[darkhorizon]

On a friends machine, with the specs of:

400 watt antec psu, known perfect condition
abit vt7 chipset via apollo pt880
crucial 256x2 DDR ram (total 512MB, identical pc3200 sticks, single/dual channel, same problem)
xp pro service pack 2
nvidia geforce4 mx 440 (microsoft drivers... eww)
western digital 80gb 7200rpm
pentium 4 2.4GHz socket 478
etc..

the computer randomly hard reboots

so i tried adjusting the voltages on the ram, using different ram slots, single/dual channeling the ram, and even just using one stick of ram, then the other, to no avail. so i ran a ram check and it comes up with errors on the ram if run for 8+ hours, which im sure is not good, but in my personal machine the ram ran without any problems (did not run ram test, computer runs stable though)

so TWICE when the computer was starting up now its gone to the windows xp loading screen, but in like 8 bit color and freezes on that screen, but if i leave it like that, you hear the default windows boot sound shortly thereafter, like the video card is just not transmitting the data it gets from the rest of the comp.

the computer is spyware free, and i've even tried a format to see if it would solve the problem... well it didnt. im led to believe that the temps are ok. i cant imagine the ram overheating at stock voltages, the processor is decent via the bios monitor, leaving just the vid card in question. but this happens whether the side cover is open or not on the computer, and regardless of the temp in the house. but i've noticed that the computer restarts more frequently if you are listening to music, or watching an avi file of high quality, but this is not required to do it, it will sometimes reboot when idle.

if anyone can shed some insight into this please let me know

[Advertisements]

My PSU ran fine for a about 3 weeks before doing what you described. It will crash on almost anything, but it always crashes on video card intensive thing like games and videos. I swapped with a new PSU and worked fine.

Edited by zookpoo, 16 April 2006 - 09:35 AM.

[zookpoo]

My PSU ran fine for a about 3 weeks before doing what you described. It will crash on almost anything, but it always crashes on video card intensive thing like games and videos. I swapped with a new PSU and worked fine.

Edited by zookpoo, 16 April 2006 - 09:35 AM.

[darkhorizon]

hmm.... i cant get my hands on another power supply right at the moment, but does it sound like its the psu if it only started acting up when i switched from an asus p4p800 deluxe mobo to an abit vt7 and from a geforce fx5600 vid card to a geforce mx440 ? both products were purchased new, and nothing was wrong with the old parts, it was just used in a different computer

i read somewhere that it may be the agp controller? does anyone know how i would go about updating that?