System locks up or reboots, help :/

[jimshuw]

My system locks up in games(only tried Tribes1 and Moto GP 2, but I'm sure others would lock as well) in less than a minute of playing, sometimes before I even get ouf of the options menus. I am also getting random lockups/restarts while browsing sites in IE sometimes, I haven't determined yet if it's specific sites, or possibly plug-ins. But the odd thing I just noticed, it doesn't seem to have any problems with movies. I would have thought that it'd lock while watching movies too.

System specs:

Win XP Pro
Soyo K7V Dragon +
WD 40 gig HD
512 MB DDR RAM from Crucial
SB Audigy
Gainward GeForce3 Ti 200
300w PS
Toshiba PCX1100U cable modem hooked up through USB

I list the modem because I think it may have something to do w/ it or the USB port/controller. I noticed when I booted into Safe Mode w/ Networking I still locked. I found this odd because I'd never encountered many problems while in Safe Mode. I rebooted into Safe Mode w/o Networking and had no problems. After this I booted up and disabled all of my network-related stuff in device manager. I didn't notice any lockups in IE after this. I tried playing Tribes, and while the game still crashed, it sent me back to windows without rebooting. Previously it just rebooted or locked, so I thought that was a little improvement.

I don't know what else might be relavent.

Other things I have tried:

Tested RAM, seems fine
Switched Sound card slots around
Cleaned CPU fan
Installed Motherboard Monitor, it's showing everything running fairly cool(I don't know exactly what sensor is for what component, but it shows the following temps, all in celsius: 44, 37, 40)
Updated drivers for: video card, sound card, VIA chipset, modem

Over the course of 3 or 4 days I've talked with a lot of people about what could be causing this, but everything we've tried hasn't worked. So I have come here as a last resort, hoping maybe someone has seen a similar problem and can help me out. Any ideas would be appreciated. If there's anything I forgot to mention I apologize.

 

[chalk]

If you have differnent ram to try in place of yours, I would try that. Bad or not quite seated RAM has had this effect on many machines I have worked in at home and at the job. If it is old ram, try and clean the contacs a bit. My unofficial ram contact cleaner was an eraser...use at own risk, although had served me well.

Troubleshoot from there...hope this helps a little. I recently had rebooting problems and turned by sound accel down a notch in dxdiag

oh, and manually check for irq conflicts...I read somwhere of a case where there was mem/irq conflict which windows didn't report--you can check this using adv sys info under help. Make sure your bios sets all via auto if possible.

Hope my feeble attempts help!

Cheers

 

[CrashAbbott]

I am with Chalk,, sounds to close to a RAM issue here,, plus,, check the CPU temps,, monitor and log,,

if the temps get tooo high,, safety feature kicks in and the Whole system shuts down,,, game cards/CPU useage = heat! gaming is much more demanding on a CPU than movies,, so that can differ,,

how many fans do you have in your case,, have you left the panels off and had a fan blowing at the Tower,,

One or the other,, RAM or HEAT,,

cheers,

 

[jimshuw]

Thanks for the replies guys. I have 2 256mb sticks of RAM and tested them each individually, and they both seem fine. My fans also seem to be running fine and according to MBM my temps are pretty cool.

Microbell, you were right. Some of the capacitors look like they are leaking, or bubbling up on top. I guess that would be my problem. I wonder how much of a hassle it would be to get that replaced. :/

Thanks again guys!

 

[CrashAbbott]

Good Stuff MB!!!

Glad to see the problem found,,,

Do the capacitors bulge and leak from a short , surge,or Heat, or poor crafting??

I know with other electrical boards, something like that is either surge or short?

cheers,

 

[daveppeters]

The capacitor issue is a great story of industrial espionage! Apparently, an Asian company (Don't know who) stole a formula for capacitor electrolyte from a Japanese company. Unfortunately, they missed part of the formula. Anyway, this stolen formula was used to produce tons of cap. which were sold to m/b manufact, and other electronic manufact. These caps fail (bubble, leak, etc) after a short period of time and cause all sorts of problems. According to John C. Dvorak (PC Magazine), some cap even made it into aircraft electronics, although no one is talking about it!!

The m/b manufact should replace them if you RMA the board. Alternatively, you can replace them yourself if you have the soldering skills and confidence.