Random Reboots During Boot Up Process

chebner

Junior Member
Mar 31, 2005
6
0
0
I recently built a computer for my parents and they are having a problem with it. When booting up it will randomly reboot a few times before it finally boots all the way to the desktop. Once it gets to the desktop it is fine and will not randomly reboot. I have built several computers and have never experienced anything like this.

Since it only happens during the boot up process I?m thinking it?s the power supply, but the power supply is only 14 months old. In December I built a new computer for myself and I was originally using this power supply and I had no problems like this at all, and my computer is a little higher end so would require more power. Here is a list of what parts were used for my parents computer with the problem:

Motherboard: Asus A8V Deluxe Brand New
Processor: Athlon64 3200 939 Brand New
RAM: OCZ 1GB DDR400 (2 512MB) Dual Channel Brand New
Video Card: eVGA 6600 GT AGP 128MB 71.84 Forceware Drivers Brand New
Optical Dr 1: Samsung DVD CDRW Combo Drive Brand New
Optical Dr 2: HP CDRW 9100 Series 4yrs old
Hard Drive Maxtor 60GB 7200RPM ATA 2MB Cache 4mos old
Floppy Drive None
Zip Drive Iomega 6yrs old
Power Supply Thermaltake 480W 14mos old
OS Windows XP SP2

All of the parts that aren?t brand new are from my parents? old system and worked fined in that system.

To give a little more background, I installed the OS twice, formatting the HD each time. The first time I installed the OS I installed XP with SP1. I was going to install all drivers except the video card prior to installing SP2, and then install the video driver after SP2 was installed. When I did this it would randomly reboot a lot after the machine had fully booted, not just during the boot up process. I would be installing something and it would just randomly reboot at different points.

Eventually I got frustrated and reinstalled the OS, formatting the HD. The second time I installed XP with SP1. Then I installed the Via 4 in 1 drivers and then the Forceware drivers and then SP2 for XP. After SP2 was installed I installed remaining drivers and applications. Now it reboots randomly only during the boot up process. Once it has booted fully it runs fine with no random reboots. Also, the BIOS is the latest available and the system is running at factory spec, nothing is overclocked.

My guess is the problem is the power supply. I can?t think of what else would cause it to reboot only during the boot process. If the problem was something else I would think it would reboot any time, not just during the boot up process. My other thoughts are the video card or RAM.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
 

Aeridyne

Senior member
Nov 25, 2004
242
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i dont know how many times i have dealt with similar problems. yea you are correct in assuming that it is the memory or video because it probably is. I have had numerous machines with reboot problems and it was usually because of memory incompatibility or video drivers. i would try reinstalling and installing the drivers in a different order. install windows, install the board drivers, direct x (which might require sp1), video, then service packs and other windows updates. other than that i would mess with the bios settings. hope that helps.
 

Tipnmo101

Senior member
Sep 18, 2000
451
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I just built a new computer for my bro who is about to head of to college, and i am having the same damn problem. I have done the same things trying to correct it, but i believe it is because i used a 350w 20pin PSU on a pci-e 24pin system. I am working on getting a new PSU to test my theory, i will let you know if it helps
 

wcoffey

Junior Member
Nov 19, 2004
24
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check the bios version. there are three revisions. the first revision fixes a reboot issue
 

chebner

Junior Member
Mar 31, 2005
6
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I figured out the problem, bad RAM. I ran memtest for 7+ hours and got 84,000 + errors. The RAM I was using was OCZ4001024V3DC-K P. Beware of this RAM, I noticed another post where someone had the same RAM and was having the same problems as me. Could be a coincidence, but beware. I through in an old stick of Samsung 512 DDR400 from my old computer, and it works fine.