Random Reboots

[thewholeshow]

I just built my new computer and it seems that about every 5 mins it just reboots. Is there anyway to test it to see what part it is.


MSI RS480
AMD 64 3000+
WD 160GB 8MB
500 Watt Aspire Power Suply
512MB DDR 400

 

[Nobe0]

You might consider checking the HSF and making sure it's on tight. My Motherboard came with a backpanel, and I couldn't remove it, so I used it with my Zalman. The first time I turned on my compuer, the glue melted and it loosened up and caused reboots. It wasn't tight enough against the CPU and was causing it to over heat and my Motherboard to automatically reboot or shut down the computer.

Doesn't sound like it, but doesn't hurt to check.

 

[Valkerie]

Be more specific with what's happening. It could be a faulty motherboard. Anything.

 

[thewholeshow]

Every 5 minutes it just resets, no idea why.

 

[ThePiston]

is this problem new? did you add something lately? remove one stick of ram at a time... when ram fills up to a point where there's a bad part, you'll get errors at about the same time

 

[thewholeshow]

I did memtest for about 3 hours and it was fine. Only one stick of ram and everything is new.

 

[ThePiston]

you could always reinstall windows with a repair install, that would take about 30 mins and rule out a hardware problem if it worked.

 

[thewholeshow]

Windows installed fine. Im in windows and it just reboots.

 

[ThePiston]

hardware then, remove everything that has a driver but video card - and see if it still happens, then add stuff one by one

 

[thewholeshow]

So I should reformat and reinstall windows. I have another hardrive and when I use the other hardrive instead I never got a reboot so far.

 

[ThePiston]

no, you cn just reinstall windows as usual, boot into the XP cd then act as if you're going to install XP, it will give you an optin of repair or new install, choose repair. i did this last night ad my box, which wouldn't boot up al lthe way, works perfectly now. all your programs and stuff will still be on there, you will have to go to windows update for some stuff afterward though, but that's it.

 

[thewholeshow]

I reinstalled using a normal cd, before I was using my brothers that had SP2. I think SP2 is the problem, because everything works fine now, but I tried to instal SP2 and each time when it says creating restore point it resets. Anything I can do? Or whats causing this?

 

[thewholeshow]

Without SP2 is there anyway of using all 160GB of my hardrive?