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NickM
Wed 31st May '06, 11:29pm
Hey guys. I'm having a little problem with my computer.
My computer is running on XP Pro on a P4 1.6 ghz processor on an ECS motherboard, 512 mb PC133 RAM, 120 GB HD, CDRW, 128 MB Radeon 9200, and a generic 300v PSU.

My computer restarts randomly.

When i first encountered this problem, i opened up my box, powered it on, and saw that my CPU fan wasnt spinning. I assumed that it was just a heating issue and my fan had died. I replaced that the same day, and the problem continued.

I then thought that there may have been some corrupt file, or a driver that was clashing with XP, so i uninstalled it and attempted to reinstall it. It went through formatting just fine, and rebooted as usual to continue the install process. The computer then froze while installing XP and I haven't been able to install an OS, or have it on long enough to install anything without it freezing.

I ran memtest86 to see if it was a memory problem, and it came back fine. As i said before, I know its not a heating problem either. I tested the HD on another computer, and that worked fine. From reading off some other sites, I believe that it could be the motherboard or the PSU, however I may be wrong, and if I am right I'm not sure how to test them to determine which.

Sorry if the information is a bit jumbled, any help would be greatly appreciated.

-Nick

Kiwi76
Wed 31st May '06, 11:49pm
It could be either, but in most cases like this it's the power supply. If you have another onhand, you can try testing another.

NickM
Wed 31st May '06, 11:54pm
Thanks Kiwi, I've got a few older power supplies but i dont think either of them have sufficient wattage.

Thanks for the input though :)

Kiwi76
Wed 31st May '06, 11:57pm
Could you possibly test this power supply in another computer?

NickM
Thu 1st Jun '06, 12:10am
Haha. Yeah i could do that. I feel so stupid for not thinking of that before.

Thanks once again!

T.S.
Fri 2nd Jun '06, 9:13am
See if any of the capacitors on your motherboard look bad...... corroded, bulging, or leaking.

padmaster
Sun 4th Jun '06, 3:00pm
What kind of CPU fan are you running? Is it plugged into the mobo or straight to the PS?

I had a similar problem a couple of years ago. Turns out the CPU fan was pulling more power than the mobo(MSI) could handle. It would POST then reboot. I bought an adapter and plugged the fan directly to the PS.....problem solved.