computer reboots randomly

[QueBert]

My PC would reboot randomly, I thought it was the PSU so I replaced it, didn't fix it. Thought it might be the CPU fan, replaced it, same thing. I ended up dumping the PC and rebuilding a new one, only thing I transfered from the old one was the HD. It still reboots randomly, I've tried 2 different PSU's on the new rig and it's still doing it. Also tried 2 video cards. I'm thinking all that's left is it's a power problem coming from the outlet. any suggestions how I can test this without paying some electrician a ton of cash to come test things for me?
it doesn't shut down when the system is being stressed. I can play HL2 for hours with no issue, and it may or may not shut down durring play. Today it restarted when I was burning a CD, last night when I was listening to a mp3. when I try to defrag, it seems everytime I wake up I find the system has rebooted. I've even had it reboot when the system was total idle. Any ideas?


my setup now:

Athlon XP 2500+
Corsair XMS 512
Radeon 9800 Pro
Allied 550wat PSU (tried 2 totally different brands)
Seagate 200 gig IDE HD

nothing is overclocked, as for temps I have 2 80MM case fans (it's a Kingwill) and my CPU+HD. are all hooked up to my CoolerMaster Areocooler II, which displays temps. both are running at good temps. My CPU is just over 105, my HD was showing up at 87 this morning.

I'm out of ideas totally, if I have to pay somebody to come out and test my houses outlets I will, but I'm hoping there's something else I've forgotten that I can try.

 

[compso]

You could get a Seasonic Power Angel to help you investigate the power issue. I suggest you get a UPS like the Belkin 900VA from Staples. Personally I wouldn't even run the PC with those nice components on that outlet until you figure something out or test an old machine there.

 

[syconub]

well, if all your transfered was the hd, and you STILL have that problem, then what do you think it is????






(my guess is youve got a hd or software problem)
update your bios, and if that doesnt work reinstall windows and if that doesnt work, try a different hd.

 

[SolMiester]

I would have thought a memory issue, but if you only transfered the HD, then it can only be software(viral) or the power supply.....

 

[QueBert]

it could be a power issue in the house, I'm sure surges can cause issues like this. Don't think it's a XP issue because I have 2 copies installed on different partitions with the same effect... I went out and bought a new PSU today, guess it's possible I had 2 bad ones.

 

[computergeek]

Q

You and I are in the same boat and I'm about to jump ship. See previous post for more detials.

Did overclocking damage my video card

I've also tried everything I can think of and I'm just about out of ideas. My PC rebooted twice last night and my event log displayed the following message each time:

The computer has rebooted from a bugcheck. The bugcheck was: 0x1000007f (0x0000000d, 0x00000000, 0x00000000, 0x00000000). A dump was saved in: C:\WINDOWS\Minidump\Mini011205-01.dmp.

I have no idea what that means but I'm sure it's the root of my problem. Everytime the PC reboots I get the same message. If I don't figure something out soon I'm going to quit PC gaming and go back to my ATARI 2600 : )

Computer specs:
Processor ? Intel Pentium 4, 3.0 GIG, 800MHZ FSB, HT Technology
Motherboard ? Intel, 865 Chipset (Latest Chipset Drivers Installed)
RAM ? 1 GIG PC3200 DDR400 Ultra (Dual Channel)
Hard Drive ? 120 GIG, Maxtor SATA, 7200rpm, 8mb cache
Video Card ? ATI 9800 Pro, 128MB RAM (Catalyst 4.12 Drivers)
Power Supply ? Ultra 400Watt

 

[QueBert]

I checked and I had the option to automatically reboot on blue screen turned on. Now I saw a BSOD with that crappy IRQ_LESS_THEN (or whatever the hell it is) now I gotta figure out what's causing that.

 

[computergeek]

I also disabled the restart function but for some reason it didn't always stop it from rebooting. When it didn't reboot, it would just freeze at a blank BSOD.

Anyway, I finally found out what was causing my computer to reboot and thought I would pass along the info. Before my computer started rebooting my memory (512MB X 2) was setup as single channel. My motherboard fully supports dual channel, so I decided to take both of my new 512MB memory sticks and place them in dual channel mode. From what I've read, it doesn't matter if the memory you're using is dual channel or not, they just need to be identical pairs of memory placed in a mobo that supports dual channel.

Well the computer was running fine for awhile (1 day) and my bios recognized the memory as dual channel. I was thrilled because I just squeezed a little more performance out of my rig, but little did I know my joy was about to be crushed. Two days later the reboots started and were completely random.

Almost a week to this day I put the memory back in single channel mode and I haven't had a reboot since. I'm not sure if something was wrong with the dual channel setup on my mobo or my memory couldn't handle dual channel, but the computer is no longer rebooting or freezing so I'm a happy man.

Sorry for the long post but hopefully this info can help another poor sap like myself.

Take care,

Geek

Computer specs:
Processor ? Intel Pentium 4, 3.0 GIG, 800MHZ FSB, HT Technology
Motherboard ? Intel, 865 Chipset (Latest Chipset Drivers Installed)
RAM ? 1 GIG PC3200 DDR400 Ultra (Dual Channel)
Hard Drive ? 120 GIG, Maxtor SATA, 7200rpm, 8mb cache
Video Card ? ATI 9800 Pro, 128MB RAM (Catalyst 4.12 Drivers)
Power Supply ? Ultra 400Watt