weird random reboot problem..Please Help!

[tizodq]

here is my problem. Ill be on my computer and all of a sudden the monitor will shut off but the computer will stay on and the only way to get out of it was to reboot. This was happening for a while. Now what it does is it will just reboot itself after some time. My first guess is the hard drive as it is about 3-4 years old and starting to make a lot of noise when put to work. Here are my stats

Epox 8k3a+ raid
512 samsung memory
amd 2000+
antec tru 430 watt ps
1 cdrom
4 hard drives

all suggestions wanted. I am just not sure if a hard drive could be causing this random reboot problem or if it is something else

 

[tizodq]

anyone?

 

[John P]

If it wasn't for the first part with the monitor I would guess your motherboard is shorting out on something.

The only real way to figure out your problem is the process of elimination. Do you have any spare parts laying around? I would first try a different video card. If it kept rebooting I would then try a different power supply.

Do you have one or two sticks of memory? If 2 try taking one out.

If none of that works then it's either the motherboard or hard drive, I don't see how a hard drive would make your computer reboot though. I had the random reboot problem before, it turned out to be my motherboard - I had an extra standoff in that caused it to short out - even after I removed the extra standoff it kept rebooting so I had to replace it, I guess I fried it.

What OS are you using? If you are using Win XP make sure you turn off the automatic reboot thingy - see FAQ in General Hardware.

 

[tizodq]

thnx for the help john.....ill try that tomorrow morning

im scanning my hd to make sure that there aren't any bad sectors on it.....ive ran memory tests on the memory and its fine.

i have an extra vid card and im gonna try that tomorrow along with a hd. im also gonna reinstall the os and see if that helps. im using winme right now (don't ask) and gonna put on win2k

my problem seems to happen after its been running for a while......not after a fresh reboot unless i really stress the computer with a game or something

 

[John P]

The reboots I had with my fried/shorted mb were absolutely totally random - no order at all to them.

Luckily I had an ECS K7S5A laying around to upgrade my kids machine, I threw that in my machine and haven't had a reboot since (knocks on wood).

 

[jer22]

I guess your kids out of luck, ehh john. HeHe.?

 

[John P]

I guess your kids out of luck, ehh john. HeHe.?

Nope, I picked him up an Abit KG7 - check my sig - Kids Rig #2. I recently upgraded both Kids machines to Win XP also, got sick of messing with disappearing joysticks in Win98