PC Probs

Doodee

right,
I recently didnt go into college, where i have my home machine for rendering purposes.

Now, for what reason i do not know the system.ini file stopped working, it was either corrupt or missing, I tried various things to get it back but none seemed to want to work.
I was using windows XP HE, i eventually had to face up to it and re-install windows over it on the same partition.

This is having major problems, i get 2 errors whn starting up (not in college, but will post em up tomorrow), it would also just close 3D Studio Max, and re-boot at random.

Now, i recently installed 2 sticks of 512DDR PC2700 333MHz ram (Peats.ie special offer of 95 ex vat each, i know, komplett or shop4memory.com but i couldnt wait)

i did think it was these sticks, but i still got the same errors when the system had the original 256MB back in.

I finally decided to install 2K to see if that was the problem, however, i no longer recieve the errors, i still do recieve the random re-boots.

I then coppd about the hard drives being too close together in a micro atx case, they were boiling over, so now the system, in win2k, appears to be working ok, however, the college was closing just when i was testing the machine.

basically any ideas as to what it maybe incase its not the hard drives boiling?

SouperComputer

whats the rest of the specs on the machine? Ie mobo board and make etc etc.

have you looked in event viewer (admin tools) for any peculiarities?

Dingatron

I had a problem with an AMD system randomly rebooting before and it turned out that the cpu fan was not seated right. Worth a try?

pickarooney

Definitely a heating issue. Leave the case open and whenever it reboots itself, quickly feel around for bits are are unusually hot.
Not the most elegant or sophisticated of solutions, and you mihgt burn the skin off your hands, but it's all I can think of right now.

Doodee

right, the side of the machine is off, it has been, and it still reboots,
I seperated the hard drives, took out the slave, the machine still went re-booting.
Windows new installation is damaged, so im re-installing it, however that would not explain why its re-booting in 2k.

I believe that it could be a short with he ram.
it could be possible that one of the 512MB sticks is causeing the errors, but I'll just have to take the machine home and test it.

heres the specs

P4 2.66Ghz 512Cache
SIS Mobo (8x AGP one)
Seagate Barra 120GB HD
IBM Deskstar 120GB HD (Slave)
ATI Radeon 9500pro 128MB 8x AGP
1GB DDR pc 333MHz 2700 (2 x 512MB Kingston Sticks)


thats all the info that i would consider relevant.

The machine is the one aldi had on special offer around november/december.
I'll find out he maker of the ram but its the ones sold by peats with is
here

thats for your advice, its appreciated.

Drazhar

i hope your at least running a 450 watt PSU with that!!

If not, then there's your problem, not enough power. Have a look at the PSU, fond the combined outage for the 3.3v and 5v rails (cables/plugs). It is on the PSU. IF its below 200watt, then your gonna need a new PSU. I have the same problem, but im too scabbby to fork out 120 quid for a 500watt PSU

check this out for what wattage you'll need
http://computer.howstuffworks.com/framed.htm?parent=power-supply.htm&url=http://www.pcpowercooling.com/maxpc/index_cases.htm

its a bit old, but hey