PC resets itself

[IronLion]

I recently got a new computer, well its old, but new to me. Its 5 years old but has always been in good shape. It got a virus a while back that caused it to reset itself, disabled the task manager and would not let me reformat the drive. So I bought a new harddrive in the hopes that everything would be clear. Unfortunatly it still resets, but I have noticed that it only resets when I have a cd in the drive. It usually happens when the cd starts to load something or when it starts "humming". But I have been able to do several things such as install win xp since I got the new hardrive. It took a few tries but I finally got it. I am now trying to install World of Warcraft, but I cant get very far at all without it reseting on me. I checked the motherboard capacitors and there is no sign of bulging or leaking. I also took off the case to cool it off while I run it, but I dont have a fan. Do you think this is happening because it is not cool enough or because of a greater cause? It is in a tight space with not much room for air.

[IM back!]

did you try blowing a box fan into the case? also try disconecting the cd for a while (do you have 2 cd drives?) and see if it runs then, also try using linux or a linux live cd for a while see if that works. below are the most common causes of random reboots:

1. bad ram: get a linux live cd with memtest 64+
2. bad PSU: nothing much to do here except use another one.
3. virus: you eliminated this.
4. back in the day random reboots were often caused by plug n pray (i dont think this still hapens).

P.S. what are you temps and specifications?

[IronLion]

Right now the MB temp is 89.5 F and my CPU Temp is 95 F

My specs are...

Operating System: Windows XP Home Edition (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 1 (2600.xpsp1.020828-1920)
BIOS: Award Medallion BIOS v6.0
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 2.00GHz, ~2.0GHz
Memory: 768MB RAM

My video card as an ATI Radeon 9550 (RV350)

[IM back!]

what about a gfx card?

[Heartborne]

I suspect a faulty power supply, since this issue seems to always occur when the CD drive is being used. It means more power is being pulled from the power supply and it can't handle the load anymore. Having a local computer store test your power supply is a good idea.
You could have reinstalled windows from a bootable CD... but I guess it's too late to worry about that now.
Anyway, with a 5 year old pc the thing might just be tired sometimes you have no choice but to get yourself a new computer. I had a computer that behaved similarly to the one you've got now and in the end I had to start from scratch because the motherboard was just shot.

[IronLion]

I know this sounds noobish, but isnt the ATI the graphics card? I put it as the video card which I thought was the same thing.

[IM back!]

I know this sounds noobish, but isnt the ATI the graphics card? I put it as the video card which I thought was the same thing.

Yes thats it I must have over read it.

[IronLion]

I am not sure if this helps but I checked the Voltage in bios and it reads...

VCORE Voltage 1.53V
+3.3V Voltage 3.28V
+5V Voltage 5.05V
+12V Voltage 11.90V


I read up on some people talking about power supply failure and they all mentioned their Voltage was much lower than it should be. Everything looks ok, I know the vcore is only 1.53v, but I am not sure if that is normal or not. Could it still be power supply?

[mjc]

I am going to assume that these readings are not during 'intense' usage...

So, they are pretty much normal. Standard power supplies can have a variance of about 10 % from the stated voltage. So a 12 V rail suppling 10.8 V is still considered 'in spec'. High end power supplies limit the variance to about 5%...



That said, I don't like to see any voltages lower than the nominal rating...to me a 12 V rail should put out at least 12 V. Anything else indicates either a weakness in the design or the particular voltage rail is being stressed, even at idle.

Seeing that both the 12V and 3.3V are slightly low could indicate that there is just a borderline 'overload'...not anything that can really harm your system but when things are working harder can cause the power supply to not supply quite enough 'juice'...

And over time, power supplies do weaken.