Having some old VIA Motherboard, with the Intel Orginal Pentium-3 processor at 800 EB Mhz, dunno at what it clocks.
The problem is that my pc keeps on restarting after around 3 to 4 minutes getting started, or whenever i use the CPU excessively, like issuing the sfc command from the command prompt. So i tried to open the recovery console, ran chkdsk with some param's, fixed the mbr, changed the RAM manytimes, started the repair service of XP SP2. BUT ALAS!!! the problem seems to continue. Changed the HDD with my friends which had XP already installed, but that XP doesnt work on my PC.
I even removed all the PCI devices and checked, cleaned the sniffy motherboard 
but still NO HOPE!!!.
Now what I want anyone to tell me is a way in which I can finally determine that is it the HDD which has all the heck of a problem, or is it the motherboard itself, so i can finally force my dad to get a new one 
.
Help is needed, and extremely appreciated.
Warm Regards, There can be many many reasons for PC restarting. I think you should chek things in following order..
a) Firstly check for CPU Fan, the one attached with your processor and see if its working fine.
b) Start PC in safe mode and check if it restarts again in safe mode.
c) Try to notice if your hard disk is making any noise, and when ur pc starts does it takes times to detect the hard disk?
b)Check your mainboard for bad capacitors, bad capacitors are swollen on the top.
e) Most of the hard disk companys have utility to check the condition of hard disk, (self diagnostic test). See if your hard disk manufacturer provides that.
Thanx for ur prompt reply sunny :
1) CPU fans very fine and workin properly,( i can see its speed changing all the time in BIOS) about the CPU fan RPM i m writing.
2) It starts in safe mode but either when I click start or use a memory resource or anything that uses a little too much CPU, it reboots.
3) THE HDD is MAKING A NOISE FROM THE PAST ONE YEAR, BUT NO DATA HAS EVER GOT CORRUPTED.
4)Seems that the mainboard's fine, but its 5 yo right, so its just a bit dusty.
5)I have a 20 GB Seagate HDD, manufactured in 2000, so i dont think there are any Utilities available for that. Anyways, I ALREADY RAN CHKDSK.
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So could you tell me by diagnosing these answers, what the real problem is? or you may ask further questions if u need, but please try to rectify it ASAP, i have my website files on it, which i need to look into and modify other things.
PS - Dude i need an expert system at my house
Warm Regards, Sounds to me like either an over heating problem or a failing power supply. If the power supply starts to fail, the voltage levels can drop below what is needed causing the restart, especially during hard drive intense operations like SFC etc
Can you check the current temp of the system in your BIOS? If so, jump into BIOS, and sit and watch the temps for a few minutes to see how high they get before the pc restarts. If the temp doesnt get very high, then have the power supply tested, or try a known good p/s
| Bones wrote: |
Sounds to me like either an over heating problem or a failing power supply. If the power supply starts to fail, the voltage levels can drop below what is needed causing the restart, especially during hard drive intense operations like SFC etc
Can you check the current temp of the system in your BIOS? If so, jump into BIOS, and sit and watch the temps for a few minutes to see how high they get before the pc restarts. If the temp doesnt get very high, then have the power supply tested, or try a known good p/s |
Even if its power supply problem, system shouldn't overheat specially as long as fans are working fine. Most of the bios have the option to check the voltage. You can go in to bios set up and check it out to rule out the possibility of bad power supply. | toughtrio wrote: |
| my pc keeps on restarting after around 3 to 4 minutes getting started, or whenever i use the CPU excessively |
I don' t know, but to me this sounds like Blasterworm. Have you virusscanned your system?Yap, my friend had a problem I went and removed it, i don't remember the name of virus.
Oh yap remember to download the ladest updates for your antivirus.
| alienjones wrote: |
I don' t know, but to me this sounds like Blasterworm. Have you virusscanned your system? |
But my friend, Does this blaster worm even work when I am repairing my Windows Installation.?Like its around 35 minutes left and it restarts again, leaving that depressed look on my face as it is. I am really annoyed by it, feels like throwing it away sometimes, but then the amount of data in it prevents me to.
I shall check the PW Supply thingie today and let you ppl know tomorrow, or if anyone can tell me something more to check then it would be nice. Like how to finally check the MainBoard if its wrong or no.
About the blaster worm, if it does effect even when u are not in windows, then can someone tell me how to remove it like that?
Anticipating a prompt and favourable response.
Thanx and Regards,To test the power supply, you would need a digital multi-meter and some electronics knowledge. Basically what you want to do, is monitor the voltage on one of the connectors and see if it drops significantly when the pc is doing hard drive intense operations (like a defrag or virus/spyware scan, SFC etc etc)
If the levels drop and then the pc restarts, then the capacitors are getting weak and can't keep up with the power demand.
This can also hapen if any new, power hungry hardware has been added to the system and the PS just can't handle it. A lot of newer video cards really suck up the juice.
Be careful though, if you arent sure what you are doing, you could damage hardware or the meter itself.
The other way to test the PS, is to replace it with a known good one and see if the system still restarts.
If your fan is attached ok and working fine then it is most likely your power supply as somebody here has already said.
Change it otherwise it could kill your whole pc if it goes on you.
It could be a defective RAM module.
If you have more than one RAM modules in your system, try running your computer with only one of them installed at a time.
recon its over heating....
i once had some "invisible" spyware runnin which locked the cpu to 100% whenever i ran internet explorer...
this caused the cpu to heat up and system admin message appear saying i had 60 secs to save information before the system shut down!
once removed it was all ok!
1. Frag your PC bro, it's the age! If ya old man won't get you a new one, frag him too! 
| mOrpheuS wrote: |
It could be a defective RAM module.
If you have more than one RAM modules in your system, try running your computer with only one of them installed at a time. |
Completely agree it seems like a ram problem to me, if your machine is configured to restart instead of showing "the blue screen of death" it may run windows(it may not even run) but likely to inmediatly restart as soon as you do smnthg. Try configuring the BIOS to check the system ram at the start of the boot.
