SN41G2 Random Reboots

[SLCentral]

My SN41G2 has been randomlly rebooting every 20 minutes or so, while playing games, surfing the internet, listening to music, ANYTHING. It started all of a sudden. I have recently added a 9500 Pro, but it was working for about two weeks with the card installed just fine.

SN41G2
Athlon XP 2400+
256MB Crucial PC2700
200GB Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 128MB
Compaq CD-RW 4x4x32x

Any ideas as to why this is happening? Nothing's overclocked, and according to HMonitor, the motherboard is usually around 50 degrees Celcius! The processor is also about 50! The HD stays at around 35-40. Started completely randomly, I didn't do anything. I'm formatting now, I don't know how this would help but...

Just today I turned it on and it didn't restart at all for at least an hour of MOHAA, but I don't think the problem is fixed. I wanted it to restart to see if the CPU Overheat light would go on, at least that would target the problem.

Please help!

 

[JetBlack69]

Make sure the fan on the 9500 Pro is running. When I installed mine, I was nervous about the offwhite cord that connects over by the AGP slot and the fan on the 9500 pro. What video card were you using before the Radeon? Did you use the onboard video? If you did, did you uninstall the nVidia drivers first before installing the Radeon?

EDIT: also that CPU temp seems high for idle. My max is 53 under load and 40 something idle. You might want to check to see if the heatsink moved or something.

 

[SLCentral]

Jet, thanks for the quick reply. The fan on the 9500 is working fine, I leave my case open now to keep it cooler. I used to use onboard video, but I formatted with the installation of the Radeon card. I'll check the heatsink as soon as the installation is done.

And one other thing. There is a IDE cable hovering about an inch over the chipset fan, would this be a problem?

EDIT: I should mention that at first boot the temp is about 35-40 for all of them, but it rises up to around 48 in 5 minutes. After loading MOHAA and playing for 10-15 minutes, it goes to about 53, and then goes down to 50-51 and stays there.

 

[JetBlack69]

It sounds like from your last post that you formatted and reinstalled XP and was waiting for it to finish. Any update?

 

[SLCentral]

OK Im back in Windows, the temps are still the same, but I was playing MOHAA on the highest settings for about an hour with no problems whatsoever, so things are looking good. Strange how high the temps are. Should I maybe add some more Arctic Silver thermal on the processor?

 

[JetBlack69]

No, you want a THIN layer on the core of the processor. If you put too much on it, it will be worse. Glad to hear that the other problem is fixed. :beer:

 

[SLCentral]

Yeah, I know that you don't want to put too much, but I'm thinking I didn't put enough because when I first built the system (my first home-built PC), I didn't put enough and it would shutdown when loading Windows Setup. I did add more, but did I add enough if it has been working since now or not?

Thanks, glad it's running, it's my gaming PC and of course I rely on it.