Mysterious Random Reboots...

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Hi,

OS - Windows XP Home Edition.

As a keen novice PC Modder I recently installed an extra 512mb of DDR RAM onto my machine to speed up my gaming experience. However since this was done my machine keeps randomly rebooting itself for no apparent reason. There are no error messages displayed on screen. The error report produced suggested that there where problems with regards to the graphics card. Even after reinstalling the graphics drivers and re-seating the memory module the problem is still occuring. I would be so grateful if someone could offer me some advice.

Many thanks.

Simon...

 

Could your comp be pulling too much power from the PSU? That could be another thing to check.

 

I agree. First pull the new stick of RAM out and see if the problem persists. Remember, not all RAM is considered equal. Issues could be either a bad stick of RAM or this RAM is not compatible with your motherboard. How did you make sure that this particular type of RAM worked with your system?

Also, some sticks of RAM need to be in particular slots (numbered 1,2,3, and 4). You could also try swapping the slots the RAM sticks are in to see if that makes a difference.

 

yeah im hovering on the power issue too
do you overclock? could be a chance ur memory is pulling power that used to be used by your graphics card (is your graphics card bus powered or powered externally)?

 

Okay you A+ guys, can you tell me how many watts a stick of 512 meg DDR RAM dissipates? I have no idea, except that from experience most RAM runs fairly cool and that is an indicator that the power dissipation is not humongous.



I would suspect the RAM type is not suited to the motherboard. Is your computer a branded machine, DELL etc? Trip asked what steps you took to ensure the RAM was a suitable brand. I think that is the salient point.



Just my guess,



Pete

 

id cast my vote with cooling myself. if a CPU gets too hot, its shuts down, its pretty much a safety mechanism to prevent the CPU from burning out. check to see if you have accidentally disconnected the cooling fan whilst installing the RAM - after all, its easy to do, moving the cables aside in order to see what you are doing! also, you could try buying a can of compressed air and blowing out any dust in the CPU fan specifically, but the system as a whole!

Fergal

 

Actually one of my workstations does the same thing, not surprisingly though, as it was given to me by an IT buddy that worked in a computer shop and the said machine was one that had been upgraded by them because it had problems. So heaven only knows how many people have tried in vain to stop this thing just re-booting. Sometimes it can stay up for days whilst other times it won't even boot. I have swapped the RAM, removed everything except the video card, re-seated the CPU, changed the PSU, checked and cleaned the fans and it still does it.

So, it can be hard to say, especially if, like me you have run a plethora of diagnostic utils against the thing and all results are hunky dory.

In my case, I think that either the MOBO or the CPU is intermittantly faulty but as it is a P3 and an older MOBO, there is no option other than living with it or upgrading, which I can't justify as I already have enough working puters.

All you can do is to try discover the problem by a process of elimination. All we can do remotely is give advice and guess

Pete