PC keeps rebooting

[Tringa]

Thanks to everyone who has helped me recently with my PC build, but I'd appreciate advice on this problem

The set up is :-

Silverstone Strider ST60F psu

ASUS A8N32 Sli Deluxe
AMD X2 4200
Arctic 64 Pro heatsink/cooler

2 x Corsair CMX1024-3500LLPRO

80 Gig Samsung HD080HJ SpinPoint P80 SATA 300
250 Gig (IBM/Hitachi) Deskstar T7K250, SATA300
NEC ND7170 DVD RW

MSI 7900GTO PCi E

Last week I had a a few problems installing XP Pro - the installation kept failing to copy tourW.exe, but eventually I managed to get it installed.

So I had XP installed on the 80 Gig drive and Windows could see and had formatted the 250 Gig drive, but XP kept crashing and giving error messages. Because of this I decided to reformat the 80 Gig and do a fresh installation of XP
I kept having a problem with tourW.exe not being copied correctly again during the installation of XP Pro. Then realised I had the RAM modules in the wrong slots on the motherboard (if you are using 2 modules they should go in slots A1 and B1 and I had them, because of the cooler covering A1, in A2 and B2), so its a bit of surprise that it installed the first time, even with errors.

Decided to install XP with only one RAM module, which I could fit, as per the motherboard manual, in B1

The files then copied with no problem. The PC then reboots into the Windows screen to complete the installation(the screen that says this could take 39 mins). Within a few seconds the PC turned itself off. I tried rebooting and letting it go into a screen that said something like "Setup has restarted", but after a few seconds the PC reboots itself. If I let it continue, it reboots itself again and again and again.

I wondered if it was an overheating problem, so turned the PC off for an hour, but when I tried it again the result was the same - if do the installation from scratch it will just shutdown, if I then reboot it into the screen to complete installation it will go into a cycle of shutdown and rebooting.

Any ideas, suggestions appreciated

TIA

[KingLouie3]

Try running memtest85+ from http://www.memtest.org/ to check the memory modules for any errors.

[pands@scan]

doh you beat me to it

does sound like a memory issue tho

[frazered]

what cpu temps are you getting from the bios readings?

also do you have the most stable and up to date bios?

[Tringa]

Thanks folks. I'll have a look at memtest.

The BIOS says the cpu temp is 56C (motherboard temp is 41C) after being on for about an hour and half. That's with both sides of the case off and in a room at 17C.

That seems hot to me, but the PC still has not closed down and rebooted like it does within minutes of booting up and trying to complet the istallation of XP.

The BIOS is version 1205.

[frazered]

yeah that does seem hot

my 4600 with the side off runs at 32 - 35 !

I would try reseating the cpu cooler and making sure the thermal paste is suffcient (approx grain of rice size)

[teachmech]

I'd agree with the too hot. My 4600+ with a freezer pro never hits that temp even overclocked (2.6) and prime95 on both cores.

Remove the heatsink clean off tim reapply tim and reset heatsink checking to make sure of a good contact.

[Tringa]

Thanks all. Looks like it's time to take the motherboard out again.

BTW Does anyone know of a good cooler for this board that does not cover the first RAM slot? I need to use slots A1 and B1 if I'm using 2 RAM modules but the fan from the Arctic 64 completely covers A1

TIA

[frazered]

BTW Does anyone know of a good cooler for this board that does not cover the first RAM slot? I need to use slots A1 and B1 if I'm using 2 RAM modules but the fan from the Arctic 64 completely covers A1

TIA

tried mounting it the other way round? i.e. turned 180 degrees

the fan should be exhausting towards the rear of the case and the rear case fan, this may also have contributed to high temps as the hot air will just be held in the case

[Tringa]

Thanks Frazered, but the way the cooler is set up now (fan towards the RAM slots and fins to the back of the case) blows air towards the rear fan.

To use both RAM modules it looks like I'm going to have to get a different cooler.

[-ccuk-]

Although that is a high temperature... it should not cause errors.


Is this a new build? If so, which BIOS are you using, since the A8N32SLI had several bios update to make sure it was compatible with 7900 nvidia cards, as well as some SATA compatibility.

1303 is the latest... 1205 fixed the problem with 7900's.




This could very well be faulting sticks of RAM.

As recommended earlier I would run Memtest.



However the strangest cause of this issue I have come across relates to the cd/dvd drive.

1) being the UDMA cable...
2) being the Drive
3) being a seemingly corrupt Windows Disk.

These have all caused looping installs in the past.

[frazered]

Thanks Frazered, but the way the cooler is set up now (fan towards the RAM slots and fins to the back of the case) blows air towards the rear fan.

To use both RAM modules it looks like I'm going to have to get a different cooler.

ah I haven't used a freezer before so thought the airflow was different for that cooler

I have used the zalman series for ages all good

[Tringa]

Thanks to everyone who has commented here and I think I now have the answer.

Swapped the Arctic 64 for the stock cooler (which had thermal paste already applied) that came with the cpu. The BIOS then showed a steady temp of 36C.

Tried reformatting and reinstallion, but had same problem. Tried with each of the RAM modules separately.

Yep, you guys were spot on. One crashed, the other worked perfectly. I'll be ringing Scan next week, but as the modules are a matched pair I assume both have to be returned.

BTW, Frazered are you using a Zalman cooler on an A8N32 Sli Deluxe? If so, which cooler, and does it leave all the RAM slots clear?

Thanks all

Tring

[Blitzen]

Classic PSU problem but yours is a decent one.

Have you measured it with a DMM?

[frazered]

Swapped the Arctic 64 for the stock cooler (which had thermal paste already applied) that came with the cpu. The BIOS then showed a steady temp of 36C.

sounds more like a normal temp

BTW, Frazered are you using a Zalman cooler on an A8N32 Sli Deluxe? If so, which cooler, and does it leave all the RAM slots clear?

not got an asus board but the zalmans fit pretty much every board out there

i have the cnps7000b-alcu and that does hang over the mem slots very slightly but there is no problem using the slots

Have a look at the zalman site http://www.zalman.co.kr/

the 7000, 7700 and 9500 all are confirmed as compatible for your board

also might be worth visiting the asus forums to read up on other coolers

http://vip.asus.com/forum/default.aspx?SLanguage=en-us

[Tringa]

Thanks Fraz, I have checked the ASUS site and didn't find anything useful, but ta anyway.

Will look at the Zalman site.

Cheers

Tring