random reboots and program freezes

[foQ]

For about the past month, my computer has been rebooting on its own every day or two. Also, I get random errors and programs freezing. This is most notable when I use something like winzip or winrar to extract files, one or two will have bad CRCs, but when i extract them the next time, all is OK. I don't think that it is heat related, because it runs fine with the case open or closed, and the processor (thunderbird socketA 850 with a golden orb-clone) stays at about 40C. I have tried changing the ram, I have flashed the bios, changed the power supply, updated the drivers, reformatted and reinstalled XP, and now I am ready to try a new processor, video card (shouldn't be that), and motherboard. In a perfect world, I would have the money to do all this, or at least have some friends who had an extra laying around for testing purposes. Anybody have any suggestions, or extra parts they'll give me

TIA

 

[DaiShan]

You have swapped out the power supply? Which motherboard are you using?

 

[foQ]

I have tried a different power supply, and the computer didn't reboot, but it did give me the errors extracting files and random program glitches. I only tried the other power supply for about a day, but the errors pretty much told me I wouldn't have to wait for the computer to reboot itsself. I am using a MSI k7t pro2.

my memory is generic, with NEC chips. forgot to say that earlier.

 

[sgopal2]

Sorry to hear about your aggravation. I went thru something similar about a year ago with an Athlon 750 Slot A/MSI K7Pro system that I built.

It sounds like a bus contention issue to me, which is the same problem that I had. After swapping out everything (RAM, CPU, OS, Vid card, case, memory)...I found out that the friggin motherboard was the source of the crashes.

I've not been too happy with MSI and their K7Pro product. I'm not sure if the K7TPro2 is any better. Here is what I would do:

1) Get some better memory: crucial.com or mushkin.com. If you can't afford this, run Memtest86 overnight and see how many memory holes you find. If you find none, then
2) Check to see if your PS is AMD approved. If not, get one that is. If not then,
3) Swap everything out and put it into another motherboard.

I'm running an Athlon XP 1700+ with an Epox 8KHA+ and it hasn't crashed once since the day I built it.

 

[foQ]

Thanks for the advice, thought that is really the last thing i wanted to hear. Here's a question for you: why do you thnk it started doing it out of the blue? Did you ever figure that out with yours?