My computer randomly restarts

[UltramarineX]

Back in May 2003 I got a new computer with these specs:

Pentium IV 2.4GHz
512 PC 2700 DDR-RAM
ATI Radeon 9500 Pro Video card
MSI 648 Max Motherboard w/ integrated sound card
40 GB Hard Drive (Brand Unknown)
16x DVD ROM Drive (Brand Unknown)
Windows XP Pro

Ever since I've had this computer, every now and then it would randomly restart. This was something I was able to live with up until a 2 to 3 months ago (somewhere around December 2003 and January 2004), when the restarts started becoming more and more frequent.

I've updated as many drivers as I could, and got as many updates for Windows as I could.

It should be noted that 98% of the time, my computer restarts when I am playing a computer game (ANY computer game). This made me think that it was my video card that was the problem, so I tested my system out with a friend's ATI Radeon 9700 Pro. With the 9700 in my comp, my computer did not restart, but it often locks up or crashes when playing a game (note: my games also crash a lot when I have my 9500 in).

Other than update my drivers and Windows, the only thing I've done to my computer is upgrade my RAM to 1GB back in December 2003, though I doubt it's the new RAM since my comp has had the restart problems since before (although I may be wrong).

I've also turned off automatic restarts under My Computer advanced settings. I don't know what else to do. Please help.:cry:

[rasputinj]

I would disable the sound, take off anything else. Check the website for ATI, for any problems of this nature. Are you OCing the RAM, or CPU? If you are disable it. I would also lower the RAM settings in the bios. And double check you have the latest and greatest ATI drivers.

Have you tested it with a benchmarking program 3DMark to see if it locks up during the benchmarking program.

[UltramarineX]

Hello rasputinj (or anyone else who can help me).


Im just wondering what you meant by disabling sound and taking off anything else (e.g. do I disable sound when playing games) and how do I do it?


Also, how would I lower RAM settings in my bios, and to what value should I lower it to?

Oh, and I have actually never updated my bios, do you think I should?

Thanks.

[darkshadow]

it could be you windows settings and when you check that and it still does it check your bios setting check at the motherboard website and see if there are any problems with that board and check for new bios updates and what are the watts for you power supply if the computer is using more watts then what the power surply put out it will cause it to restart

[UltramarineX]

Hello darkshadow (and everyone else helping me).

Im just wondering which windows settings youre referring to that I should correct?

I checked on my motherboards site, and it says that there was a problem with Radeon 9700 cards, but that was corrected in version 1.1 of the bios (I have version 1.3)

As for my power supply, I think its a 350 watt power supply. Is that too much?

Thanks.

[darkshadow]

lol i didn't see that you already set restart option in windows is your video card getting hot? that is enough watts that you need for the power supply.

[UltramarineX]

I downloaded this program called MemTest86 to check my memory. I ran all the tests up to test #7 three times, and it came up with 3 errors (one error in test #4, and two errors in test #5). Can faulty memory (like bad RAM, or L1 and L2 cache) cause my computer to randomly restart?

Any other suggestions to why my computer restarts would also be helpful.

Thanks.

[JR5600]

Well the same thing happens to me and I don't know how to fix it. Please reply with detailed help on how to fix it. But I don't know how to adjust the BIOS thingy.

[DMR]

Hi JR5600,

First of all- welcome to TechTalk :)

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Thanks for understanding.

[DMR]

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