• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Ongoing Random Reboot Problems

M

mr_pollock

n00b
Joined
Jan 16, 2004
Messages
34
This has been happening for over 2 years now with this same setup and I'm getting tired of swapping parts out and not having a solution.

Originally, I started with...

Asus P4S8X-X Mobo
Pentium 4 3.06 Socket 478 FSB-533
OEM Intel HSF
1 GB (2x512) Crucial Value RAM DDR2700
ASUS GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB
400W PSU -- unbranded or something...
120 GB Western Digital 7200 RPM blah
2 media drives
lame Raidmax case or something, unimportant
Windows XP Pro

So with that setup it was doing the random restarts, basically when it was on for over 5 hours or if I was playing games.

So I figured I would switch the PSU and HSF out.

Changed the PSU to an Antec SmartPower 400W and the HSF to an arctic-cooling Super Silent 4Pro M.

Still had the restarts. I didn't suspect it to be the video card, but I wanted an upgrade anyway so I purchased an ATI 9800 Pro 128mb and put that in there. As expected, it would still restart.

I tried just running with one of the 512 sticks and I still had the restarts. Tried the other stick, same thing.

So now I want to buy yet another PSU and HSF.

PSU: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-430 ATX12V 430W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, TUV, CB, FCC CLASS B, CUL - Retail

HSF: ZALMAN CNPS7000B-CU 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan/Heatsink - Retail

Those two cannot be considered a downgrade from what I have now, can they?

I'm also going to have someone else put both of those in because I'm superstitous and I now think I have bad luck with computers.

To get to the second point of this thread, if the PSU and HSF do not solve this problem once and for all, I am seriously considering purchasing a new system.

Due to my sentiment of bad luck regarding "home made" computers, I want to purchase one from a retailer -- not HP/Compaq/Gateway or from Best Buy/CompUSA/whatever. I want one from a company like Falcon Northwest or maybe Alienware (or maybe not :p ) but without the high cost attributed to those companies. I obviously know that I will be paying a premium of having the system built and everything, and I don't mind that if I know I can trust the PC to work.

So does anyone have a good recommendation of a place like those named above that offer high quality "custom built" PCs at a reasonable price?

If you're this far, thanks.
 
Hey, I have had the same problem on 2 computers that I have built. My first computer I had OCZ PC3200 Gold RAM, I was getting random reboots then solved it by swapping the RAM in the slots. I built my brother a computer and bought Samsung DIMM, same problem with random rebooting, and errors. I put in my OCZ and took his Samsung, both computers work fine. I don't know for sure, but an easy check is to swap RAM with one of your buddies and see if it runs fine. From my experience that is usually the problem. John.
 
Well I sort of think that it isn't the RAM because I have tried using each 512 MB stick individually -- as in, using only 1 stick in the PC. I still had the reboots. When I used the other, I still had the reboots.

I'm quite sure it's either the HSF and/or PSU.

I'm currently running SpeedFan (MBM5 stopped working for me) and I sit at around 44-46 degrees Celcius when just surfing the web.

Once I open up a game (such as Guild Wars), the readings jump up to 65 and up. Whenever I feel a reboot coming (they're really not random anymore, I've come to expect them), I glance at the temperature, and it's usually at 68 or 69, sometimes in the 70s.

--

As far as a new computer is concerned, I want something AMD64 based, most likely the AMD64 3200+ Venice Socket 939... but once again, I don't know of a reputable retailer that isn't going to charge me an arm and a leg.
 
Honestly try a different brand of RAM altogether, that way at least you can eliminate it as a cause, and it wont cost money or take much effort.
 
I will try this and post the results but I highly doubt it is the source of the problem as I have ran memtest overnight with both chips and had good results.

Anyone able to make any suggestions for a retailer or two so that I may have some idea in advance if I have to purchase?

Thanks.
 
Went out and bought the Zalman CNPS7000B-Cu. When my previous HSF cooled to about 44-46 degrees doing nothing, the Zalman has be at about 36-38. I can definitely tell the Zalman is doing a better job.

When I opened up Guild Wars, the Zalman cooled to about 58 or 59 degrees. My previous HSF let me jump into the high 60s and low 70s.

I played for about 45 minutes with no problems, closed the game down and surfed the web. After about half an hour, it froze. I noticed I was at 50 degrees. I used to crash only when I got up to 65-70 degrees. This is making me think it's not the cooling (or lack of) that is causing my reboots.

--

I've been running Memtest86+ for about 12 hours. 26 Passes no Errors or anything... I'll continue to do this.

I'm wondering if I should go out and purchase a new power supply? Or is there a way that I could test the stability of the current power supply?
 
check your voltages with multimeter... if you tried different PSUs, and memtest doesn't return any errors.. I'd say it's the mobo..
 
TheMostWantedPolishTwin said:
check your voltages with multimeter... if you tried different PSUs, and memtest doesn't return any errors.. I'd say it's the mobo..
Click to expand...

Thanks. Are there any guides online for using a multimeter to check the stability of a PSU?
 
Just grab a ATX plug pinout, so u know which wire delivers which voltage , connect green wire to a black one so that the PSU powers on without being connected to your PC ,and just put the Meters probes on a black and a colour.

I would also look more on the Mobo side of things,instead of a cooling issue.
Chack the capacitators on the Mobo, mate of mine also had same probs and it turned out to be the caps, (they where all swollen up, and the top of the caps had some crud on them)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top