Random Reboot: Power Supply the Source?

[avatar8481]

Hello,

I built my own computer several months ago with the following specs: Athlon 1.4Ghz, 80gb hd, 512mb DDR ram, Geforce 3, Creative 5.1 Soundcard, cd burner, dvd reader, dvd card, 2 ethernet nic, in an Antec Lansing Server case with 4 fans and an upgraded fan on the CPU. My problem is as follows - sometimes when I'm playing a game or surfing the internet, even a non-intensive game like freecell my computer will reboot all the way to the BIOS, as if I had turned the power off and right back on, or had pushed the reset button on the front. My housemate thinks it might be a heat issue, which is possible, I live in Baltimore and it just started getting a lot hotter here for the summer, but I think it might be the power supply flaking out, though all the parts are less than a year old and I'd be suprised if the supply was that poor. I haven't looked for any other problems yet, like the reset cord is shorted out or something. Anybody have any ideas or suggestions? Thanks in advance.

 

[edfair]

Could be P/S. Can be AC line. Do you have a UPS? They sometimes help.
Any fluctuation on the line can cause the power good signal to start to drop then come back up. And the transition was what caused the reboot on older machines. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[avatar8481]

I do have a UPS, an APC 420 PRO, which should be far more than enough to condition the power on the line. My suspicion is that it's related to hardware use, since I did a little more investigating and found that in fact the reboots are only only/almost exclusively happening when I'm using more graphically intensive programs, I realize this is contrary to what I said above. Is it possible that the graphics card overdraws on the PS and that reboots the computer? Thanks for your advice, I'll try another power cord.

 

[edfair]

Don't worry about the power cord. the line I was referring to was the power coming into the house. The UPS should resolve that unless you have bunches of switching power supplies plugged into the same circuit.
I would start to be suspicious of heat related if graphics are the link. Even the graphics card, but you can't rule out the P/S either.
As you have probably figured out, these are the problems that cause techs to pull out their hair. Ed Fair
unixstuff@juno.com
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[ceh4702]

I had an FIC AD11 Motherboard that did the same thing. I determined that the motherboard was a lemon. The computer would shut down even when playing the simplest of 2D games and computer applications. What kind of motherboard do you have?

Too many things could be wrong
Power supply
Video card TOO HOT
CPU TOO HOT
Memory Bad or Hot
Bad Motherboard If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[avatar8481]

Can you recommend a good temperature monitoring solution, either a good w2k program or a hardware solution like a 5.25" bay thermal probe monitor. I think it's almost certainly a heat issue, it's only really happened the last few days here and it's been very hot, I'm hoping to try to fix it now since the summer is only going to get hotter here. Thanks for all your help. Do you know of a way to eliminate the power supply as a source of the problem, because I can't think of a way to rule out heat, but if I could rule out the PS then that's one less thing to worry about. Thanks again.