Is this a power supply problem?

[JDXA]

300w antec ps
900mhz athlon
kt7a(not raid)
sblive value
3com nic
geforce4 ti 4200(64mb)
logitech dual optical mouse(usb)
quickcam express(usb)
yamaha cd-r
pioneer dvd
20gb 7200 rpm maxtor
samsung 950p 19"@ 1600x1200
winme
latest vias, windows updates(except for ie6), detonators
2 case fans
128mb 133hmz ram(xerox)


Ok i think thats everything.
Heres the problem, sometimes,actually a lot of the times, when i restart my computer it shuts off as its loading windows.

It ALWAYS turns on and brings up the screen where it shows the processor and memory etc., and i can always get into the bios with no problems at all and it stays on and everything, but usually it brings up the windows logo screen,then goes back to a dos type screen,then again brings up the windows logo, at this point it either continues loading windows and my desktop comes up, or it just shuts off.
sometimes it just keeps turning off after i turn it back on sometimes it turns on after 1 or 2 trys, usually no more than about 4-5

I thought maybe it had to do with my video card(radeon 64mb vivo)
but now i just got a gf4 and i reformatted and reinstalled everything,reseated all my cards, but i still get it,possibly more often now, i tried using the optimized defaults in the bios, tried the failsafe bios defaults, still happened..........once its on it pretty much stays on,
although when i had my radeon, i would get blue screen vmm errors,im pretty sure almost always with explorer, even after a reformat and reinstall.

now with my gf4(only had it a few days) i havent got any blue screens,but i have twice had the screen go black,and i just hit enter and it brings the desktop back up(i was messin with the bios though too), when i first built the comp,with the radeon ,i never used to get the blue screens, or startup problems.....so.... im pretty stumped as to what it is.

at this point im thinkin, power supply, gettin an older bios(or reflashing with current or updated one), dirty connectors???

I dont know, sorry for makin this so long,or if its in the wrong forum,but id like to know what u guys think, any opinions or advice would be really helpful and appreciated, thanks

[setoguro]

I read that you are thinking about a bios flash I think you would be taking a really big chance with that at this time with things stopping and restarting as they are.
If you can get a hold of an other known good PS you could check it that way to see if that solves the problem. I'd try it that way first. I don't want you to run out and buy a new PS on my advice. So at this time I'm hoping that someone will step in and pick things up with the knowledge I have I can't go any farther and be safe :) .

[randyrhoads1981]

I agree with the above post dont be flashing that bios with a unstable machine. Try a differnt power supply and if the problems continue id lean toward a fan or heat issue. Although it seems that you have no problems untill you start loading Windows.. If you have messed with the bios settings go back and set those to default..with the drives on auto detect. Double check all connections. If the Windows still gives you problems loading ..hold the F8 key just before you see the Windows loading screen and select Step by Step option to note anything failing during the bootup process and post back what it is.

[mjc]

Third voice on try another power supply....

[JDXA]

ok,thanks for the advice,heres what ive done recently,unplugged everything but agp card hard drive,keyboard(ps2),mouse(usb), and floppy drive,and all fans, turned it on, and it started up fine,i kept restarting and it kept starting up without problems,so i thought it maybe it was a pci card problem

then checked my pci cards(nic&sblive), concerning irqs and such, moved pci cards to different slots because my nic and soundcard were on the same irq,which ive read isnt good, so i plugged
things in 1 @ a time, first was my nic, computer started up,windows redected it,i then restarted it a bunch of times and it had no problems, next was my soundcard, plugged it in started up,no problems,windows redeteced it,restarted a bunch of times again, still no problems.....

then i plugged in my ide2 connecter which is connected to the yamaha cd-r and the pioneer dvd,started, no problems,kept restarting still no problems,last thing was my quickcam(usb) same thing,no problems on startup, kept restarting still no problems,so i just kept restarting it for a while,with everything plugged in,it seemed to be working fine now,

so i put the side panel back on and started restaring it a few times, after about 3-4 restarts boom it shuts off at the same point,tryed safe mode, it always starts in safe mode, then i did step by step confirmation, all drivers load but it shuts off just as its done loading the last drivers,right when its about to bring up the desktop,

now i dunno if this is a heat issue or maybe some type of a short with the MB and the case, but when the side panel is off i can keep restarting and it doesnt exhibit the shutoff problem even with everything connected, as soon as i put the cover on about 3-5 restarts later, there it is again,shutting off just as its about to show the desktop....so could it be a heat issue???

im still fairly confused here but at least im makin some progress, im gonna try and get a hold of a power supply to test things with too,but now i thinkin its a heat issue,lemme know what u think,thanks for replies.

