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Random System Restarts (Hard Drive?)

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Join Date: Dec 2003

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INut0nU

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Random System Restarts (Hard Drive?)

Dec 12th, 2003

I've been looking at numerous threads throughout the internet, and have found, and tried nothing that has worked for me yet. So this is my first attempt at a post to try and get some much needed advice. Ok here it goes...

SPECS
Motherboard - ECS K7S5A
Processor - 1800Ghz AMD
RAM - 2 X 512mb Simpletech DDR
Hard Drive - Western Digital EIDE 80gb (Very Recent)
OS - Win XP Pro

PROBLEM
I have expericened random system restarts since installing the new hard drive, and also have ruled out a RAM problem. All temps seems fine, ruled out a RAM problem, and have a fresh install of XP with the disk I have always used. I have checked all connections, and everything seems fine. Nothing in particular seems to trigger the restarts, sometimes it will be minutes, and sometimes hours between them. Could this be a driver problem? bad install of XP? or possibly my new HD needs to be taken back? Any comments will appreciated, thanks for the help.

-Josh

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Re: Random System Restarts (Hard Drive?)

Dec 12th, 2003

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Originally Posted by INut0nU

Motherboard - ECS K7S5A

PROBLEM
I have expericened random system restarts since installing the new hard drive, and also have ruled out a RAM problem.

There are a couple of possible problems and solutions here. A main one is the power supply. Adding a high-capacity hard drive can increase the power load. Any PS that is rated less than 300 watts is not suitable. Even higher-capacity supplies that are not rated for the Pentium 4 and/or Athlon XP may not be acceptable. Even if the PS ratings are up to snuff, other factors come into play including its age. If the PS internal fan is bound up, clogged, or spinning slowly, the internal temperature will rise, potentially causing thermal shutdown and component damage.

Another is that some samples of the ECS K7S5A motherboard (and its clone, the PCChips M830LR) are subject to an interesting problem, one which I have direct experience with: the chipset voltage runs a bit high. One of the main symptom of this is the occasional loss of CMOS settings, as though the battery had gone bad; it can also lead to mis-read DDR RAM configuration, hard drive corruption, and other wierd problems. Here's the best link that I have found on this: http://www.geocities.com/mrathlon2000/chipset.html

The power supply is the more likely cause of your problem, but I include the other just in case.

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mr.gibblets mr.gibblets is offline

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Re: Random System Restarts (Hard Drive?)

Dec 15th, 2003

I agree it probably is the power supply. I had the same problem with my generic PS. My advice is to get a good power supply like thermaltake and antec.

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Re: Random System Restarts (Hard Drive?)

Sep 26th, 2008

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Originally Posted by INut0nU

I've been looking at numerous threads throughout the internet, and have found, and tried nothing that has worked for me yet. So this is my first attempt at a post to try and get some much needed advice. Ok here it goes...

SPECS
Motherboard - ECS K7S5A
Processor - 1800Ghz AMD
RAM - 2 X 512mb Simpletech DDR
Hard Drive - Western Digital EIDE 80gb (Very Recent)
OS - Win XP Pro

PROBLEM
I have expericened random system restarts since installing the new hard drive, and also have ruled out a RAM problem. All temps seems fine, ruled out a RAM problem, and have a fresh install of XP with the disk I have always used. I have checked all connections, and everything seems fine. Nothing in particular seems to trigger the restarts, sometimes it will be minutes, and sometimes hours between them. Could this be a driver problem? bad install of XP? or possibly my new HD needs to be taken back? Any comments will appreciated, thanks for the help.

-Josh

check your mother board