Comp keeps restarting

[moonbit]

I built a computer for my nephew a couple of months ago.

Specs:
Sempron LE-1150
ECS AMD690GM-M2
2 x 1Gb GSkill DD2-800
Excelsior Jupiter 80Gb HD
Lite On IDE DVD burner
Gigabyte PCI Wireless adapter
Antec NeoHE...eh I think it's 500W...used about 4-6 mo before I put it in there
Apevia X-Gear case w/ 2 80mm LCD fans & 1 120mm LCD fan
(he's 8, it was about bling, not performance)

Anyway, so now it's having problems with restarting. It boots into Windows (XP home), but then restarts anytime from instantly to 5 minutes later. My brother in law replaced the PSU (probably with the piece of junk that came with the case, shouldn't have given it to him), but no help. Right now I have them trying to repair the Windows installation and/or run a virus scan to see if they get anywhere. I'm two hours away, though I might get to see the computer physically this weekend. My brother in law knows his way around the inside of a computer, but he tends to build crash-prone heaps (as opposed to my lovely paragons of stability...except this one).

Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[robisbell]

well, would need to know if event viewer is showing anything, run a minimum 6 hour run with memtest86+, and also manually test the PSU with a multimeter, and check voltages and temps with PC Wizard.

 

[jackschmittusa]

Could be a corrupted drive or Windows file. Maybe the Chinese hd is have hiccups.

Try booting it from a "live cd" Linux distro and see if the problem persists. If the problem goes away, the hardware is likely good.