Random Restarts

[Xerxes909]

I have just put together a new PC for a friend but I have found that it keeps restarting completely at random but I havn't got a clue why, I've tried pretty much everything I can think of

Hardware

ABit KD7-S Mother Board
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512MB PC2100 Crucial RAM
128MB Gainwaird GeForce FX5200 'Golden Sample'
40GB Maxtor Hard Drive
ThermalTake Volcano 9+ Heatsink Fan
Running Windows XP Pro
NetGear MA311 Wireless network card
Intel Modem

I have all the latest drivers for this system and the latest Windows Updates any thoughts on this problem would be greatly appreciated

 

[Ronin999]

How often are the restarts? Did it do it immediately after you built the machine or after a lot of software was installed? Could be heat related, have you checked temperatures? If the temperature is good, I would suspect faulty RAM. maybe a RAM check program could isolate the problem.

 

[Xerxes909]

Good idea, well the first time it did it was downloading some software, second time was installing Age of Mythology and then again when playing Age of Empires, I'm pretty sure it isn't heat related I have been running the Abit Hardware Doctor running in the background and it hasn't reported any heat problems, I'll certainly give a memory diagnostic tool a try though

 

[fenix]

......and other than thermal and RAM problems, the other most common cause of restartomg is power supply.
You might want to check all the voltages.

If the power good voltage to the processor isn't maintained within the upper/lower limits (fairly large window) ,it will restart also. Do you have clean power coming in to your house/business ? The quality of power is getting worse.


Is your power supply adequate for your drives ?
Hopefully at least 300w

This page may be of interest if you aren't familiar with checking voltages, or if you don't have an extra one to swap in for troubleshooting.

http://www.thetechboard.com/tutorials/atx.php

 

[Xerxes909]

The power supply is 300W and the Hardware Doctor i mentioned earlier pretty much scans everything from voltages to fan speed and temperature, it also happens to beep horribly when anything goes out of the boundaries