pc rebooting randomly?
- Thread starter zorro69
- Start date
rebooted at least 2 times with other graphics card installed. did an uninstall in the drivers section and installed new ones for new board. Didn't notice any freezing one of two restarts. Didn't think to look at the model of the first but I put it back in and took the borrowed one back. PC Eye when you say version 7.9 do you mean board number or driver number? Looking at bad caps and batteries???? On the motherboard? Graphics card? Power supply? I didn't know they had batteries except for the one to keep the time during outages.
You never mentioned whether that was an ATI or NVidia model card in use. The Catalyst 7.9 is the software side of the card not just the version of the drivers. That would be similar to the desktop manager seen with NVidia cards.
The 7.9 version was a disaster where ATI released a patch that didn't do anything. This is why that was mentioned in case the software cd also saw that there. The cd here for the card came with the 7.9 on it and ended up in the recycle bin once the 7.10 came out. The 8.3 is the current update.
The 7.9 version was a disaster where ATI released a patch that didn't do anything. This is why that was mentioned in case the software cd also saw that there. The cd here for the card came with the 7.9 on it and ended up in the recycle bin once the 7.10 came out. The 8.3 is the current update.
dznutz
New Member
try this:
turn on computer, go into bios, go to temperature sensors, wait and see what happens (note the temps and whether or not it reboots). if it doesn't reboot for like an hour or so and cpu temps seem normal then it could be viruses. if temps are normal and it reboots then it's some sort of hardware failure
also, are you beep codes normal?
turn on computer, go into bios, go to temperature sensors, wait and see what happens (note the temps and whether or not it reboots). if it doesn't reboot for like an hour or so and cpu temps seem normal then it could be viruses. if temps are normal and it reboots then it's some sort of hardware failure
also, are you beep codes normal?
The latest driver updates won't work on the old GeForce FX5200 model there. You would simply be installing drivers for newer model cards since the last updates for that line are in archives at this late date if found at NVidia.
When locating the older Sony model you provided the one found on Amazon comes with an ATI X300LE model card there. One look will show if this is a match for the one you have there. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VGC-RA82.../B000300A2U/ref=de_a_smtd/104-5534359-1595138
When scrolling the support page at Sony I end up seeing a download for ATI there as well when looking at the bottom of the list found at http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGCRA820G Someone apparently swapped the original card out.
I did locate one site that still carries updates for that model card for Vista as well as XP at http://www.toggle.com/lv/group/view/kl41251/Driver_Nvidia_GeForce_FX_5200.htm
When locating the older Sony model you provided the one found on Amazon comes with an ATI X300LE model card there. One look will show if this is a match for the one you have there. http://www.amazon.com/Sony-VGC-RA82.../B000300A2U/ref=de_a_smtd/104-5534359-1595138
When scrolling the support page at Sony I end up seeing a download for ATI there as well when looking at the bottom of the list found at http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-list.pl?mdl=VGCRA820G Someone apparently swapped the original card out.
I did locate one site that still carries updates for that model card for Vista as well as XP at http://www.toggle.com/lv/group/view/kl41251/Driver_Nvidia_GeForce_FX_5200.htm
i'm not sure what"s going on. I forgot to mention when I checked on sony's website I found a place where it asked to detect model. So i did, and it came up as a vgc-ra710g. Computer was sold on ebay as a vgc-ra820g. I went with what the sony sight said as to the video card which is the nvidia fx5200. i have since finished updating from the sony site,nvidia(done before I read post), and microsoft updates. It shut off on me right before I got this posted, not 5 minutes ago. Tonight is not a good night to watch temps for an hour, I will be asleep long before anything happens. 
When you first turn the power on and the screen flickers for the first few seconds and the lights on drives and the keyboard flash you will hear one single beep which is the default single beep for most boards. If you were hear one long and two short you would look at a problem with the video card as one example of a hardware code.
Anything other then the single default beep heard when first starting up points at a specific problem. Constabt beeping may indicate a faulty dimm or cpu failure. On some systems visual information will come up onscreen for cpu failure or a memory problem depending on make and model while custom case have to go by listening to the precise long and short beeps when heard to refer to a chart for what each points to.
