[BGS]

ALright bare with me.. this may be a bad explanation of my problem but well see.

Alright so I turn off my computer at night and the next morning or after school or just after a LONG period of time I will go downstairs and turn on my computer. Before it even turns on it will restart about 8-10 times then it will go to the options of safe mode, networking, regular, and the other thing, and it will count down and go to the windows load up bar and after that it will restart ac ouple of times, and FINALLY it will get to the desktop but the problem is not solved. It will then restart again from anytime between 1-5 seconds of uptime. Both of these restarts probably happen about 12-16 times before I can finally access my computer without ANY problems. The thing is when my computer has been on for awhile and I either:
a. Turn it off
b. Restart it
it will turn right back on (that is if i dont keep it off for a long period of time) without any restarts.


Does this have anything to do with my power supply because thats what some people say but I dont know if I can fully agree with them...

My previous card - ATI radeon 9800 pro 256mb - I have used this card since day one since building my computer and has worked fine. It has been about 6 months (yes i know i should have found help earlier) since the restarting as begun but I didnt think of it as bad because once it finally got passed restarts (before the desktop) it worked fine. Then about a month or two ago the computer did its restarts and then started restarting on the desktop. After about a week of that the computer could never actually even turn on it would just always restarted.... So i sent this back last week to ati for a replacement and its on the way.

My temp card would make it seem like its not the power supply though.. its a ati 7000 32mb. After all the restarts (including the desktop, 2 or 3 times) it will stop restarting and stay up as long as i want it too.


Now i dont think the ati 7000 is a huge card that will need much power so thats why i dont think its the power supply... BUT i could be wrong, i dont know to much about computer.



What do you guys think I should do?

[Advertisements]

Hm... probably your video card is overheating....
Try to test your PC with another video card.

[sharlpero]

Hm... probably your video card is overheating....
Try to test your PC with another video card.

[Kemasa]

It could be a power supply problem, but I would also check to make sure that the wires to the reset button (if you have one), are ok and not damaged and shorting.

It does sound like a heat related problem or more accurately a lack of heat since once it heats up then it works fine. It could be that even if the power supply is rated for the power (you should check to see what the power requirements are and how close you are to the max) that it has a problem under a heavier load.

I would try to solve this problem asap as if it is the power supply and it is supplying bad power, it can damage the rest of your machine.

You could check the power with a meter, but you might need something more advance to see the problem as it might be dropping quickly and a meter might not pick it up.

[BGS]

Yes my friend told me last night to check the voltage of the power supply with a meter so i went ahead and did so... Right now its at a 5.07/5.08 but i only checked when the computer was up and runing.. I am about to head out so i will turn off my computer and when i get back home (after it was cooled down) I will turn it on and see what it says for the voltage ... Anything above 5 is normal alittle below 5 isnt bad but its not good so im very intrested to see what kind of # it gets when its actually trying to warm up and such.


THe power supply radeon reccomends for the ati 9800 256mb is a 300 ... or i should say is the least amount you should use and I have a 350 watt power supply which probably isnt enough considering that the card is working alot since i play counter-strike alot .. and for the fact that i have two hard drives in my computer and one doesnt even have anything on it but like i said i want to test the voltage when im actually turning on my computer.


sharlpero - Dont want to sound mean but if you read my post you would have seen i bought a temp. card that is signifcantly a downgrade from my ati 9800. Though it stops restarting after once or twice (if that) no the desktop screen it will be perfect afterwards until i turn off my computer for a long period of time and go over the same thing.. with the ati card it just keeps restarting no matter what.

Also to continue another long and probably could be shortened post ... I dont know if this is a problem Kemasa but the top of my case ... http://www.newegg.co...el Power Supply
is very loose. As you can see from that pic there is a little pannel that has the usb ports and the restart and turn on button. This pannel came loose but i thought nothing of it and now i can pick up the front of it pretty high.

[Kemasa]

There are multiple voltages, so you need to check them all.

The loose panel could be a problem, but it is hard to say. You could disconnect it and see if there is any difference in what occurs.

[BGS]

Well i checked the two main voltage outlets and the +5 is 5.08 v and the +12 is 12.12 v

and just an udpate .. the power supply is 350 watts

Turning on the computer after letting it cool down for an hour showed no diffrence in the votls being diffrent so that idea is gone.


Right now im actually thinking about a new computer but one from dell or ailenware instead of building it again.. this is a good computer but out of my friends and dad (proffesor in computer sciencer at NYU) can not find out what the problem is.

[Kemasa]

Power supplies are not all the expensive, I would try that first.

A meter will give you an idea of the power, but if the power is changing you will not be able to see that. There are other voltages too, so you really need to check them all.

You might see if you can borrow a power supply and see if that helps.