The EVIL possessed computer dilemna

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Black_Zeus90

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Alrighty, well where to start....

I am also having hardware issues as well, which for some reason refuse to be isolated.

At this point the only items in my computer I have not replaced would be the power supply, and floppy drive. (everything is installed properlly,including BIOS config, etc...)

Problem A :

I start up the computer everything is going ok, then comes time to restart (after maybe an hour or so of running) maybe I installed a new program, or just felt I needed to give it a fresh start, as soon as the operating system exits, and the computer restarts, it hangs on a black screen, turns the monitor off, so I dont see anything that goes on, it will spin up the cd drive for a few seconds, then reboot. It will do this for no reason, until I press the restart button or do a hard power restart (power switch off --> power button, rinse repeat...) and then out of no where it just maybe, if its feeling nice will start up, make the little beep, flash the bios screen on the monitor, and start to load.

The memory is working fine, all the parts work fine it just has a temper for some reason occasionally. I have definately enough cooling power so I know its not an overheating issue. The only things that I can possibly think are the reason would be the CMOS battery acting up :confused: or the power supply. It is a 400w power supply, and my heatsink+fan does use an external power source, but that is all configured fine and dandy.

Anyone know what is wrong with this thing or is it just possessed by the devil? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!


Ok, now onto Problem B:

As stated above, the computer has a wee bit of a temper!
I have to do a full install of windows XP Pro, because my old HDD, which is no older than about 3 months, had gotten bad sectors on it, and corrupted the OS, but the files I need off of it are so important that I would rather use another hard drive, pull the files off, and then just have 330 GB of HDD space. Unfortunately I dont have the access to cloning systems and other various methods of installing OS's, so I use the stone age method of the 6 floppy boot diskettes (required for pro) then it jumps over to the cd for info. My only problem is that as soon as I insert the 6th diskette, my computer will immeadiately restart as soon as the enter key is pressed for it to read it. I have tried many different disks, and I think it is all relating back to the original problem of the computer having a temper.

I'm praying that there will be some fellow computer guru's hanging around here that know of what is going on with this machine of mine or if they know someone who had a similar problem. (I'm too embarassed to bring my system into the Geek Squad at best buy or some other store. I'll die before that happens)

This is my 6th personal gaming machine that I have built, and all my previous ones worked perfectly without any problems

Anyways, heres the specs, and thanks again to anyone that can help!!!

AMD Athlon XP 2600+333 FSB
Gigabyte GA-7S748-L <--Around there somewhere
ATI Radeon 9200 Pro 128DDR
1GB Kingston DDR PC3200 (I have also tested other memory speeds, 2100 & 2700 to make sure that it wasn't the 3200 speed causing the errors)
Western Digital 160GB 7200RPM 8MBCache HDD
Seagate Barracuda 120GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache HDD
Generic Floppy & CD-Rom's

If theres any other info ya need, dont hesitate to ask for it, but remember, I have no access to windows, hehe And thank you again for helping me out whether it works or not!

-Shawn :)
 
no, its not a heat issue, my case is only about 40 degress celsius at all times, which is pretty good I understand... processor never peaks over 50c
 
hmm, 40 is good 50 under load. No problems there, then. When that happens and it has problems, try this. Try to clear NVRAM via jumpers and then boot. If it works, confirm it by doing this a few times. That will tell you if its the battery or possible corrupt bios that needs flashing. Also, does it hang with a little flashing curser in the corner? It could also be just a defective PSU. Try disconnecting the floppy and run that way. I'm assuming barebone system has been tried (nothing but hdd, cpu, memory and vid) has been tried. I know probably cant do much with no cdrom but its more to just see if stability. You said its the 6th built, not sure if this just started or if its something that just tends to get worse. Check and see if the MBD is grounding to the case. Remove the MBD from the case with only necessities on a anti static wrap and if it works like that, may want to make sure you have plastic caps to cover the screws.
 
thanks Killians, I'll try the clearing the ram trick ASAP, for now I think my best bet, since it seems I have exhausted all options regarding hardware is to just get a new cmos battery,and power supply. Therefore every part will be brand new.

I have tested the system without even the drives connected, just the motherboard, mem, and vid card, and it will still refuse to start up if the computer has previously been on for more than a few minutes.

No there isn't a virus, although it would be better if it was, since they are easy to remove compared to trouble shooting computers which dont want to be nice... =(

Anyways, I have the BIOS updated to the latest driver, which is the F5, compared to the standard F1, but I will flash the BIOS, and re-attempt to install XP, even though the floppy boot is a pain in the rear.

Thanks guys for all your help. And yes any other input is greatly appreciated, I know I'm not the only person to have a problem similar to this.

And if I find a solution to this problem I'll post back with results, and how/if it can be prevented, etc...
 
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