hdd which is partitioned 3 ways - but it holds all of my important information so I dont want to overwrite any of it. Could I still set it up with another partition for an XP install or will I lose everything on it?

this sucks. i hate when shit goes awry.

thanks for any input.
 
Looks to me the mainboard is showing its age and the overclocking collateral damage, overstressed capacitors, regulators, etc

Did you check temperatures? Maybe the heatsink needs a new layer of thermal paste

As always, more opinions are more than welcomed :D

oldmx
 
yeah got the sensors from my fan controller checked and then checked with MBM5 as well as Everest..
around 40C average and 45C under load.
heatsink/cpu just got a fresh layer of thermal paste about a month ago.

thank you for the reply :)
 
OldMX said:
Looks to me the mainboard is showing its age and the overclocking collateral damage, overstressed capacitors, regulators, etc

Did you check temperatures? Maybe the heatsink needs a new layer of thermal paste

As always, more opinions are more than welcomed :D

oldmx
Click to expand...
Good point. You think a System Restore may help him out? I doubt it but it may be worth a shot.
 
well since i just bought myself a s939 setup, i gave my gf my XP2500+ w/ heatsink and my 5200 Ultra....im runnin the 2500+ at 3200+ and so far so good. I guess that shuttle mobo of mine just finally wanted to give up :(
 
More than likely the mobo, or even CPU, your installation of the RAM was probably coincidental, not the cause (I think). Generally, sudden restarts like that are not memory related, it can be a few things, but you did yourself a favour and ruled out vid card and PSU, which leaves the mobo or CPU. Either way, it could be tricky to replace.
 
im pretty sure it was the mobo, the 2500+ is running on an MSI KT3 Ultra now and no hiccups so far...been running for 24hrs now, oc'ed to what wasnt stable on the shuttle mobo.
 
With new memory I always run around three loops of Memtest86.
That will show if you have a bad stick or not.

If memory's ok then its 8-24 hours of Prime95 to stress the CPU.
Then add a couple of loops of 3dMark in at the end to stress the vid card.
If it passes all that then I would start thinking software is causeing the restarts not hardware.

Luck........... :D
 
When your booting windows you can hit f8 when its starting and disable automatic restart (or something along thoes lines) that way when theres a problem it will just show you.
 
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