Restart Issue with AOpen AK86-L mobo?

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static86

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Hi all, first time poster, hopefully someone can help me out here. We built this computer with the AOpen AK86-L mobo and put the following into it:

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ with 1MB L2
Radeon 9800 Pro
1GB PC3200 PMI RAM
160GB Samsung SATA HD
1 CD-RW drive
1 DVD-RW drive

Everything works fine for the most part, except for one major flaw. The computer just restarts, without warning. It can be during anything, playing a game, browsing the net, use your imagination. It has gotten worse lately, sometimes restarting in the middle of a restart. Needless to say, this is very annoying and shouldn't be happening. Very frustrating when I'm trying to do my college coursework...

I recently upgraded the stock power supply (420W) that came with my case to a 520W. This did not help. I also tried different sticks of RAM thinking that could possibly be the problem, but that also didn't affect anything. We reformatted twice, also to no avail. Nothing in BIOS was tweaked beyond the default settings.

I was wondering if anyone had any possible idea why this may be happening, or better yet, any possible ideas to resolve this major issue. I may have to buy a another motherboard if my guess is correct and something on the motherboard is messed up.

Thanks to all who read in advance
 
well being that those processors are expensive I doubt you another one laying around to try out huh? Have you checked your system temperatures to see if you're tipping the heat shut off sensor on the board? Don't suppose you have a spare motherboard of that socket either huh? If not then RMA'ing it is about all you can do, if it's too late to RMA it to the place you bought it from there's always the manufacturers warrenty.
 
No, I don't have another Athlon 64 or another socket 754 motherboard lying around :) I'm a poor college student. Someone on another forum suggested raising the memory voltage in BIOS to 2.7-2.8

Would that help/hurt?
 
well you need to check ur temperature levels first.. im thinking ur cpu is getting too hot and the auto restart/shutdown feature is set to a certain temperature (usually 70C)... and as u hit 70 ur computer shuts down and starts back up to cool down... perhaps u shud try to get ur hands on an aftermarket heatsink & fan?... also try putting a cpl of case fans on ur case... wut case do u have and what fan setups are u using with it currently?
 
Not a heat issue...

I have an Aspire case with 6 fans inside, with a Zalman heatsink on the processor. I originally thought heat was the issue, so I invested in those. I also have Arctic Silver 5 on as the thermal paste on the processor. Any other possible cooling suggestions? The case is cool to the touch, even when gaming. The video card or RAM isn't hot, and the power supply is normal.
 
if you have xp/2k is your system set to reboot on error? (default setting)

have you checked you log files and Dr. watson for BSOD's?

run any diag progs? mem test, HDD tests?

Sorry, all I got, stabbing the dark ATM...
 
How I check to see if it is on Reboot on error? What would I look for in logs? I'll download and run Dr. Watson right now to look for errors.

I have ran MemTest86 and everything was fine with two different sets of memory. What kind of HDD tests can I run?
 
ok, if your OS (xp/2k) is set to reboot on errors (default setting by micorsoft-god only knows why) then when you get an error your system will reboot. To change this "feature" right click on my computer goto properties, advance tab, startup and recovery settings, half way down uncheck auto-restart on errors. Now if windows is restarting because of an error then you should see it on the screen.

You can examine your log files in computer management (shortcut: right click on my computer gotot manage) under event viewer. look for any logs at about the time of the last reboot, or error.

Dr. watson comes with windows. In system information (go thru start, all programs, accessories, system tools) pull down the tools tab and goto dr watson. Sorry i don't know of a quicker way to get to this prog. Here dr watson will list any BSOD's you may have with some what of an explaination.

As for the HDD tests, every manufacturer of HDD has a test prog on thier web site.

the other thing you might want to consider is checking for virus/spyware/adware on your system. I've seen some nasty spyware/trojans that will do all kinds of stuff to systems.

www.pccillin.com has a free viri scanner called housecall. As for spyware I recommend "pest patrol" but it may cost ya...
 
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