PSU problem?

[Bretagus]

Hey, my computer has been suffering from seemingly random ailments, and enjoys rebootings at random, and was wondering what the symptoms of a dying PSU are.

 

[spanky]

sounds like it.

 

[Retro2001]

Hi. It could also be a problem with bad memory or high CPU temps. What kind of processor are you using and what kind of temps are you getting? Also have you made any recent changes to your system configuration?

Peace,
will

 

[Bretagus]

Specs:
Dual PIII 733mhz
2 128mb Crucial PC133
Tyan Tiger 133 (Apollo Pro chipset, or something like that...)
GeForceII GTS 64mb
Soundblaster Platinum
Maxtor 40gig

Temps seldom go above 30c idle, and 40c stressed.

The only system changes have been dumbing my system down. I get the "infinate loop error" that is afflicting many NVidia and VIA owners, but no software/hardware combos have fixed it. And as previously stated, I get random crashes etc frequently.

I ran Memtest86 for a long time, with no errors... and have tried switching memory banks. Also my motherboard ignores the jumpers for clock speed, as I have tried to underclock my cpus, and they still clock at 733. Go figure.

Any help in any of the aforementioned areas will be greatly appreciated. Many thanks (in advance),
Bretagus

 

[Retro2001]

If you can run memtest for long periods of time, I would think that its more likely a configuration problem than the PSU. Do the crashes coinside with any extra hard drive activity or anything of that nature?

Peace,
will

 

[Bretagus]

In a random, strange turn of events:

I installed Windows98 on a 5 gig partition. I immediatly download 3dmark2001, which normally crashed/BSOD'd before the end of the test. My soundcard was plugged in, but no drivers. Just my NIC and my GeForce II. It worked. I slowly built the system up (updated) and it continued to work, until...

I installed the latest Creative Drivers for my SoundBlaster Platinum and 3dmark froze. I promptly unistalled the drivers, yet it froze again. I removed the card (physically) and deleted all instances of Creative in my registry/system, and yet it still froze.

Is there some freaky driver incompatibility between the point releases of SoundBlaster and NVidia drivers or something? And if so, why are the drivers sticking around after uninstall and physical removal.

Ugg,
Bretagus

 

[Bretagus]

In a random, strange turn of events:

I installed Windows98 on a 5 gig partition. I immediatly download 3dmark2001, which normally crashed/BSOD'd before the end of the test. My soundcard was plugged in, but no drivers. Just my NIC and my GeForce II. It worked. I slowly built the system up (updated) and it continued to work, until...

I installed the latest Creative Drivers for my SoundBlaster Platinum and 3dmark froze. I promptly unistalled the drivers, yet it froze again. I removed the card (physically) and deleted all instances of Creative in my registry/system, and yet it still froze.

Is there some freaky driver incompatibility between the point releases of SoundBlaster and NVidia drivers or something? And if so, why are the drivers sticking around after uninstall and physical removal.

Ugg,
Bretagus