Before I summarize the problem here are the specs of my computer:
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200
Mobo: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR
GPU: Geforce 7800GT
RAM: G.Skill 2x1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500
HD: Seagate Barracuda 200GB
PSU: Antec TruePower 650 Watt
OS: Windows XP SP2
Background about the computer:
I built the computer in January of '06. Had problems in the past with PSU's and the Antec one is currently my third. In Fall of '07 the Northbridge fan started making more noise than usual. I opened up the computer to see if something was knocking into it but there was no visible disturbance. I had planned on replacing the Northbridge fan but I never got around to it. In Spring of '08 the noise stopped and I just figured the fan had broken and again I planned on replacing it. However, when I checked my temperature monitor the Northbridge did not seem to be overheating so I forgot about it. Probably a bad call on my part. Anyways when I opened up the computer last Fall to dust it out the fan fell off the mobo. It had apparently broken in half and had melted in some parts but had not done any damage to the mobo. Again I put off getting a new fan.
Also, occasionally my computer would randomly restart. This would happen most noticeably when extracting files with Winrar. While not frequent, it only ever restarted while using Winrar.
The problem:
A few days ago I was in the middle of playing a game when my computer randomly restarted. I didn't think much of it and let it restart. I ended up leaving my house for the rest of the day and when I came home that night it was frozen on my screensaver. When I manually restarted the computer it would get to the Windows XP loading bar and then restart. I thought maybe something was overheating so I left the computer off for a few hours and then tried starting it again. The computer managed to boot into Windows but froze up after about 5 minutes. Since then, Windows still crashes on the Windows loading bar. Every time I restart I'm given the option to boot Windows in Safemode (with different options) or to just load normally. I manged to boot into Safemode once successfully, and since then it crashes before loading Windows. The one time I made it into safemode,I figured it was HD problem, so I enabled checkdisk to run on restart. On the restart the computer made it about 30% through P4 checkdisk before restarting itself. Afterward, it would just restart 20 - 30 seconds after beginning the checkdisk process if it could even it make that far. I removed the HD and plugged it into a different computer as a slave and ran checkdisk successfully there. No problems turned up. When I plugged the HD back into my computer it was still crashing right before booting up Windows. I then plugged the HD into a different computer as the master and Windows booted up fine despite driver issues. So it appears my HD is fine. This leads me to believe that maybe the Northbridge on my mobo is causing the problems by possibly overheating.
Currently, I'm wondering what I should do next to try and find the problem with my computer and also how I could test to see if the Northbridge is actually the issue.
Thanks in advance for any helpful insight.
EDIT: One other thing of interest. I plugged a different hd into the computer, which had Vista installed on it, and my computer booted up into Vista. However, it bluescreened after about 1 minute due to some hardware or driver issue.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200
Mobo: DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 SLI-DR
GPU: Geforce 7800GT
RAM: G.Skill 2x1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500
HD: Seagate Barracuda 200GB
PSU: Antec TruePower 650 Watt
OS: Windows XP SP2
Background about the computer:
I built the computer in January of '06. Had problems in the past with PSU's and the Antec one is currently my third. In Fall of '07 the Northbridge fan started making more noise than usual. I opened up the computer to see if something was knocking into it but there was no visible disturbance. I had planned on replacing the Northbridge fan but I never got around to it. In Spring of '08 the noise stopped and I just figured the fan had broken and again I planned on replacing it. However, when I checked my temperature monitor the Northbridge did not seem to be overheating so I forgot about it. Probably a bad call on my part. Anyways when I opened up the computer last Fall to dust it out the fan fell off the mobo. It had apparently broken in half and had melted in some parts but had not done any damage to the mobo. Again I put off getting a new fan.
Also, occasionally my computer would randomly restart. This would happen most noticeably when extracting files with Winrar. While not frequent, it only ever restarted while using Winrar.
The problem:
A few days ago I was in the middle of playing a game when my computer randomly restarted. I didn't think much of it and let it restart. I ended up leaving my house for the rest of the day and when I came home that night it was frozen on my screensaver. When I manually restarted the computer it would get to the Windows XP loading bar and then restart. I thought maybe something was overheating so I left the computer off for a few hours and then tried starting it again. The computer managed to boot into Windows but froze up after about 5 minutes. Since then, Windows still crashes on the Windows loading bar. Every time I restart I'm given the option to boot Windows in Safemode (with different options) or to just load normally. I manged to boot into Safemode once successfully, and since then it crashes before loading Windows. The one time I made it into safemode,I figured it was HD problem, so I enabled checkdisk to run on restart. On the restart the computer made it about 30% through P4 checkdisk before restarting itself. Afterward, it would just restart 20 - 30 seconds after beginning the checkdisk process if it could even it make that far. I removed the HD and plugged it into a different computer as a slave and ran checkdisk successfully there. No problems turned up. When I plugged the HD back into my computer it was still crashing right before booting up Windows. I then plugged the HD into a different computer as the master and Windows booted up fine despite driver issues. So it appears my HD is fine. This leads me to believe that maybe the Northbridge on my mobo is causing the problems by possibly overheating.
Currently, I'm wondering what I should do next to try and find the problem with my computer and also how I could test to see if the Northbridge is actually the issue.
Thanks in advance for any helpful insight.
EDIT: One other thing of interest. I plugged a different hd into the computer, which had Vista installed on it, and my computer booted up into Vista. However, it bluescreened after about 1 minute due to some hardware or driver issue.
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