pc shutdown & reboot for no reason

[staidasquo]

My pc has started shutting down and rebooting for no apparent reason. I have replaced the board, processor and hard drive recently but it doesn't have any effect. It's running XP Pro with 512Mb ram and AMD Athlon 2.-something processor.I have hardly any software on it as I only use it for live music recording with Cubasis VST 5.
It shuts down whether any software is running or not.
There isn't any time pattern as far as I can tell and each time it happens it re-boots and shows the "Windows has recovered from a serious error" message.
Any suggestions?

 

[GONNA-GET-U]

have you check for virus, spyware, adware, trojan and so on ? - updated windows ?

 

[Reefsmoka]

A friend had a problem that sounds exacly the same. We messed around with evrything to try and solve it. Then we changed the PSU and the problem went away. He had one of those Q-Tec ones, which seem to be the worse PSU money can buy.

So if you can, try and change the PSU, and tell me the results.

 

[staidasquo]

Thanks for these, I don't think it's a virus problem as this pc has never been connected to the internet. Should I connect it and get SP2 as I have on my other pc's?

I assume the "PSU" is the power supply box of stuff? If so, I can remove it from another pc temporarily and try it in this faulty bag of sh*t.

Incidentally, (a little knowledge being a dangerous thing) when I replaced the board, cpu and hard drive I basically removed the old and banged in the new. Should I have done anything else? The only thing I have done is to clear the CMOS jumper and when prompted, selected default values.

 

[Reefsmoka]

Yup, the PSU (power supply) is the big box in your case with all the leads comming out of it to power the motherboard, cd drives, hard drives etc etc.

Make sure when you try a new power supply in your computer, that is has anough power! The one you got is probably around the 350W mark. So try one with equal or more power if possible.

The power rating will be on the side of the psu. It should be in a biggish font/letters, 250W, 300W, 350W etc etc (they dont all go up in 50's, im just doing it for example!).

 

[darkangel]

He had one of those Q-Tec ones, which seem to be the worse PSU money can buy.

Just like to say that i have a Q-Tec and I have had no problems with it at all.

 

[darkangel]

Just like to say that I have a Q-Tec PSU and I have had no problems with it at all

 

[Reefsmoka]

Just like to say that I have a Q-Tec PSU and I have had no problems with it at all

Well to be honest your pretty lucky then. If you google "faulty qtec psu" or "faulty qtec" it will make you wanna shutdown your PC now and fork out for that lovely Enermax PSU.

They are one of the worst psu makers around, my friend only had his for about 3 months aswell. He was lucky, some of them actually damage the components inside the computers, and a fryed processor is no laughing matter.

 

[Alf]

i have that same problem sometimes, only when I try my hand at overclocking using Gigabyte EasyTune 4 (it came it my motherboard software). sometimes it restarts, does sometimes it doesint. I have a 400W PSU. Sould I be using Easytune 4 in the first place?

 

[Techy]

disable restart on error.
if it still reboots then swop out the PSU.

 

[staidasquo]

You all seem to know far more than I do, bizarrely I have used the thing today for about 4 hours and it behaved perfectly.

Do I disable "restart on error" in the bios bit? If not, where?

 

[Reefsmoka]

You all seem to know far more than I do, bizarrely I have used the thing today for about 4 hours and it behaved perfectly.

Do I disable "restart on error" in the bios bit? If not, where?

Yeah, you do that in the bios.

Usually you just have to press delete when your computer is 1st turned on and you get a little message in the corner or somewhere saying "press delete for bios" or summut simular. I have to press F2 to enter my bios, its different for different compuers! Delete is definatly the most usual to see though.

 

[Techy]

it's not in the BIOS.

right click my pc, click properties, click advanced, startup and recovery settings, untick restart on error.

ta da.

 

[Reefsmoka]

Well there is a "restart on error" in the bios, i thought y ameant that one .