PC Rebooting -- Odd Problem

[DavidB7170]

Hope someone has some ideas... I've built several systems in the past few
years but never ran into this before. I rebuilt a machine for my mother and
wanted it to be simple, low cost, and reliable. I've built before with FIC
and ABIT mobos, and this time tried a Biostar M7VIG 400 with integrated
video, sound, and LAN (-- more complete list below).



The weird thing with this system is that it will reboot when first being
started up -- sometimes a few times, then once I get it up and going, it'll
straighten out and run steady as a rock for hours until I do a regular
shutdown without issues. It's like it's heat related -- the thing has to
warm up, then runs fine. This is always the first time I've started it up
for a day. Most heat-related issues have to do with connections going bad
when overheated, etc. Resistance goes up with temperature... The only things
left over from the old machine is the case (but put a new 300 Watt power
supply in it), old keyboard, old mouse (no wheel), and battery powered
speakers. It was a pretty clean installation, kept cables and wires fairly
orderly, had pretty routine mounting of the hardware, etc.



I shut off the WinXP feature that reboots at a windows error today. I did
that on my main machine when it rebooted using MS Flight Sim 2004 -- found
that the guilty party in that case was the video driver and my old ATI
Radeon 7200 series video card -- still haven't quite gotten that one cleared
up, but know the source of the problem at least, but I digress... I would
rather have the XP version of BSOD with info on the app or driver that
tanked, than just to reboot.



When I searched the program and system error logs in the admin system tools
on the new machine, I found no logged errors. I guess I'm leaning towards a
hardware issue at this point. Could an old keyboard or mouse be a culprit
here? One time when first putting the system togther, the mobo didn't detect
the keyboard on POST, but that doesn't seem to happen now...



System:

Biostar M7VIG 400 Motherboard with onboard video, audio, and 100baseT LAN

AMD XP 2000+ (266Mhz) cpu

256MB DDR333 RAM

WD 40GB WD400BB EIDE ULTRA-ATA/66-100 9.5MS 7200RPM 2MB Buffer Hard Drive

USR 56K V.92 PCI Internal Fax Modem (#USR5699B)

LG Electronics 52X/32X/52X Rewritable CD Drive #GCE8525BI

Dynex 300 Watt power supply

Microsoft Windows XP HOME w/sp1, just updated to sp2 -- had no issues with
the sp2 install.

I'd appreciate any ideas.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[JK]

Did you try using a different stick of ram? The old mouse of keyboard could
be a factor, although the system would probably freeze rather than reboot
if that was the problem. I am thinking about a power supply problem or
overheating problem.

 

[JAD]

sounds PSU related, utter guess. turn off LAN SOUND and I hope video
in the bios? and try running for a bit. try using minimal hardware to
get to windows e..g. no optical drives 1 stick of ram etc..

 

[DavidB7170]

Thanks for the reply. I've had those thoughts too, but most of the trouble
I've had with PSU's or other hardware were after the system got warmed up.
This one is when it's first started and cool. Then this problem goes away
when the system is warmed up and never rears its head for the rest of the
session -- hours... That's what is so bizarre about this one to me. I guess
I should go out and get a low cost keyboard to test out my theory one way or
the other -- lot cheaper than another new PSU or stick of RAM. This is my
first DDR system build, so I don't have any laying around. My main system
(ABIT KT7A-RAID mobo with AthalonXP 2400+) has 1.5GB of PC133 memory of
mixed breed with 3-80GB HDD's, CDRW, DVDRW, and Radeon graphics and doesn't
hiccup on a 340 Watt PSU.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[David Maynard]

Hope someone has some ideas... I've built several systems in the past few
years but never ran into this before. I rebuilt a machine for my mother and
wanted it to be simple, low cost, and reliable. I've built before with FIC
and ABIT mobos, and this time tried a Biostar M7VIG 400 with integrated
video, sound, and LAN (-- more complete list below).



The weird thing with this system is that it will reboot when first being
started up

At what point in the startup sequence does the reboot take place?

 

[Arkmood]

System:

Biostar M7VIG 400 Motherboard with onboard video, audio, and 100baseT LAN

Built a system for my brother around that board, thing would reboot with
certain types of ram sticks/memory configurations. Finally settled on
one stick of 256... forgot which kind.. but the thing ran super after
that...

 

[DavidB7170]

Thanks for the reply. The reboots vary, but the system usually gets into
windows okay, then reboots usually within the first couple of minutes.
Sometimes when I try to do something like open an app like my computer,
sometimes not -- just sitting there. Then after a few more more minutes it
straightens out and works fine for hours.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[DavidB7170]

I have a single stick of generic 256MB DDR PC333 ram from mwave.com in
it -- they assembled and tested the mobo, Athalon 2000+, cpu fan cooler, and
ram. I tried to keep the hardware down to a minimum, so as to not stress the
psu.

I had read on the ng's that the Biostar were decent all in one no frills
mobo's so that's why I wanted to go that way.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[David Maynard]

Thanks for the reply. The reboots vary, but the system usually gets into
windows okay, then reboots usually within the first couple of minutes.
Sometimes when I try to do something like open an app like my computer,
sometimes not -- just sitting there. Then after a few more more minutes it
straightens out and works fine for hours.

OK. Well, anything can cause stability problems but that does sound like a
memory problem then rather than the PSU. Barring the PSU putting out noise,
for some reason, an under powered one would typically show a problem
earlier in the startup sequence and a high temp problem, like a poor CPU
heatsink/thermal compound layer, wouldn't 'settle out' later; it would just
get worse.

Memory, however, can certainly cause stability problems and a slight
altering of circuit timings as temperature varies could explain why it
works after a while.

 

[Jan Alter]

Substitute a different PS and note what happens.

 

[BudMan]

Try upgrading the BIOS. Usually when I built with AMD processors and VIA
266 chipsets the culprit was the network card. But since you have a built
in card it would be hard to take out. Most of the time a flash of the BIOS
to the latest would cure the problem.

 

[J. S. Pack]

Thanks for the reply. The reboots vary, but the system usually gets into
windows okay, then reboots usually within the first couple of minutes.
Sometimes when I try to do something like open an app like my computer,
sometimes not -- just sitting there. Then after a few more more minutes it
straightens out and works fine for hours.

Thanks,
Dave

What about if you just boot to DOS? Still reboots?

I'm wondering if we can definitely rule out software.

 

[PWY]

What about if you just boot to DOS? Still reboots?

I'm wondering if we can definitely rule out software.

Have you run a virus scan with an up to date antivirus program ? One virus
of this past year causes just such a problem.