Hi there, my first post here, I really hope you fellow enthusiasts can help me..! (and sorry about the length..!)

First my spec:
1.4ghz tbird (not o/clocked), Asus A7V266 (with asus iPanel), 512mb Crucial DDR-RAM (2x256mb), voodoo5 AGP, IBM 60GXP 40gig, Antec case with 300W Antec PSU, 4 case fans, Asus 40x CD-ROM, LiteOn 24x writer, SB Audigy, PCI modem, PCI Netgear n/w card.

OS: Win 2k Pro and Win98se set up as dual boot on the IBM40gig HD.

Here's the problem:

On Thursday evening I booted up into Win2kpro as normal and when it loaded as far as the desktop and started loading the system tray up the machine suddenly spontaneously reset. And it did it every subsequent time I booted up!
I tried booting into Win98se, and it mostly managed to get to the desktop, usually with explorer errors, but as soon as I opened Windows Explorer I got the blue screen of death.

Now the machine was *completely* fine the day before, and has been fine & stable ever since I built it back in September. The only thing that has recently been changed was the addition on Monday of the Netgear n/w card to enable me to connect to ADSL. But this had all been working fine for 3 days.

I ran the IBM drive fitness test, which returned all OK. All system fans and temps were reading normal (chip core 50 degC) in bios and the iPanel/AsusProbe software.

Voltages were steady at
12.524
4.945
3.36
and 1.80 for chip core voltage.

I tried memory in different slots, reseating components, etc., taking out the netgear card, but to no avail, the machine still kept resetting and I went to bed.

On Friday, I booted up without any CD-roms connected and none of the 4 case fans. Everything was stable again - no resets or errors in either win2k or win98se. I left it like this until today - just the HD and voodoo5 connected up to the motherboard & power supply. It was fine until today when I connected the 2 CD drives back up: win2K booted without resetting, but came up with explorer errors! So I disconnected one of the drives, and everything became stable again..

It was at this point I was beginning to suspect a problem with the PSU.

It's an Antec 300W that came with the case: is 300W enough for all my stuff? Or, bearing in mind the machine's been fine for ages and then suddenly both operating systems start failing in this way, could the PSU have developed a problem? (Voltages are still the same values as I listed above.) 4.945v is obviously a little below the nominal 5v line, but is it low enough to cause these problems? (it has always been slightly below 5v..)

Tonight win2k suddenly reset again (just as I was composing this thread, infuriatingly!) and I've disconnected the last CD drive again. But I'm finishing writing this on my old P2-450 machine, because now I can't get win2k to boot up without resetting immediately or after a short random time - and this without any cd drives or case fans connected!

This is a weird and sudden problem... where do you guys think the fault lies? PSU..? Or could data corruption somehow be causing this (I had data corruption problems with some dodgy rounded IDE cables a while back, which caused win2k to suddenly randomly reset and the odd errors and failures in both win2k and win98se)?

Any help much appreciated!

-Simon

The best test to do , if its software related, is to reformat the harddrive, if errors persist then it is probably hardware related. Most of the time it is PSU. But it could be Ram , mobo. Its hard to just say this is it, i would do the process of elimination. Or try other components in other computers.
cya

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

Hello Nosirrah,

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif Forums!

Came across THIS (http://www.pcdiag.com.au/power.htm) link earlier today posted by Yoda that you might find interesting.

It appears that Diurnal might be on the right track with the PSU! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

Found the problem!

Hi again, and thanks for your advice guys. I tried installing win98se using my spare harddrive, and everything seemed to be stable - until I put in my win2000pro disk and upgraded whereupon I started having problems again. At this point I was convinced it was the PSU - it was either that or a motherboard problem.

But then I fiddled with the memory again. I have 2x256 DDR modules; the first time I played around with them I just put them both in different slots. This time I tried each on its own... and hey presto, with one of them the PC does not boot and instead beeps long continuous beeps. -->Dead memory module!

This I can replace, but leads to more questions, namely - why would a previously perfectly fine memory module suddenly die after only 5 months of use? Could anything else still be dodgy in my system which caused the module to die?

cheers
Simon

Most often when a memory module suddenly dies after being in service for a short period of time it is due to ESD (electro-static discharge) not quite enough voltage to kill it outright but enough to damage it. The damage could also be such that the machine is unstable or just "flaky", until the memory finally does die.


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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

I heard Ram makers are making quantity more over quality these days. A couple of yrs ago it was the other way around. I saw a study that 15% of ram these days are bad, thats pretty high. Just some thoughts.

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

HELL!!

I sent off that bad memory stick today to get it replaced under warranty. Last night the computer (with the remaining good mem stick in) was fine & stable for 3-4 hours, so I was thinking 'fine that was the problem then.'

Today, just now, win2k spontaneously reset again, when I started to burn a CD.

Which means that the dud memory module probably wasn't the problem..!
What's going on?!?!?

could a dodgy PSU have caused all my problems, and also caused damage to the memory module enough to kill it?

or.. could the PSU be fine, and memory module have been the cause, but the numerous resets have corrupted some files making win2k reset?

or... i'm running out of hypotheses here!! how do i detect now whether it's a PSU problem, a motherboard problem, or even a harddrive problem (data corruption will make win2k reset..)?

*finally goes nuts*

Burning sucks up the juice....more so than when just playing a CD, you have the drive motor spinning (and if you have a Burn Proof drive it will change speed), and the lasers running (the more powerful write laser). Plus over all the process is more demanding on resources, so over all the system will be using more (of everything), plus the files are coming from the hard drive so it is working too (or the Cd drive if doing a copy)

Basically if it is doing it now only when you are trying to something particularly demanding I would lean towards the PSU being the problem....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.