Startup problem! Can't seem to find the cure!

C

chocobo15_2000

New Member
The setup:
I have a Gigabyte mobo, with a 478pin 3.0 Ghz pentium 4 processor, 1 gig dual channel DDR Geil ram, and a antec 500W PSU with 2 HD (120G, and 200G Ultra ATA's) on a cheapo chieftec tower running 3 80mm fans.

The problem:
Whenever i boot my computer lately, once window finishes loading, and the destop appears, it'll reboot itself immediately. Sometimes it'll look its its not gonna restart, but when i move the mouse, it'll restart again. On the 2nd restart, it will stabalize, and I can start using the computer.

I've never had this problem before...i've had my comp for 2+ years with no problems until the recent month of april/2005 when this restarting problem started to occur.

I did no upgrades in hardware, and only windows updates for my winXP... I haven't been gaming, and haven't installed any new software either, which I doubt can affect this problem in the first place.

What I think:
I have a few theories about this issue:
1) my PSU is dying on me...
2) my mobo is crapping out...
3) is it possible for hard drive malfunction to cause this? b/c my HD has been making weird scrapping sounds sometimes.
4) i have an APC surge protector + backup batter unit that I plug my whole computer system into...could that be the culprit?

All help is appreciated:
Could you guys help me diagnose my problem? any possibilities/help is appreciated. I thank you all!
 
Well it could be like you said any one of those problems. Easiest thing to do to eliminate some is A. Remove it from the backup see if that does anything. B. If you have another PSU to try stick that in there and see what it does. C. See if you have the MSblaster worm (uncommon as it may be now). As for the HDD what kind of scraping sounds (if that sounds right) does it make? (long, loud, violent) The mobo could also be the culprit but I'm not to sure for what reason. Just check the mobo for any popped capacitor's (the big round things) and see if you find any or any burnt spots on the board.

P.s. could also be that the board is grounding to the case.
 
i think i figured out the problem...i'm thinking its the mobo, when i popped the case open to clean it today, i noticed that the smaller fan (i dunno what chip its cooling but its on most mobo's today, maybe some1 can enlighten me) on the mobo was unplugged. I plugged it in, and booted the comp, and it loaded all the way.

the scrapping sound is not loud, and while diagnosing my comp, it was actually comming from the fan on my ATI Radeon 9800XT. I stopped the fan with my finger (probably not a good thing to do) and the sound stopped. Strange though it sounded like my previous HD right before it died.

I'm hoping that little fan connection was the culprip...i'll let the comp run and do a few restarts and see how things go...thank you all so much for your quick input.
 
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