K7VTA3 and XP2400+ Keeps Rebooting

[Harvey]

I set this up for a friend a few months ago, and he's waited until now to tell me this is happening. I know what to check, power supply, line voltage, temps, etc., but I was wondering if anyone else had any similar history with this combo?

TIA.

 

[o1die]

Yeah. I went through 5 boards to find one good one from Fry's. If it's still under warranty, I would return it, or try different memory and power supply. You can also check newegg for a refurb board. They have one now for $20, but it may be gone by the time you read this.

 

[Harvey]

Thx. The memory is Kingston PC2700 ValueRam, which should be ok for stock office apps with no o/c. The vid card is a PNY GF 440MX. All are new.

I'll keep going through the usual steps. I was just wondering if this was a known problem.

 

[o1die]

The most common problem with the 5 boards I tried was a no post situation. I would have to hit the reset switch on the case, and the second time, the board usually posted and ran fine. Only other recommendation is to do a format and fresh install of all components. Windows will list error messages if you change one of the settings. I'm not sure how it's done. Perhaps someone else will tell you, if you're interested in starting a log to determine your exact problem.

 

[Harvey]

Thx for the replies. The machine boots with no problem. It just spontaneously reboots a lot.

I don't think it has anything to do with the software. Since he was running Win 98 on his old machine, I just continued that so it isn't vulnerable to the viruses that reboot XP and 2K systems.

He's a friend so I'll go through the usual dance to figure it out. Your input is still helpful because at least, you haven't had this problem. At this point, I'm guessing it's either the power supply or something unique to this board.

 

[Peter]

The voltages might be low, the cooling marginal, or the RAM defective. That covers about 99 percent of all spontaneous reboots, actually.