Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: mjolnir on May 29, 2003, 05:34:39 AM
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I helped a buddy of mine put together a system through MWave.com. The components are listed below. We were thinking this would be a pretty kick-ass machine, and so when it finally arrived, we couldn't wait to plug it in, fire it up, and see what it could do. We loaded WinXP Pro (plus Service Pack 1a). We loaded all the drivers for everything that came with it (mb, vid card, etc). And then we loaded a couple of games just to see how they looked. And they looked good. Damn good. Until the computer decided to restart (not shut down, no blue screen of death, just as if someone had pushed the reset button). Then we were pissed. Since then, the computer has continued to randomly restart. Sometimes it'll work fine for hours without doing it, sometimes it happens in 10 minutes. And it's not specific to any program, because it'll happen when he's playing a game or just using Word or checking his email. He's wiped the system and reinstalled everything from scratch, but it still happens.
Can anyone think of why it might be restarting at random intervals?
SKY HAWK PSR4616 (GALAXY) ALUMINUM MID TOWER (PENTIUM 4 READY) NO POWER SUPPLY 4x5.25" 2x3.5" 4x3.5"(hidden) W/ FRONT I/O CONNECTOR
SKY HAWK SH-400A8H 400W ALUMINUM (PENTIUM 4 READY) UL & FCC POWER SUPPLY FOR ATX CASES
ASUS A7N8X DLX NVIDIA nFORCE2 CHIPSET ULTRA ATA133 ATX FORM FACTOR 1xAGP(PRO)/5xPCI/3xDDR W/SATA, DUAL LAN, 1394, USB 2.0 & AUDIO Detail Specs (CPU TYPE:AMD DURON, ATHLON)
AMD ATHLON XP 2400+ 2.0GHZ (AXDA2400BOX) RETAIL BOXED W/COOLING FAN (3 YEARS WARRANTY)
MAXTOR 80.0GB DX6Y080P0 EIDE ULTRA-ATA 133 8.5MS 7200RPM 8MB BUFFER
ATI RADEON 9700 PRO 128MB AGP DDR (Retail) Detail Specs
SONY 1.44MB FLOPPY DRIVE
2x CRUCIAL / MICRON 256MB PC2700 333MHZ CL2.5 DDR DIMM
SONY 16X-DVD/40X-CDROM EIDE INTERNAL #DDU1621/C1 (Retail Box)
SONY 52X/24X/52X CRX220A1 EIDE INTERNAL CDRW W/SW (Retail) (*Free 10pk CD-RW650HS Sony CDRW 650MB 74Min Media w/Purchase While Supplies Last!)
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Could be memory stick that's not fully seated, overheating problem from a faulty heatsink/fan installation or even a bad harddrive.
I'd try to push every part of the setup gently to make sure they're properly seated (especially mem sticks can take amazingly much force to seat properly.)
I hope you removed the plastic sticker from the heatsink prior to installation :D
Have you checked the system temperatures?
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If it was overheating, wouldn't it shut off and not immediately restart? I did push on all the bits and pieces, but I can always pull them out and put them back in to make sure. All the plastic should have been removed, since he paid to have MWave assemble and test all the parts.
What's a good way to check system temp?
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Do a yahoo search for MBM or Motherboard Monitor.
Its freeware, watch's system temp, cpu fan revs, voltages, & more.
As to your problem, thats a darn good question.
I'd suspect a conflict within XP myself.
Probably a sharing violation.
Look for software that will give you a list of all your irqs & see whats sharing with what.
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Asus should have sent you the "ASUS probe" with the MOBO drivers CD install it it monitors everything
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Could be a faulty power supply.
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Ya know its funny i had the same problem with a system i built for my dad cept it was a P4 system. i think the final thing i did to fix the problem was swap out the power supply!
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Well, an update for anyone else who runs into this problem, he thinks he fixed it (keeping fingers crossed, but it's been a couple days now). He ended up going into the BIOS just to see what everything looked like, and I guess his memory was set to some strange mode where it could only do one thing at a time or something. He switched it to "auto" and it hasn't restarted on him since.
Funny thing is, most of the time it was restarting, he didn't have more than one thing open anyway. Computers, can't live with 'em, costs too much to kick them out the 5th floor window. Thanks for the advice!
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Originally posted by mjolnir
...All the plastic should have been removed, since he paid to have MWave assemble and test all the parts.
I did too when I built my first machine - figuring MWave knew what they were doing better than I did. I wasn't impressed. They jammed the CDRW into a poorly formed mounting seat and damaged it, and more importantly had a BIOS setting that prevented my AMD 1800 from operating at its fastest speed. It took some help from people on this BB to get it working right.
Also the last thing I bought from MWave was a monitor which turned out to be defective. After paying shipping both ways on a defective product I've pretty much decided to stick with stuff from the local stores.
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reseat ram and check the power supply and cables.
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Another thought: check that all the fans are working and that nothing is overheating.
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have similar problems before, with aprox same configuration, my first problem was using 18 micron AMD cpu, then i put to much arctis silver all around the spacer , changed power suply, and at last ,,some frekin DRIVERS ,
yeah forget it , also managet destabilize my pc when played in Bios setup with memory timings, be sure you use not agresive setings,