[kode]

I definitely love XP, yeah...

today, I was moving this printer to my new computer, so I plugged it in, started it all up, and dissappeared for a while.
When I got back, I logged in and was gonna install the drivers and stuff. Only I couldn't. XP had detected the printer and identified it. The problem that arose when I ran out of ink on the second page I was printing after installing took more time to fix...

[Anaz]

XP rocks...the only time I've crashed it was when I did stupid things while writing full screen computer games...

I use XP on my laptop, and it works great, it is very nice to be able to plug a monitor in, and automatically have it go to duel monitors.

[Starfury]

The restart seems completely random... and the longer you leave his computer off, the longer it works... Got it to work for about a day by leaving it off for about a week. Usually, once it starts restarting it won't do anything.  I can hear the hard drive come on, but it doesn't get far enough to tell the monitor to wake up... what other details you need?

[WMCoolmon]

*Notes that not one bad thing has been said about 2000*

[Vertigo1]

This is really wierd.  Unplug all the power connectors from the hard drive(s), FDD, and CD-ROM(s).  Power the system up and see if it still reboots.  If it does, then go into the BIOS and reset everything back to default settings, then only change what you must to get it to work properly.  Then work your way up from there.

[Ulundel]

Originally posted by WMCoolmon
*Notes that not one bad thing has been said about 2000*

Akh, I always forget Win 2000. Can't comment that though...

[atatham]

All these people that are far more interested in *****ing than helping someone out.  You could all compete (on the *****ing front) with my girlfriend.

Starfurry

Ignoring the constant reset issue for a momment.  If any computer when powered on does not get as far as the bios page, the monitor would be on at this stage, then it obviously cannot be software based and is your kit.

Going back to the fact that it runs for a bit then conks out and will not go again strongly suggests a heat related problem.  As the most sensitive area of a PC in terms of heat is the processor then that or a motherboard component close to it are likely to be the problem.

You should do some more obvious things like check the processor is seated well on the board.  Check there is nice good contact between the heatsink/fan/processor and that the fan hasn't packed in.

To test the software/hardware further just leave the computer on without booting into an OS.  For example go into the setup utility and leave it there.  If it doesn't start reseting then it is a very bizarre software problem.

[kode]

Originally posted by atatham
All these people that are far more interested in *****ing than helping someone out.  You could all compete (on the *****ing front) with my girlfriend.
 

that says more about your choice in girlfriends than it says about us.

[01010]

Originally posted by kode

that says more about your choice in girlfriends than it says about us.

ZING!

[Stealth]

Originally posted by atatham
All these people that are far more interested in *****ing than helping someone out.  You could all compete (on the *****ing front) with my girlfriend.

Starfurry

Ignoring the constant reset issue for a momment.  If any computer when powered on does not get as far as the bios page, the monitor would be on at this stage, then it obviously cannot be software based and is your kit.

Going back to the fact that it runs for a bit then conks out and will not go again strongly suggests a heat related problem.  As the most sensitive area of a PC in terms of heat is the processor then that or a motherboard component close to it are likely to be the problem.

You should do some more obvious things like check the processor is seated well on the board.  Check there is nice good contact between the heatsink/fan/processor and that the fan hasn't packed in.

To test the software/hardware further just leave the computer on without booting into an OS.  For example go into the setup utility and leave it there.  If it doesn't start reseting then it is a very bizarre software problem.

i was thinkning, it might be the power supply, or something else overheating, and then automatically shutting down

[Fetty]

yeah id put my money towards the psu too
note: a mainboard component could be damaged due to to much heat and is causing these resets once it runs to hot again

resets are mostly an electrical issue

[Stealth]

Originally posted by Fetty
yeah id put my money towards the psu too
note: a mainboard component could be damaged due to to much heat and is causing these resets once it runs to hot again

resets are mostly an electrical issue

yeah, like i said,

either the power supply, or something else in the computer is overheating and resetting stuff... either that or something's not in correctly (check cables, ports, etc.)

so me and Fetty agree

[Starfury]

Power supply was the second thing I tried, after the vid card.  It's not that... granted, I took his 400 watt power supply out and replaced it with a 300 watt one (Didn't hook up CD ROms, Floppy, unessential crap).. but it didn't help the problem... so it's not that.

[Stealth]

only other thing i can recommend (i know it's a bit broad, but anyway) is the motherboard and everything directly on it (processor, RAM, etc.) if you CAN try replacing those temporarily just to see if it works, then do so, if not, let me know

[Starfury]

I tried pulling out the processor on it earlier, but the heat sink is too big to pull up it one at a time and I think they used thermal paste on the sink, because it's not coming off the processor easily after they released the clip... and I'm reluctant to pull to hard, so...

[Vertigo1]

Dude, you cannot remove the cpu without releasing it from the socket.  You have to lift the lever to do that.  If the heatsink is "stuck" to the processor, then they used thermal tape.  What you have to do is turn the computer on and let it sit for about 5 minutes.  It doesn't have to do ANYTHING.  It just has to be ON.  Then turn it off and undo the clips and twist GENTLY.  It should come off very easily.  If not, just stop and leave it alone.  Bent or broken pins are a real pain in the ass to fix.  Especially if you don't have a REALLY fine soldering tip.