[setoguro]

The next time it shuts down boot back up and go into the bios and check the temp. At this point I'm thinking you have a ventilation problem but you'll know better after you check the temp. If you need a monitoring utility you can get one here (http://mbm.livewiredev.com/) .

[JDXA]

Thats what im thinkin now too, after my last post i was trying to run 3dmark and 1st run it got through it,then i restarted and wanted to run it again,but after the 1st car chase,and even before loading it all up the screen would go back to the desktop and quit 3dmark,so i tryed default and custom bios settings,and it still seemed to be happening(with side panel off),

right now though ive got the side panel still off and ive got a house fan blowing into it,and ive got all the performance settings on in the bios,and its running great so far ran 3dmark about 3 times no startup problems yet,i have a feeling its the cpu gettin hot too, cuz i dont think its the graphics card,cuz it did this with both this card and my last card, also i remember removing the heatsink from the processor and there was very little if any thermal grease on it,but the heatsink does have a little like pad on it that sits between it and the processor,

so im gonna run it with this fan blowin on it and see how it goes and if its stable then id say ive got a heat issue....ill try without it and get some temp readings with and without the fan blowin,

thanks again, i hope this is the right problem....

[JDXA]

well im confused again now,i had to restart and when i did it shut off at the windows thing again, :/ the fan was blowin on it the whole time and right after it shut off i turned it back on an went into the bios and checked cpu temp and system temp, cpu was 105 f and system was 80..... i guess the only thing left is to find a good ps i can test with...

[setoguro]

If you are running at those temps 105f and 80f that's good. Could be the ps that's the problem then.

[ranchdog]

The last time you had the heatsink off there was very
little thermal grease left on it. The thermal pad still
had some signs of being there.

Please do not use thermal grease and a thermal pad at
the same time. (maybe you haven't)

A thermal pad is a one-shot deal. The heatsink and the
processor should be removed and cleaned.

Re-install with a very small amount of thermal compound on
the chip die itself.



RD.

[JDXA]

Thanks for the help, i think i got it fixed, i went to bestbuy and bought an antec jet cooler,for the cpu, and 128mb of mem since i only had 128, and some thermal grease,

though when i checked the antec jet cooler it uses a thermal pad,so i took off my old heatsink and cleaned the cpu off real good cuz there was a lot of thermal pad gunk and old thermal grease surrounding the core,
installed the new heatsink with only the thermal pad on the clean core,also i checked the small heatsink fan on the motherboard(northbridge?)chip and there was no thermal pad on that, but there was a very small amount of thermal grease on the chip, pretty close to the edge of it,which coverd about no more than 10% of the area of the chip, so i cleaned that off too, and applyed a thin layer of new thermal grease to the heatsink, and put it back on

also i was reading about the blue screens i was getting and noticed the the error i was getting, something that started with 0028: can be related to bad ram,which im now thinking was the problem the whole time because it seems it would always shut off as it was loading windows up, and thats pretty much the only time it would just "shut off" which was the reason that kept makin me think it wasnt the PS becuase it "ALWAYS" turned on just didnt always finish loading windows, but anyways i decided to take my old ram out(crappy generic xerox ram) and only have the new kingston ram from bestbuy in.

put everything back together,and so far no startup problems, and i was able to set my mem cas latency from 3 to 2, at 2 with my old ram,the comp wouldnt even post, this ram works fine at 2 and i was able to turn on some performance options i previously wasnt able to use stably

ive been running with these settings and the side panel back on, and so far everythings working and seemingly better,i ran and quit about 4 different games,ran them again,installed progs, restarted a few times,and everythings workin great at this point, right now im not even testing to see if it was the old ram being the problem, because i dont even want to use it because id have to turn things down, to use it and its not worth it to me id rather have 128mb of good ram than 256 of half good half crap.

anyway thanks again,i guess next time ill make sure i know what kinda ram im gettin, i just got this ram with the mb as a combo deal,i didnt really know better since this is the first comp i built, and my first windows comp.
thanks again for all the advice, whatever it was i think its fixed now :)