The specfications and online manual come up in pop up windows at http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=VGCRA710G The July 2005 update is found at http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGCRA710G&upd_id=1924&os_id=16
Anything other then the single default beep heard when first starting up points at a specific problem. Constabt beeping may indicate a faulty dimm or cpu failure. On some systems visual information will come up onscreen for cpu failure or a memory problem depending on make and model while custom case have to go by listening to the precise long and short beeps when heard to refer to a chart for what each points to.
The specfications and online manual come up in pop up windows at http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-documents.pl?mdl=VGCRA710G The July 2005 update is found at http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/swu-download.pl?mdl=VGCRA710G&upd_id=1924&os_id=16
i'm getting the single beep on startup, and I watched temp in the bios, it reached 127 (53) at one point but never shut off. After letting windows start up, 2 minutes max and it restarted. I've tried three times to download the driver for the video card and it won't stay on long enough to install it. Gonna try again later when our internet speeds go up a little.
The single default is good pointing that the cpu, memory, video card are all good while not pointing at a possible board fault or at least a need to see the bios updated. P4s ran a bit warmer especially with the stock hsf seen on prebuilds ruling 53C out as a problem there. Those were typically seeing upto 185F or 85C!
If you spend any time in the bios a cpu will actually warm up faster since there's nothing there to keep it busy. Most of the time people are simply in and out in a minute or so never seeing a high temp. The newer boards offer energy saving features at times that won't lead to what you might see on old systems with a cpu running full bear while being in there too long.
The fact that the system won't stay on long enough to download an update shows that this is not a driver issue being seen. Even with a bad install you would see Windows lock up or blue screens not constant restarts while sitting idle at the desktop or simply trying to reach the support site.
A bad cao on the board or supply more likely board is the likely suspect. Once Windows is fully loaded something besides the cpu or memory is heating up or simply losing power like a weak cap not maintaining the proper voltage level. A failing bios eprom or chipset would be another thought.
If you spend any time in the bios a cpu will actually warm up faster since there's nothing there to keep it busy. Most of the time people are simply in and out in a minute or so never seeing a high temp. The newer boards offer energy saving features at times that won't lead to what you might see on old systems with a cpu running full bear while being in there too long.
The fact that the system won't stay on long enough to download an update shows that this is not a driver issue being seen. Even with a bad install you would see Windows lock up or blue screens not constant restarts while sitting idle at the desktop or simply trying to reach the support site.
A bad cao on the board or supply more likely board is the likely suspect. Once Windows is fully loaded something besides the cpu or memory is heating up or simply losing power like a weak cap not maintaining the proper voltage level. A failing bios eprom or chipset would be another thought.
sandlotje89
New Member
Sorry everyone if this is already suggested -- I had the same issue with my computer and the source turned out to be one of the programs. I am kind of assuming it is software since it gets through the whole boot process. What you should do is open the Task Manager and end the explorer.exe process. Then go to File>run> and type in explorer.exe again. Then take note of which processes are opened up from there on and see if there is a correlation between the crashes and the programs you open. Good luck!
dznutz
New Member
53c is a tad high. did you blow off the hsf/fan well with compressed air as per the instructions given? where do you live or what are your ambient temps?
i'm leaning more to a virus issue or bad power supply. since the computer did not restart while in bios then perhaps the power supply needed more stress or the problem is caused by a virus when you load the OS. lets try downloading memtest to stress out the power supply for an hour or so (or something else anybody can recommend to stress out the power supply). the primary purpose of this is to stress out the power supply to see if it will restart. the secondary purpose will see if the ram has anything to do with the restarts. if no problems there then we'll go for the virus issue
for the virus issue download "hiren's boot cd" to clean out the virus during boot up (it runs just like memtest)
i'm leaning more to a virus issue or bad power supply. since the computer did not restart while in bios then perhaps the power supply needed more stress or the problem is caused by a virus when you load the OS. lets try downloading memtest to stress out the power supply for an hour or so (or something else anybody can recommend to stress out the power supply). the primary purpose of this is to stress out the power supply to see if it will restart. the secondary purpose will see if the ram has anything to do with the restarts. if no problems there then we'll go for the virus issue
for the virus issue download "hiren's boot cd" to clean out the virus during boot up (it runs just like memtest)
By the time you use the task manager to manually end each process you could be in the middle of another restart. Booting up in safe mode and opening the msconfig utility to disable all items in the startup group followed by a normal boot and still seeing shutdowns with nothing loading besides Windows would likely point to a hardware problem.
