Why does new system keep resetting?

[Dan]

I built a new system for someone a couple of weeks ago. Nothing fancy, just a Soyo-Tek K7V-EM mobo with a Duron 950MHz CPU, Volcano 6cu+ HSF and a 512MB stick of generic (OEM) PC-133 SDRAM. The OS was initially WinXP PRO. The guy called within a few days to say the system kept resetting itself at random intervals.

I checked it out, reseated the RAM, etc., configured the bios settings for the default conservative settings and ran a CPU stability test for 4 hours with no resets. Nothing on the system is overclocked. I also set up a dual boot for the guy so he now has WinXP and Win98SE.

One week has passed and I have the system back again. He says it still resets itself, athough not as often.

The guy wants to drop WinXP and just use Win98SE. Since that's the case I'm going to replace the generic 512MB RAM with a 256MB stick of Kingston RAM.

One other note: Whenever I test the system it's plugged into a surge suppressor. The guy tells me he uses one also but I have no idea what the quality of his is like.

Other than the RAM, what else should I check as a cause of the resetting?

Related Note: This system, and another one I'm working on have a similar problem. On startup the monitor sometimes doesn't get a signal. Both boot up normally, but the monitor is dark with a red LED, indicating that they're not getting a signal. After a couple of resets both pick up a video signal. Both systems have motherboards with onboard video (different manufacturers). What's up that?

 

[stukincalifornia]

It sounds like you have the system set to reboot when a stop error occurs. Have you checked that setting? Have you checked the Event Viewer to see if any stop errors have occurred?

Good luck.

 

[Theslowone]

What power supply are you using, a cheap low wattage power supply would make your system act this way. The ram is very possible though.
I would replace the ram like you talked about, make sure you have the newest bios, and if the ram doesn't work I would try a different power supply.

It is even possible that you are shorting out your mobo to the case, if so then that would cause resets as well.

 

[TexDotCom]

I had reboots in Win2k Pro SP2 mostly when playing games but at other times, too. It was on a Duron 700 @ 933 MHz and 384 MB PC133 Crucial SDRAM. I tried everything I could think of to no avail, including putting the thing right in front of the AC unit so I could rule out a heat issue. The breakthrough came when I upped the voltage to the CPU a bit. It was at 1.725 and I went to 1.775 with it. The machine was VERY stable from then on out. I even went to 1.85 volts and was able to OC the chip to 1 GHz and it is rock stable. So, you might consider upping the voltage just a bit at a time (if the mobo allows it, of course) to see if this helps. Cooling should not be an issue with that HSF even with the increased voltage.

Can't help you on the monitor issue, but I have one quesiton...If he was happy using WinXP Pro and is now not happy, why doesn't he go to Win2k Pro? It looks a lot like Win98se, but is A LOT more stable? Just a thought.

Hope this helps.