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Unexpected Restarts - A Little Help, Here?

1K views 7 replies 4 participants last post by  ReeKorl 
#1 · (Edited)
Hi. I built this computer about two months ago, and it's been running very smoothly except for one problem; every so often, out of the blue, it'll restart. All of the lights flash (simultaneously, kinda creepy because I have some blue cold cathode lights in there), something clicks repeatedly, and it can't go through the full boot process without doing the flashing lights and clicky noises again. It's an endless cycle until I manually restart it. I think it's the floppy drive that clicks (just judging by the sound of it), but I'm not entirely sure. Most of the time, it occurs when I'm surfing the 'net (I use the latest version of Mozilla Firefox if that helps at all), or watching something in Windows Media Player. It does this about once every three weeks, after being on for a few hours.

I posted this in here because I'm not entirely sure what's causing the problem, but I am using Windows XP. My dad seems to think that it's Windows Messenger causing trouble, but I put Shoot the Messenger on my computer to disable it and it's still acting all funky-like.

I think it's either some software problem, or maybe something with the power supply.
 
#2 ·
welcome to the forums
what brand hard drive do you have?
if you think the noises are from the floppy drive, disconnect it, when the message appears about the missing floppy on boot, hit f1 to finish loading windows ...and see if you still get the restarts.
post back
 
#3 ·
unexpected restarts

Unexpected restarts are sometimes associated with a faulty memory address within your RAM and clicking sounds may come from your harddrive.
For RAM, I've used a Microsoft tool and was very pleased with the results:

http://oca.microsoft.com/en/windiag.asp

For Harddrive, until I find something better, you can use winxp chkdsk utiliy for initial maintanence

Hpoe I've helped
G77S80
 
#5 ·
It's extremely unlikely to be a software issue here, as you said it's going into an endless restart cycle, where the restarts are before it finishes the full boot process. That means windows hasn't even loaded yet, so it can't really be software.

Another thing, how's the heat inside the system? Could it be overheating something and then just dumping everything to lose some heat? If it happens again, get into the BIOS quickly and check the temperatures in there.
 
#7 · (Edited)
I feel like an idiot calling into tech support...in a way, I am. So bear with me, I'll do my best.

Ok, I'm not entirely sure what all's in there...mom threw away all of the boxes. >_<

I know that I have a gig of what I think is DDR RAM, a 200gig Maxtor HD, an MSI motherboard (there's a code thing on the front of the manual that says "VIA P4M266A + 8237 (R) Chipset Based," if that helps at all), and as I said, I have a pair of Cold Cathode blue lights in there for show. I have an Pentium 4 processor, but I'm not entirely sure which exacpt kind of P4 it is. I'm sorry, I'm kind of stupid when it comes to the exact bits.

But I truly and honestly don't believe that any of this has to do with my problem.

I took ReeKorl's advice and went into the BIOS to check the temperature.

The thing was running at an impossible 185 degrees F. I'm only using it briefly to post this; I've removed both side panels on the chassis, and I turned the cold cathode lights off. I'll check back in about an hour to see what you've all posted. Please, for crimany's sake, tell me how to cool this thing off before I damage anything beyond repair.

EDIT: Ok, just goes to show that I AM an idiot. And my brother, too. I showed him the BIOS screen that showed the shutdown temperature, not the system temperature. Shutdown temperature is 185F; system temperature is 104F. Sorry. X____X
 
#8 ·
Hey, we all do it sometimes :sayyes:

40 degrees C is about right for a system, so no heat problems there..... Have you got the processor temp handy? I normally find that anything over about 81 degrees C (or about 180 degrees F) will cause the system to either restart or shutdown without warning, even if I don't have a shutdown temperature set - it does it on it's own to prevent damage.

With the system at 40, you shouldn't be near that value though. I'm thinking it's more likely to be a power or component failure. Have you determined the source of the clicking sound yet? I would be very interested as to where this is coming from.

I'm going to go very low tech here and try to describe a sound it might be, so bear with me. Does it sound like four almost 'sliding' clicks in a row, then a gap then repeaded? Sort of like 'chikk, chikk, chikk, chikk.......chikk, chikk, chikk, chikk'?

Another thing to check is the RAM - do you have just the one stick of 1024 or a couple of 512's? Either way, go to www.memtest86.com and download the testing tool there. Stick it on a floppy and reboot using the floppy (make sure you change the boot order in the BIOS to a: first!) and let it do a couple of cycles through the RAM. If you are using two (or more) RAM sticks, only test one at once, so take the rest physically out of the machine - make sure you're careful of ESD damage while doing this of course. If it comes up with any errors, first take the RAM stick out, then put it back in a different slot and test it again. If that stick errors both times, and the others don't, you've got a bad RAM stick.

Just to confirm something, at what point in the boot process does it loop at? Is it before the "Windows" screen comes up, is it still in the POST (where it does a quick RAM check), etc?

One final thing, make sure your PSU is up to scratch by using this online calculator - put in all of your components and make sure the PSU has a wattage rating at least of this value, preferably a bit more. If you need help determining what all of your components are, download Belarc Advisor and run it - it will tell youwhat components you have in your system. NOTE: Belarc Advisor will show your CD key in plaintext - NEVER post this on the internet unless you want your copy of windows de-activated by Microsoft!
 
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