With a bad install of software you would likely end up seeing a blue screen pointing out a driver of some type. Sudden restarts without any blue screens suggests a voltage drop of some type rather then any program installed.
I've seen numerous bad installs of various programs with different versions of Windows installed and the system in use at the time would still run while something would lock up or crash when going to use it. The only program or rather programming that would be a concern is a shaky bios. But that would likely see the restarts while running a game or something else placing a good load on the cpu and other hardwares due to the demand for power.
With a bad install of software you would likely end up seeing a blue screen pointing out a driver of some type. Sudden restarts without any blue screens suggests a voltage drop of some type rather then any program installed.
I've seen numerous bad installs of various programs with different versions of Windows installed and the system in use at the time would still run while something would lock up or crash when going to use it. The only program or rather programming that would be a concern is a shaky bios. But that would likely see the restarts while running a game or something else placing a good load on the cpu and other hardwares due to the demand for power.
Ok everybody, my wife has put her foot down 
- she says to order the darn (used other words) power supply because it hasn't been ruled out after 4 pages. So beings that the rebate has expired on the psu that someone posted earlier in this thread, and I have no clue how to post a link, I was wondering if the psu that newegg has would work for me. It's item # N82E16817371004.
- she says to order the darn (used other words) power supply because it hasn't been ruled out after 4 pages. So beings that the rebate has expired on the psu that someone posted earlier in this thread, and I have no clue how to post a link, I was wondering if the psu that newegg has would work for me. It's item # N82E16817371004.The only thing I come up with at newegg is the Antec 500w model seen at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371004&Tpk=N82E16817371004
The mail-in rebate on that model is good until the April 30th according to the offer.
http://images10.newegg.com/uploadfilesfornewegg/rebate/SH/Antec17-371-004Apr21Apr3008ll97.pdf
First you have to know if the supply currently used is an atx or AT format since Sony has their own ways of doing things there especially with the case designs. I have to suspect a factory defect was the reason it was being auctioned off in the first place since the original owner was seeing the same problem.
One idea before ordering anything would be seeing if you could borrow a supply from a friend long enough to see if it takes a standard atx supply as well as if the supply and not something else is the actual problem. If the problem persists with a loaner then you have to start looking at a possible board fault.
The mail-in rebate on that model is good until the April 30th according to the offer.
http://images10.newegg.com/uploadfilesfornewegg/rebate/SH/Antec17-371-004Apr21Apr3008ll97.pdf
First you have to know if the supply currently used is an atx or AT format since Sony has their own ways of doing things there especially with the case designs. I have to suspect a factory defect was the reason it was being auctioned off in the first place since the original owner was seeing the same problem.
One idea before ordering anything would be seeing if you could borrow a supply from a friend long enough to see if it takes a standard atx supply as well as if the supply and not something else is the actual problem. If the problem persists with a loaner then you have to start looking at a possible board fault.
The minimum shows 364.7w in the specs but for simply leaving the system running at the desktop to see if the restarts are still seen you wouldn't be too underpowered. 350w is pretty much the standard for atx boards to begin with.
The idea is not to be running everything but find out if simply swapping supplies will work before rushing to order one to find that something else is the actual cause. By briefly running a different supply provided it's not some old supply seeing only a 20pin main power connector...
that won't work to start with you can either point at the need for a new one or rule out the supply completely.
The idea is not to be running everything but find out if simply swapping supplies will work before rushing to order one to find that something else is the actual cause. By briefly running a different supply provided it's not some old supply seeing only a 20pin main power connector...
that won't work to start with you can either point at the need for a new one or rule out the supply completely.