UGN Security Forums UGN Security: Knowledge Base Electronics System Rebooting

I want your opinion on this....
My machine just randomly reboots all the time all. It is always different circumstances aswell. I was listening to music on winamp and programming and assignment in Borland JBuilder earlier and it rebooted for no reason at all.

It's done it before aswell, there have been times when i have left it on its own doing nothing and i come back to find it has rebooted and waiting on the XP login screen.

But it isn't restricted to just Windows either. Yesterday i was trying to setup the machine to dual boot XP and Linux i was booting from Core Distro boot disk pressed backspace to fix a typo and it rebooted.

What could it be?? The power supply, processor, RAM, Mobo. I want to fix it but i don't know where to start.

Any of you experienced this before...

Machine Specs:
Athlon XP 1700+
512mb PC2100 DDR RAM (2x256mb stick different manufactuers)
Maxtor 120gb 8mbcache 7200rpm HD
GeForce 4 MX 440 64mb

(will check Mobo make and RAM asap)

thanks...

I have had this problem, and I think it was due to a cooling issue. I opened the case and cleaned it with compressed air, then added another fan. It seemed to solve the problem. I also took the case out of the hole in the computer desk to improve air flow. It could be a power supply issue if you are drawing more power than it can handle. I would start by a good cleaning and improving circulation in the case, if that doesn't work, I would definitely look at the power supply next.

I just pulled the machine apart and gave it a good clean. found a big chunk of dust in the cpu fan pulled it all out and cleaned the rest of it.
I have some temperature monitoring software aswell now.

Just gonna see what happens now...

I hope it works out.

It could be the processor, in one way or another, whether it's from heat or just an internal error. Maybe it has a bad block of internal cache. I overclocked a cpu and fried it, afterwords it rebooted randomly. Sometimes it had blue screens sometimes it just rebooted.

It could alternatively be some aspect of your motherboard that has become corrupted.

Usually when you get ram errors your machine will start and run fine, but you will just get a lot of odd and critical errors in the process.

That could explain it...
I have previously overclocked this processor, but it isn't at the moment.

I did clean out the processor fan but it did it again pretty soon. I installed some temperature monitoring software aswell, and i noticed before it rebooted it said it was 31c and 40c when it came back on. Thats quite a big jump in a small time.

I think i'll look into getting a new processor, i had been meaning to upgrade anyway.

Hello.
Provide the motherboard and power supply unit specifications. Start with a voltage setting using a multimeter to determine a problem from the power supply unit. Replace the AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU HSF with a larger suitable HSF as the orginal HSF were insufficient in cooling. State the motherboard specification as it is important in this instant.

i am sorry if reply is out of date but i just got a computer from overseas and it does the same thing i have 80gb hard drive 512 ddr 400 ram one stick 300w ps amdathlon xp 2000+ 2 fans geforce fx 5200+ 128 mb and i cant find the problem i dont think they over clocked the cpu becaus when i go to the windows properties it says amd athlon xp 2000+ and is going at 1.6 ghz so can any one help and if worse comes to worse how much would it be for a amd 2000+ and mobo or amd3000+ and mobo

300w power supply? if that where my system i woudlnt' have anything less than a 450w supply; the requirements would easily bypass the power available and it could be one reason for shutdown. Best to monitor the requirements of each device

Hello.
crasy.The 300Watt Power Supply Unit is suitable for your system as meets minimum requirements. Each person may have thier own type of problem. Exchanging hardware from another system of the same specifications will determine a faulty component.

Res, have you taken each component and logged its voltage? the average of what he has would be more than 300w in most cases; in any case should he need to upgrade it oculd additionally be an issue.

As for "testing hardware" testing isn't just something that'll take three seconds to determine as it's intermittant if I'm reading correctly...

Hello.
As the specifications crasy stated it seems the Power Supply Unit meets its requirements. The concern of overloading the power supply may be from the amperage the CPU draws, additional expansion devices and multiple drive devices. Purchasing a new power supply as Gizmo mentioned a 450Watt will eliminate intermittent faults and power level fluctuations while keeping the system for a long time and allow further upgrades. A power supply it worth what it weighs.

Yeh, my new PC has a 500w power supply, eliminating the need for a new one down the road... Additionally the power supply has 2 fans built in to dispurse heat issues ...

[img]http://store1.yimg.com/I/yhst-1568194807313_1819_2764919[/img]

And yes, that is a knob to adjust the speed of the fan's in the power supply.

well just in case it was the power suply i just ;upgraded to a 450w ps today and i turned it on it was going great until it did the same thing again\
when i play a game
when i burn w
when it is doing nothing
when i try to instal anything
when i am typing a paper or search ing the inter net

Hummm, you should get a heat monitor to see if it's something heat related... Some motherboards have a bios setting that will turn off the system should the heat become a critical issue.

Myself I like the Enermax 6 Fan Adjuster w/LED temper.../I/yhst-1568194807313_1819_3910675[/img]

Hello.
crasy which motherboard brand, model and revision is in your system?

yea man sorry it took so long but i did not know becasue when i bought it it was mostly together i did not have a box or papers with the mother board well it is a Mercury ver 3.0 kvm266me
that is all that is says onthe board there is no bios althere is is a screen that asks what u wish to boot with and that is it when on xp pro in system proportys and under divice manager itsays i have a athlon xp 2000+ with 1.6 ghz and a gig of ram so what would be the problem

when i boaugt it the guy said it kept shuting off so he wanted to get rid of it so i got it for 100 bucks with all this stuff good deal but now i know he over clocked it i think he did it to much but i need help declocking it so canu help

i think i know were the jumpercable is but i dont know and i dont want to declock it too much because it is working good now but gets to hot and restarts. so what should i do
ps. it say mercury kobian.com when it turns on instead of shoing the mother boards name

i scratch that it is a kvm266pm-u ver3.0

Hello.
The problem may be the CPU depending upon the extent the person had overclocked it. The BIOS interface is entered by selecting a specific key.
The information stated in device manager is correct.
The CPU FSB jumper is on default 266MHz.
crasy use spell checker as it has a purpose.

sorry i dont spell good but hea we are all human
well back to subject if there was somthing wrong with the cpu wouldn't it just not work like not turn on but if it is in normal condition i think that the fsb jumper is on to hi but i dont know where it is and how to place it so any help and diagrams or if it is not even the jumper the ration in the bios is off. and i tryied every key i know f8 f4 f12 f5 f2 f1 all the ffs and all that came up was the safe mode startup screen and the choose the drive u wish to start up with so i choose the hard drive than it starts up there is no bios i think or i cant get to it

Hello.
The person may have damaged or unlocked the CPU which presents a permanent problem. Leave the CPU FSB jumper as it is on default. Press DEL or specific key on post to enter bios. The manufacturer has no manual for the model online therefore you will have to work with trial and error.

i flashed the bios and upgraded it
now when i go in to cpu setup it says it is going at 166
and there is an option of how you could overclock the cpu and it was on disable so i left it there now if i press f7 it made the defalt settings and i exited and saved
the same problem keeps happening and i took out all the extras like dvd drive nividia card i now used the onboard stuff but it still happens the temp go up very fast from 78 to 132 f but i turned the fans on full now it is like realy noisy so can u help