Computer rebooting issues

[lws_junior]

A year back I built a basic PC (Soyo P4X400 Dragon Lite, Windows 2000 pro sp4, Intel Celeron 2.7, Kingston 256 ddr400 pc3200)and up until a month ago it worked perfectly. This PC boots fine and most of the programs work however there are three programs when executed will cause the system either reboot or freeze up (blue screen mentioning somthing about memory dump). The power supply is a coolmax 500watt supply and works fine. It's not a heating problem as (cpu temp=100 F.) I've ordered new memory for this Soyo board however in the meantime I'm up for any suggestions to what could be causing this. Thanks

 

[Nitestick]

coulde be the software is corrupted. have you tried re-insttalling it? do the usual and run some adware/spyware/virus scans.

 

[SHAWN]

First thing I would try is a reload to rule out software. If it persists, them move on to hardware.

 

[lws_junior]

I relaoded the operating system with just a few programs and the problem still exists. I'm trying to rule out the motherboard as having the problem. I just tried a small utility called MEMTEST86 V.3.2. Strange to say but my computer rebooted during the test. The second time I ran the test the final results were not good. Hopefully the new ram will fix the problem. Perhaps it's the ram socket. If all else fails I then pitch the mobo and spend $50.00 for another one. It would be nice though to just fix what I have rather than do a rebuild.

 

[SHAWN]

Soyo isnt exactly a "name brand" product when it comes to motherboards. You should use products like gigabyte or intel motherboards. I wouldnt use anything else.

 

[Nitestick]

if memtest failed or crashed your computer it probably doesn't mean anything good for your RAM. to rule the motherboard out i suggest you run memtest using the RAM in another computer

 

[lws_junior]

Thanks for all the come backs. I first built this PC for general work that requires not much power. I agree that the Soyo board isn't much (bought it for only $20.00) so replacing it with a better board isn't a big deal. If the new memory doesn't work I'll just replace the board and perhaps upgrade to a P4. BY the way I'm looking at the Asus P4P800E Deluxe Intel Socket 478 Motherboard / AGP 8X / 8-Channel Audio / Gigabit LAN / USB 2.0 / Firewire / WiFi / Intel Prescott Support. Good reviews from the people who purchased it. Any comments are welcome. Thanks.