[scatfly]

hello, i built my first computer ~3 months ago. There were various problems at first but they were all sorted out and it was working well until now. The computer randomly restarts. Everyting has slowed down alot. I have run ad-aware, and norton to see if something had infected it to do this. It was pretty much clean. I started running a webserver from it abou 3 weeks ago, but it never slowed it down to what it is at now. I am putting the server on an old laptop soon though and hopefully that will help things out. Please give suggestions, I am only 15 and ca use all the help i can get. Thanks

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a couple of other things, the internet on the comp goes on and off, but ever since the comp started radomly restarting, it has been more off than on. And now I have lost it all together. I am hooked into the hub with a cable, and i unplugged and replugged the cable in both places. The other comps on the network have internet fine. I am runnng windows XP w/ service pk 2. Thanks.

[scatfly]

a couple of other things, the internet on the comp goes on and off, but ever since the comp started radomly restarting, it has been more off than on. And now I have lost it all together. I am hooked into the hub with a cable, and i unplugged and replugged the cable in both places. The other comps on the network have internet fine. I am runnng windows XP w/ service pk 2. Thanks.

[lil_lost]

When it shuts off does it full on reboot or does the power just cut out?

If the power just cuts out and it shuts down it could very well be a heating issue.

If you have done a spyware scans and an online virus scan like the free one at housecall.antivirus.com and they all come up clean then I would do one of 2 things. Either format and reload the OS (because that is what I like to do) or break the computer down into its barest essentials.
How long does it stay on with just the vid card and no other PCI cards installed? even disconnect it from the internet.
If that is stable then add one component at a time until you find the issue.
If it isn't stable with just the video card and no extra components then it is possibly the video card, harddrive or software causing the issue.

There is alot of trial and error involved with these kinds of things. Have fun troubleshooting it, I hope these ideas helped.

[S A A B]

It might be a memory problem. If you've got more than one stick of memory, take them all out except for one. Keep putting the other ones in until the problem recurs.

Emery

[The_KiD]

Download and install MBM5 from livewire (it's free)

Select your motherboard model during setup and then use it to monitor your system temperature. If it does not show your system as overheating when it shuts down, then at least we have eliminated one line of enquiry.

If it does show your system overheating then this can be solved simply by re-applying some fresh thermal paste (you cna get this at any good PC store).

Make sure you scrape the exisitng thermal compound off the top of your CPU and off the bottom of your heat sink, using a scalpel is a good plan, be careful you dont scratch too hard. Then re-apply the new paste and reseat it all.

I recently did this to my machine and it lowered it's CPU temp by 20c

[scatfly]

ok...thanks guys. illget right on it.

[scatfly]

alriht...it is definitly overheating. I left it off 9 hours (i usually leave it on cause my server) and i woke up turned it on and everything is going good so far. When i tried to open the MBM5 program it wasnt recognized as a file extenxion i could open. What do i need to open that just to mak sure it was a heat problem. thanks.

[scatfly]

ok...i put on some new thermal paste and got another fan and it hasnt restarted yet. Its been 3 days. thanks.

[Murray S.]

[SIZE=1][SIZE=1][SIZE=1]

Download and install MBM5 from livewire (it's free)

Howdy:

Stay away from Limewire unless you want to load your system with worms, trojans and all sorts of garbage..

MBM5 is available as a Free Download from Major Geeks and, you won't get all the crap associated with Limewire!!

Murray

[S A A B]

Murray,

The_KiD was talking about livewire. That is a crap-based program. You said limewire and that is 100% malware free.

Limewire used to be crappy and slow but now it is malware free.