Looknig for a good deal or help!

[OneManArmy]

My computer Randomly hard boots all the time, usually while playing a game. Some games make it hard boot faster than others. ite even done it while in photoshop and while surfing hte internet. I've replaced the video card and Power supply. I've run mem tester and no errors, I've run CPU testers and no errors. I'm jsut so friggen lost. so next im thinknig of replaceing the HD because thats the oldest thing in my comp i think. The CPU and MOBO were bought back in jan. and i think the HD is older (got it out of my fathers pc)

I jsut dont know what to do, So I've scoured pricewatch.com for the best prices on cpu/mobo combos and on HD's and unless anone has any ideas ima start replacing parts and was jsut wondering if anyone knows of an better deals?

[Ait'al]

to start, Hard booting is only when the power stops going through your computer. Sooo... If it really is you may want to check your power connection inside and outside your comp. Loose power wires etc. What exactly does it do?? Jump to a screen and start over like when you turn off hte power? If so you really should check the pwer supply connecter form the PSUs connector and find a way to check it on the mother board side, and look at the power cord and make sure it doesnt easily loose conection. IE turn on your ocmp and wiggle it! if it makes the same thing happen spend 5 bucks on a new cord.

The other thing is to make sure you dont have to many things running, overloading the PSU. Whats your PSU size etc and what are the components in your computer? you could be reving up using programs and you hit too much power usage.

Your going to have to list all the stuff in your comp anyway so we can tell you what you need to look into.

[OneManArmy]

what i mean is my computer restarts. power cord is fine. suppose it could be the motherboard side of things. as i said it happens mostly while playing games. but i dont think its heat related because its too random sometimes i can play for hours and other times for a few minutes, and Ive never seen the cpu temp rise above 43/45C or the system temp rise above 35c but i suppose the temps its telling me could be false...bah...i dont know

and the specs are

420w entec Power supply (new)
AMD XP 2500+
768mb PC2700 RAM
ATI 9800 pro
santa cruz sound card.
40gig western digital HD
52x memorex cdrw
floppy, keyboard, mouse.
2 case fans.
windows xp

[Ait'al]

I didnt mean temputure or overheating i meant to much voltage being sucked from the PSU and possibly a power vaccum that makes everything restart. Like to high demand form a too small PSU. But that 420 look like it should be fine? Unless im wrong. Ive never really gotten to have a comp with that situation.

Rbstr get in here and tell me what you think.

I think theres something more sinister involved here but the mother board could be it??? but i have no way of knowing that at this point?! Have a spare mother board around to test it. 8) and you sure nothing was bumping the power button. JK

We need pics of everything in your comp. Pics Pics Pics!

[OneManArmy]

my voltage readings seem odd, but even so it was doing this before with my other PS so I dont know wtf is going on...sigh

my voltage readings as according to MBM are


+3.3v = 2.66
+5v = 4.97
+12v = 12.34
-12v = -11.94
-5v = -5.09

[Ait'al]

did you end up with bigger PSU last time? maybe that is what the problem is after all? I dont know how to tell though, even from that so... Wait for Rbstr or someone else who has had to deal with edging on requirments for PSUs limits in there comps. You might just ahve to get a PSU with like 500-550 Watt.

Im having a brain seizure here soo..... i htink if it loses power in your bios it will auto restart. Dont remember anything. 8\ Not the cmos. that will just cause lock up or something. It could be...

[Sentrosi]

Something you may want to look at is your multiplier settings for your mobo. I had this problem when I first got my Epox 8RDA+. It would load windows fine but any game I loaded up could only be played for about 5 minutes, then the PC would restart completely from boot.

[OneManArmy]

and do what with it? I mean its set up correctly for my cpu.

[Daleon]

So thats soft booting. Your 3.3v rail is rather low, not sure if thats normal or what, i'll have to check a few of my home systems to see. Rest are not to bad but your defintely pulling a little more power than your PSU can push. You usually want a little excess. So a quality psu, enermax/sparkle, may be in order.

Also you know WinXP will automatically reboot if it gets a fatal exception. Go into system properties > advanced > startup recovery settings and uncheck automatically reboot for system failure. Then check your event log > sys for the error if there is any.

Could be video drivers causing the error or problems with supplying clean power to the video card. Try turning fast writes off in bios and smartgart also.

[TheRagingGerbil]

Sounds like the same issues I was having a few months ago. Turned out to be a burnt out voltage regulator in my PSU. THis resulted in the mobo drawing to many amps through the power plug, burning up one of the contactors. The system would run just fine then reboot, or sometimes it wouldn't even post. It was originally a 400W supply, which I replaced with a 550W supply. I havn't had any problems since.

One burnt plug...

[_-Gunslinger-_]

A hard boot is when a computer reboots without proporly shutting down. Make sure that your motherboard temp failsafe is set to ~60C. That could be the culprate and do what Daleon said for XP.

[Daleon]

Hmm, guess its different terminolgy then. I work with server admins every day at almost every fortune 500 company in the world on their global messaging systems. When I ask them to softboot it means restart and when I say cold boot it means shut the fuk down and cut power for atleast 10 seconds heh.

[Ait'al]

the original and correct are softboot which is a sytstem software induced restart where no power is stopsgoing through the board(but generaly refers to when you hit Alt Cntr Del). Hard boot anything else that cuts power to the computer period(but usually refering to when you hit yoru power switch on and off!!!! is also any other purposeful cut of pwer to your computer with the intent of turning it back on later!!, up until the point it considered a power shortage, even techincally if you get a blue screen pull the pwer plug and go seee am ovie and come back and plug it back in. If your doing it with any real purpose of fixing the problem in any way!). Has been since the begining of computers!!!! everything else it misinformation or ignorance. 8) OK! beleive me there is a lot of misinformation now. You should treasure the wisdom us more experienced users give at all cost, or you will never figure anything about its history ever again. Very sad predicament isnt it!!


bassicaly softboot is restart withough full system startup/ no need for post test!! ok! 8)

Hard boot is enough to restart full system restart! Almost anything besides you not doing it on purpose! cause thats a power flux etc.

Though on restart it would be considered a hard boot or "true boot up/reboot" for from the systems perspective. 8) just not considered you to be then hard booting or rebooting. Because hardbooting or true reboot was originally the only way there was, until they developed the software and the hardware to allow it to.

[OneManArmy]

well this is a brand new PS i just put in (literally yesterday) and its been doing it with my old one. ive got a 420w and i really dont have that many things running.(ive seen more run on less) video cards brand new (again literally yesterday) and it was doing it with my old card too. fastwrites are off.

I mean I know a little about this shit, which is why this is pissing me off so much. Ive turned off the autoreboot thing so it gives me a BSOD but i cant read it fast enough to tell me anything. now being the retard I am where is this log i can read?

oh and my temps are fine, I have all the warnings/ failsafes on.

[Rbstr]

It could be excessive line noise, i read an Article about it the other day, try getting a line conditioner Surge unit. If you dont want to do that, unplug as much stuff as you can thast on the same circut and see if it helps.

But i don't know that much about this stuff